How do leaders put into practice team management and team motivation?

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Li Ka-shing emphasized the importance of an effective team as the backbone of a successful business, stating that having such a team increases the probability of success by 80%. The most valuable asset of a company is not an idea or grand plan, but rather an excellent team. Successful companies in the industry, such as Alibaba and Tencent, have superb teams behind them, and many investors prioritize the founding team when making investment decisions.

An exceptional leader not only excels in their own work, but also possesses the ability to identify, hire, and manage individuals, stimulate team vitality and motivation, and lead the team to achieve excellence and growth.

I. What leadership styles do you know?

In section I, we explore various leadership styles. It is crucial for a good leader to recognize their management and leadership style as it can significantly impact the team's performance. Just as different coaches can lead the same team to different levels of success on the court, a leader's management style can determine the team's performance.

A good team manager's behavior and characteristics are determined by their management style. We can generally identify six major categories of management styles among team managers.

1. Order-based leadership style

A manager with an order-based leadership style delivers decisions that team members must carry out without question. They are forceful and do not tolerate differing opinions.

2. Visionary leadership style

A visionary leader communicates the team's direction to team members and inspires them by highlighting the excitement and meaning of that direction.

3. Affinity leadership style

An affinity leader fosters positive, intimate team relationships and focuses on building emotional connections with employees. They are people-oriented and interact with employees in a supportive and encouraging manner.

4. Democratic leadership style

A democratic leader values employee involvement and spends time building trust with team members. They seek input from a wide range of employees when making decisions and strive to reach consensus by combining various suggestions and opinions.

5. Benchmarking leadership style

A leader sets high standards for performance and serves as a role model for their employees. They personally demonstrate how tasks should be accomplished and expect their team members to follow suit.

6. Coaching leadership style

A coaching leader works with their subordinates to identify strengths and weaknesses in their work abilities or tasks. They prioritize long-term goals and individual career growth over short-term gains and losses or successes and failures.

A good manager can switch between at least three or more management styles to suit different situations. This situational management approach is similar to a skilled golfer selecting different clubs for each shot based on the conditions.

II. Team Matrix

When it comes to building a successful team, what should be the ideal composition of its members and what team structure would help achieve the desired goals? Managing a team can involve overseeing several employees or even dozens of them, each with their unique personality and work approach. As a team leader, how can you ensure that you manage each member in the most effective way possible?

An interesting question arises when we consider why Hsuan Tsang did not take more soldiers and guards for his journey to the west, which was full of difficulties and challenges. This question actually involves a classic team management approach. Interestingly, Hsuan Tsang only took three apprentices, each with a different personality, but collectively representing the three types of members that are likely to be present in any given team.

The three types of employees that may appear in a team are managed by managers who handle multiple team members.

• The first type of employee is highly skilled and also very loyal to the company and team. This type of employee can be likened to the Monkey King.
• The second type of employee is also highly skilled but lacks loyalty. This type of employee is similar to the character Zhu Bajie.
• The third type of employee is known for their commendable loyalty, but their ability is very limited. In the context of Journey to the West, this character is similar to the Monk Sha who is often defeated when fighting goblins.

These three types of members actually represent the structure of all team members. Each type represents numerous employees with similar characteristics. As a team leader or future leader, your team will definitely have a combination of such members. The question is, how do we manage these three different types of apprentices and employees? We should use different contextual management approaches for each type. Therefore, team building is a process that requires attention to both the team's structure and the types of employees within it.

III. Motivating Your Team

It's common for bosses or managers to say that their employees lack motivation and enthusiasm. The question then becomes, how can we motivate employees to work hard?

We may have tried various methods to motivate employees, but the results have been limited. Despite our efforts, the employees' excellent performance has not met our expectations.

So, what are the principles of motivation?

• Understanding the different types of employees and analyzing their motivation points.
• Setting effective motivational strategies.
• Establishing a motivational mechanism.

To motivate different employees effectively, it's important to understand their individual motivations. Within a team, there are various types of employees, each with their unique motivational drivers. For self-driven employees, their motivation stems from within and is often driven by their career prospects and personal growth.

On the other hand, task-oriented employees are more externally motivated and focus on short-term goals. For this group, incentives and rewards for specific tasks or achieving particular objectives can be highly effective in driving motivation. Additionally, long-term motivational tools such as equity and stock options can also be effective for those driven by the vision and growth potential of the company.

Despite having a complete motivation system, sometimes we may still fail to motivate and influence employees' behavior effectively. The reason for this failure is often due to not knowing an important law in the motivation process, which is the core of motivation to achieve the desired effect. This law is known as the three correlations and it includes:

• Correlation I: To correlate the tasks accomplished by the employee with the performance he deserves in the evaluation.
• Correlation II: To correlate the assessment results with the explicit rewards.
• Correlation III: To correlate the rewards received by the employee with his expectations.

Each of the above points must be executed in a loop so that every conduct is positive, enabling the motivation to genuinely inspire employees' behavior. If there is any error in the execution, then the motivation will be diminished.

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Author bio :

Ni Yunhua, a well-known practical business consultant in China, was formerly the Managing Director of PwC and IBM Consulting. He has served as a strategic consultant for large companies such as Huawei, Haier, and Tencent. He is also a financial writer and author of best-selling books such as "How to Build a First-Class Entrepreneurial Team" and "Partners and Partnership". His consulting services include financing BP, equity design, and team management.