Our first line managers are some of the most important members of our businesses team. They are responsible for the supervision and management of our workers, and their levels of effectiveness and productivity can have a large impact on our business’ profitability as a whole. It is vitally important that we keep our first line management team highly motivated and working effectively. If our team is working to the best of its abilities, we can work with confidence, knowing that they have the capacity to handle any challenges they face.
Keeping a team motivated can be a challenge in itself, but by taking a few steps in the right direction, any manager of a department or division, in any business in any sector, can increase the productivity and cost-effectiveness of their team. Here are five tips on how to motivate your first line management team, so that you and your business can reap the benefits of a highly motivated workforce.
Spend Time with the Team
One of the easiest ways to motivate your first line team members is to invest some of your time in them and their professional development. People will often respond well to mentorship from a senior manager and will often feel more confident in their decision making and operate with more authority. It also creates an opportunity for you to get to know your first line managers better and learn about the skills and attributes they possess, so you can utilise these more effectively for the benefit of your business.
Create Team Building Exercises
Team building tasks and exercises are a great way for your team to get to know each other, and you, and form a closer bond between your staff members. Your first line management team are often at the front lines of your business, managing workers and interacting with customers, and if they know they are not alone when they face these challenges, they will approach them with more confidence. This is just one of the reasons why first line management courses are so important. The more the team knows about each other, the better they will manage tasks and delegate jobs to work to one another’s strengths.
Invest in First Line Management Training
Your first line management team will likely have a very varied skill set and a variety of different work histories and experiences. Through first line management training courses, you can help ensure everyone has the skills they need to effectively operate and understand the tasks they will have to face, and the responsibilities expected of them. Arranging, planning and executing a first line management training course can be very time consuming and often is not very cost-effective, as you must dedicate a lot of your time to it.
Taking one of the first line manager training courses available from the BCF Group is an excellent way to cost-effectively train your staff, and make sure they have the skills they need to complete their tasks and manage their team. These courses are ideal for anyone new to a supervisory role or management position.
Analyse the Teams Strengths and Weaknesses
It is important to take the time to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of your first line management team and the individual team members. This gives you an opportunity to plan staffing with these strengths in mind and gives you a list of weaknesses that you can help your managers to work on. There may be first line managers in your team that have skills or professional experience that you are unaware of that can strengthen the overall team and increase productivity. It is also important to ensure you have the right member of staff in the right job role, and by performing analyses like this, you can appraise an employee’s suitability for a role.
Empower Your Team with Knowledge
The more your first line managers know about their job role, your expectations of them, and how their efforts contribute to the business as a whole, the more motivated they will be to perform to their peak capacities. Many members of first line management have difficulty seeing how their role, and their performance, affects their other team members and the business’ profitability. Knowledge truly is power, and you should empower your team members with the knowledge they need to operate effectively and efficiently.
Having a first line management team that is highly motivated and functions to its full capacity is an asset to any business, regardless of which sector it operates in. As a senior manager, you have a responsibility to your business, your first line managers, and yourself, to ensure that your team is ready to face any of the challenges that they may face and are motivated to solve problems and increase productivity.
With a fully motivated team working for you, your division or department can excel within your business. Investing some time and energy into the motivation of your first line management team is one of the smartest investments you can make.