Leadership, Looking Ahead to 2024!

As you near the end of 2023 and look towards 2024, leaders continue to focus on aiming to be remarkable leaders who can connect our work to a greater purpose. Let's not just try to find our own personal connections to work but also help our teams do the same.

We can all agree that leadership is challenging as the world experiences more uncertainty and volatility. As leaders, you will continue to play a crucial role in guiding organizational change in 2024 through effective leadership, including motivation. You will need to continue to motivate your teams and get them excited about their work because, not surprisingly, helping them fine-tune their motivation can also positively impact your organization's bottom line.

This article will outline some tips for motivating your teams going into 2024.

Always be Honest: Let your employees know you trust them and be honest and open in return.

Offer Challenges: Employees are motivated by challenging work as productivity and enthusiasm significantly decrease with boredom.

Recognize a Job Well Done: Make your employees feel essential daily by showing enthusiasm because everyone likes to know when they've done well.

Be a Straight Shooter: Let your employees know what is expected of them; don't set foggy goals. Provide directions in simple language and tell them precisely what is involved and why you think they're best for the job.

Know When and Where to Criticize:  Inform your employees immediately when they perform well and when they don't. Don't lump all your concerns in one session; be sure not to criticize employers in front of others. This can discourage motivation throughout the team.

Be Consistent: Employees can work with leaders if they know what to expect, so don't keep them guessing. If you keep them thinking, you will keep them looking for another job. Inconsistent behaviour breeds anger, frustration, dismay, and disappointment.

Provide Coaching: Use training, workshops, or refresher courses to stimulate workers and expose them to new methods or ideas.

Be Impartial: Don't play favourites. Discrimination destroys morale, hurts productivity, and opens the door to further problems. Treat each team member the same politely because if you promote unfairly, you will quickly lose employees' confidence in them.

Open your Door: Let employees know you can listen to them about day-to-day issues and their big-picture organizational roles.

Make Employees Feel Important: Allow employees to contribute, ask for their opinions and advice, and reduce the number of autocratic decisions.

Leaders unlock new levels of value for our employees in 2024 through motivation and demonstrating new mindsets and behaviours. Draw on reservoirs of organizational energy, passion, and ingenuity and look at challenges as catalysts for personal growth, increased resilience, and leadership development for 2024.