It is crucial to find ways to motivate your creative team as a leader. Motivation will help keep your team engaged and excited about their work, which will lead to better results. Unfortunately, there are no surefire methods that will work for everyone. However, some tips have been proven to motivate creative teams more than others.
In this blog post, we will share twelve proven tips to motivate your team.
1. Give meaningful recognition
When celebrating the success of a creative team, make sure to give them credit for their hard work. For creatives, this means being able to celebrate individual skills and accomplishments.
Explain to team members how their work has helped or impacted clients’ businesses in some way (even if they’re not directly responsible).
2. Make time for creative thinking
The best ideas often come when we allow our minds to wander. So give your team the time and space they need to think creatively. This could mean scheduling regular brainstorming sessions, encouraging breaks throughout the day, or even allowing for flex time so employees can work when they feel most creative.
Making time for creative thinking is a great way to motivate your creative team.
3. Provide the security to fail
Creativity is a wild and unbounded force that needs space to be effective. When team members don’t feel they can try new approaches without fear of judgment or consequences, their creativity will go unfettered and likely die out quickly too.
Lead with compassion and create an environment where people are confident as masters of their own work. No idea is “bad” until proven otherwise, so encourage team members to go beyond what they’ve done before and try new methods.
4. Encourage collaboration and competition to motivate your creative team
Creative minds often work best when they’re working together. So encourage your team to collaborate on projects, brainstorm ideas, and share their work with others. This will help them be more creative, but it will also help them feel more connected to their work and to each other.
Give feedback that is specific, objective, and actionable to motivate your creative team.
Feedback is a crucial part of the creative process. It helps us to understand what’s working and what isn’t, and it gives the direction for how to improve. However, it’s important to provide specific, objective, and actionable feedback. This will help your team to understand what you’re looking for and how they can improve.
5. Give your creatives interesting work
Creatives are always looking for the next big challenge, so it’s important to make sure your team members aren’t bored with their work. Engage them by providing exciting projects and opportunities to keep everyone on their toes.
6. Support their lifestyle
Creative, cognitively diverse teams can solve creative problems in ways that yield better results. Why? Because no two people think or perceive things alike, and sometimes the most original idea comes from someone who isn’t usually considered “creative”!
You can’t manage what you don’t understand, so make sure your team is given the support they need to succeed. Start by giving them more control over their schedules and environment- offer flexibility in both work hours and time off when needed. Be compassionate with personal rewards like benefits or flexible options for scheduling outside obligations; this will lead from above while also showing appreciation below.
7. Invest in their skills
Creative professionals often feel like they’re falling behind because there isn’t enough time or space to develop skills and explore new ideas. Leaders can help keep this problem at bay by making sure their creatives are continually learning, with the promise that it will only inspire more creativity from them.
The benefits of professional development are clear, but few businesses prioritize it. This lack of inaction results in underivatized teams and lost opportunities for growth that can hurt your company’s bottom line. To be effective, you need to give them regular learning opportunities.
8. Support their creative side projects
Creative professionals often have side projects that they’re passionate about. These projects can be a great source of motivation and inspiration, so it’s important to support your team members in pursuing them.
9. Motivate your creative team by managing as a group
Group projects are an excellent way for people to feel like they’re making an impact and having their voices heard. When the team is open, everyone can contribute without feeling too individually responsible or alone in taking on tasks outside of what’s expected – this creates higher intrinsic motivation than if each person had been given individual responsibilities.
It is important to involve your team in setting and reporting performance KPIs. Everyone on the team has a say about how things will go, so it’s good for them too. It would help if you let employees give feedback with regards towards you as their leader – admitting mistakes publicly can help create trust within an organization which leads directly toward creativity. Research shows that humbled leaders tend to generate higher levels of creative output from their teams than those who are not humble or self-important at all.
Managing as a group will help you motivate your creative team.
10. Constantly revisit your processes to motivate your creative team
As creativity is an essential part of any project, it’s important to make sure the team remains creative. Predictability and routine can lead your employees to a state where they cannot think outside their usual patterns; you need to shake up approaches for new ideas constantly.
The only way to get better at what you do is by trying new things, so don’t be afraid of changing up your team’s daily routine. If they’re not achieving their goals or having any fun in the process, why stick with it? A fresh perspective will help breathe life back into everyone on board.
11. Connect the teams’ performance to company goals
Book a meeting room for your team to listen to earnings results together. Connect the team’s performance to company goals and objectives to understand how their creative efforts help achieve business objectives. When the team understands how they all play a role in helping the company succeed, they will be more likely to be creative and innovative in their thinking.
12. Make time for social bonding to motivate your creative team
It’s essential to make time for social bonding as it helps team building. Plan group outings, have regular happy hours or celebrate birthdays together. The stronger the bond is between team members, the more likely they are to trust and support each other, which leads to creative thinking.
In summary, creative team motivation ensures that your team members stay engaged and excited about their work. Some ways to motivate your creative team include giving them regular learning opportunities, supporting their creative side projects, setting and reporting performance KPIs, constantly revisiting your processes and making time for social bonding.
Further Reading
