http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=34690

MOTIVATING YOURSELF, YOUR TEAM

25 January, 2012 11:56:00 SIFE Swaziland

 

“THE world needs more men and women who do not have a price at which they can be bought; who do not borrow from integrity to pay for expediency; who have their priorities straight and in proper order; whose handshake is an ironclad contract; who are not afraid of taking risks to advance what is right; and who are honest in small matters as they are in large ones.
“The world needs more men and women whose ambitions are big enough to include others; who know how to win with grace and lose with dignity; who do not believe that shrewdness and cunning and ruthlessness are the three keys to success; who still have friends they made 20 years ago; who put principle and consistency above politics or personal advancement; and who are not afraid to go against the grain of popular opinion.
“The world needs more men who do not forsake what is right just to get consensus because it makes them look good; who know how important it is to lead by example, not by barking orders; who would not have you do something they would not do themselves; who work to turn even the most adverse circumstances into opportunities to learn and improve; and who love even those who have done some injustice or unfairness to them.

The world, in other words, needs more true leaders.

Excerpted from the Eulogy for Joseph P. Overton, By Lawrence W. Reed

“Through Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) I experienced true leadership. I am now a more confident and capable individual.” - SIFE Team Leader.

As a team leader it is very important that you are personally motivated and in turn motivate others.
One of the key tasks as a team leader is to ensure a fun team spirit for your team. The success of your team will depend largely on how well it is engaged to achieve its stipulated goals. Naturally, there will be times when team members will feel unmotivated due to a number of reasons, but it’s important that the leaders of the team are able to feel its pulse so as to prevent a team breakdown due to lack of motivation.

Developing Team SpiritWorking hard and being successful with your SIFE team is certainly motivating, however breeding a fun team spirit amongst your team members is just as important in keeping people engaged. Being in a SIFE team should above all be fun!

Here are some ideas to develop team spirit:

• Put together a social team; this would be a group of people from your team who organise team-building activities or social events for the team.
• Make your meetings fun; plan to have dinner together after or during the meeting. Order or bring food and drinks to the meeting.
• Plan weekly or bi-weekly SIFE socials for your team.
• Organise a team-building day or even an annual team-building weekend for the team. Spending time together helps to build stronger relationships amongst your team members.
• Organise fun internal team competitions.
• Engage all your team members while making decisions and hear them out. You may also form small action groups with common objectives.

Recognising Team Members

To effectively motivate your members it is important that you reward hard work and creativity of your members.

• Organise a quarterly team meeting only for the purpose of recognising and rewarding your team. Invite your faculty advisor and key institutional administrators for this meeting. Give away a variety of unique awards like ‘SIFE Star of the Quarter’, ‘Helping Hands Award’, SIFE service pins, etc. Also think about gift cards and certificates of recognition.
• Explore the opportunity of using your campus radio or newsletter once a month to recognise efforts.
• Your team can also institute a hall of fame for deserving students once they graduate and become SIFE alumni.

Retention

Keeping people in your team for more than just one year is the key to the long term success and sustainability of the SIFE programme at your institution. Experienced members can share their knowledge with newer members and hence help the team to become stronger from year to year.

• Provide growth opportunities to members in your team. New recruits should generally not be in a leadership position but should rather gain some experience working ‘in the field’ on projects first.
• Develop a mentorship programme for the next year’s leaders to get them excited and to help build essential knowledge for the roles they will be taking on.
• Give your members an opportunity to develop themselves by being part of the team.

You can achieve this by inviting accomplished external speakers to talk to your members on topics ranging from leadership to communication to résumé writing.