Keep Your Team Happy Without Sacrificing Budget by Gennady Barsky

Keep Your Team Happy Without Killing Your Profit

When it comes to motivation, fear and stress can only get you so far. If you really want your team to excel, you need to make them feel appreciated. Happy is good, but “appreciated” is happy with an extra gift inside – the gift of worth. If your team members feel valuable, they will act valuable. If they feel cheap, well, don’t expect valuable work.

Sounds great, but what if you are a manager on a budget? What if your spreadsheet doesn’t have a line item marked “good feelings”? How can you keep your team excited and feeling appreciated if you don’t have the cash for expensive gifts and frequent incentives? Great question. Here are a few ideas.

These days, professionals don’t have “jobs” they have “careers”. They are not thinking about doing something. They are dreaming about being and becoming something. Help them accommodate that dream, and make it their reality. If you really want your best employees to stick around, you have to invest in their future. Help them train for a better understanding of their field. Give them opportunities to develop the talents and skills they already have. Then give them challenges to put those new or advanced skills to work for you.

Share the big picture.

For advancement minded employees, nothing feels more hollow and pointless than a job that is, apparently, disconnected from other aspects of the company. Eventually, these people will begin asking “why” they are doing this or that. After a while, that question will become WHY AM I DOING THIS! Unless they skip that part and just leave. If you want to avoid losing a strong worker, bring them in on a better view of the big picture. Help them understand how their work and their department impacts other processes and departments in the company and reward them when they find ways to work for the betterment of that bigger picture.

Some people don’t like surprises.

Most do. Small rewards that allow workers to indulge themselves in ways not directly tied to their workload can mean the world to your team. Whether it’s box seats to a concert or sporting event, a certificate for a spa day, or any one of an endless number of relatively small personal perks, taking a moment to give your team time away “on the boss” is worth more than the cost of those tickets.

Most of all, take the time to get to know your team.

Learn what makes them tick and the sort of work and approach that makes them feel appreciated and validated. It might mean stretching your management style, but that’s one workout that will always produce results.

Gennady Barsky is the CFO of JetSmarter and an entrepreneur who hails from NYC.