Introduction

Strong leadership and a sense of direction are hallmarks of almost all successful businesses.

Effective leaders and managers engage with their workforce to build commitment. In a business environment, this motivates employees to improve the volume and quality of their output. People are not only motivated by personal gain - they can be motivated by feeling part of the business and contributing to its goals.

Good leaders motivate their staff using a variety of skills, learned through training and experience. You can develop these skills to get the same results.

This guide shows you how to lead and motivate your staff in order to improve business performance.

The importance of leading and motivating

Your business' success depends on delivering products and services that meet the expectations of customers. You can help achieve this by leading and motivating your staff to maximise their effort.

In addition, good leadership and motivational skills can improve your recruitment and retention. To gain loyalty and commitment you need to do more than just pay well. In a competitive job market, you also need to consider people's social and psychological needs - and this means motivating your workforce properly.

In order to achieve these goals, you need to be able to:

• communicate a vision of what the business stands for and where you want it to be
• communicate values and priorities across the organisation
• ensure the work is challenging, with a variety of tasks
• establish a friendly, collaborative work environment
• delegate tasks and allow others to take responsibility

Leading and motivating your staff helps bring about:

• higher staff retention - leading to reduced recruitment costs
• higher levels of productivity
• more innovation and creativity
• higher profits
• a better reputation - among both potential employees and suppliers

Giving direction to staff

Effective leadership is more than just management - it builds on managerial skills. A good leader offers direction to people, gets them to share his or her vision for the business, and aims to create the conditions for them to achieve great results.

Skills you need to be a good leader
You can show leadership to staff by:

• involving them in decision-making
• providing personal encouragement
• recognising and rewarding good performance
• inspiring them with a vision for success
• ensuring good two-way communication

The skills learned by effective leaders can be grouped into five main areas:

• planning/strategic focus
• customer focus
• self-management/awareness
• team management
• change management

You will need to use different skills at different times - there's no "one size fits all" approach to leadership. In addition the right leadership style will depend on your business and your own character. A softer, mentoring style of leadership may be appropriate - or you may opt for a more charismatic approach.

How to acquire leadership skills
You can develop your leadership style by aiming for a recognised standard of competence. Competency frameworks use performance indicators to help you measure your progress.

Two of the most widely used frameworks are:

• The National Occupational Standards (NOS) in Management and Leadership
• The Investors in People (IiP) Leadership and Management Model. The IiP Standard is designed to improve a business' performance through its people.

What motivates employees

The way your employees feel about their job and their workplace determines how motivated they are. There is a clear link between job satisfaction and productivity.

Job satisfaction depends partly on tangible rewards - for example, how much a person is paid and what benefits they receive.

However, job satisfaction also depends on the culture of an organisation. This means the things that make your business distinctive and make the people who work there proud to do so. You can motivate people with:

• varied and interesting work - perhaps giving the opportunity to travel
• high-quality training and development - eg encouragement to study for professional qualifications
• an "open door" culture in which managers are approachable
• respect for a good work-life balance - for example offering the opportunity for flexible working
• fairness at work, including equal opportunities
• proactive and regular communication
• regular appraisal and positive feedback - restating business objectives and recognising your staff's contribution
• requests for feedback, either in person or via staff surveys, on how employees feel about their roles, the support they get, and improvements to the business
• the chance to socialise with colleagues at organised events
• recognition and reward for ideas or competitive intelligence

Use leadership to create a motivated workforce

There are many ways to tell if your workforce lacks motivation. High staff turnover, low productivity and a poor workplace atmosphere are some indicators.

The following factors may reduce motivation:

• predictable, monotonous work
• lack of praise for achievements
• individuals feeling sidelined or ignored
• little opportunity for advancement
• a poor reward structure

To motivate your workforce, you will need to:

• Demonstrate trust - don't micro-manage. Trust staff to get the job done. Delegating key tasks can empower employees and stimulate innovation, although you will need to ensure that the ultimate business objective is understood.
• Show respect - listen to and act upon what your employees tell you. Be prepared to invest in new equipment or support if they need it to do their job effectively. By responding to their concerns you can demonstrate your trust in their judgment.
• Give encouragement - if someone's standards fall short, don't criticise, but find out what the problem is and try to get them back on track. Identify if more training is needed. It also helps to offer incentives for achievement.
• Value diversity - what works for motivating one person, won't work for another. Be flexible and use your interpersonal skills to get the best out of different types of employee.
• Reward good performance - set clear objectives and celebrate employee achievement. You could consider offering financial rewards. Any reward should be proportionate to the achievement, and the system should be seen as fair and transparent by all staff.

Be sympathetic to the needs of your employees. For example, you should have appropriate policies for compassionate leave and time off.

Team-building

Team-building is a good way to motivate individuals. If you can get everyone in your business to feel part of a team, you'll get more out of them.

A team is any group of people working together in a common purpose. Teams build motivation in people because of a number of factors:

• There's a social aspect - it's more enjoyable working with others than in isolation.
• Teams stimulate innovation - interaction between team members throws up new ideas for solving problems.
• People will feel loyalty to the team, and not want to let others down.
• The competitive element in individual team members drives performance.
• A sense of belonging makes people feel they're valued and builds motivation.

You need to be able to facilitate teamworking - to create the conditions in which people want to excel. This can involve:

• Setting out a vision - restating the business's purpose and aims, then asking what changes staff feel should be made to meet their own needs and customer needs.
• Uniting people - for instance, you might assign a challenging task to a team of employees and ask for a solution. Ask everyone to contribute and publicly recognise their efforts afterwards.
• Empowering people - allocating resources to the team to get the job done. Intervene when needed to teach skills and help the team solve problems. Provide specialist help, training and literature where needed.
• Encouraging debate - get the team to discuss how best to achieve the task. Ensure everyone feels able to voice an opinion, no matter what their role in the business.
• Reflecting afterwards - gather the team's opinions on how well all the above worked, and use this to plan for future project work.

Lead your staff through change

The ability to cope with change is a basic requirement for many small businesses. Mergers and acquisitions may be prevalent in your sector, and technology is changing the way businesses work all the time.

It's important that change should cause as little disruption to the business as possible. This means your staff should be prepared for it and not fear the consequences. If their concerns are ignored or mismanaged they will feel vulnerable and demotivated and the quality of their work may suffer.

Whatever the nature of the change, leadership during this time is built on good communication. So be sure to:

• Eliminate uncertainty - be honest and upfront from the beginning of the change process. Give as much information as you can about the change, and the impact it will have on people and ways of working.
• Be visible - try to give the key message face-to-face. They'll appreciate hearing it from you in person.
• Match the mood to the message - the way you communicate is almost as important as the message itself. If you've got bad news, give it sensitively.
• Delegate - you can control the information you give by using managers who know their staff and know how best to communicate it.
• Give people the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. Make sure this isn't just a cosmetic exercise.

Try to see change as an opportunity, rather than a threat. Because it requires more leadership, it's a chance for you to grow in the eyes of your employees. If you earn more respect it will increase their motivation to work for you.