What are the best practices for motivating your business operations team?

Business operations team should clearly understand how their work is critically important to achieving company objectives. Establishing that linkage between business operations KPI and the way company’s success is linked to that would help get better alignment and effort from the operations teams. The other linkage between the work of the business operations teams and their impact on real life customers would help bring more meaning to the work of business operations teams. In my experience the above two are areas of opportunity in many business operations teams.

I agree that setting clear and realistic expectations should be starting point. However, instead of SMART approach to goal setting, FAST approach (frequently discussed, Ambitious, Specific, Transparent) to goals setting could be more appropriate.

Motivation is the key! We set clear goals, celebrate achievements, and invest in professional growth. Transparent communication and work-life balance keep us engaged. We empower our team, encourage innovation, and tie our work to a larger purpose. Result? A motivated, high-performing team. But motivation isn't just a one-time effort; it's an ongoing commitment. We continuously adapt, learn, and grow together, ensuring that every day brings new opportunities and successes.

Lot of good things have been already shared. we would like to reinforce by following two points 1. Introducing ownership concept 2. Viewing the task / objective --- completing the circle.

One thing to add on here is collaboration between team members which obviously fuels on the back of feedback, communication and recognition.

Collaboration between internal teams is pivotal for organizational success. It fosters synergy, ensures alignment with company goals, and promotes innovation. When teams work together seamlessly, information flows more efficiently, projects are executed with greater effectiveness, and problem-solving becomes a collective effort. This collaborative spirit enhances adaptability and responsiveness in today's dynamic business landscape, ultimately driving growth and achieving strategic objectives.

Need to owe the team like a family by knowing in & out not only about their professional work but also about their habits, passion & family. Then only you can encourage and develop them to become more smarter, enthusiastic & decisive to achieve the goal.

You need to be clear on what the goals and desired outcomes are. You also need to let people know where it's okay to spend less time and effort in order to achieve the primary goal(s). Stick to less than 3 top goals - not everything can be high priority. Choose a single goal/metric if possible. This will achieve more focused effort, hence more progress, and increase your likelihood of reaching the goal.

As per my understanding providing flexibility and autonomy will encourage the staffs because if you can understand your employee they will consider your target as there target. The team building and team work will be successful in this approach. A happy and enthusiastic team will succeed at any task.

The best way to motivate your team is to respect and treat them as human beings. If your team members or colleagues see and feel that they are treated in a respectful way, they will follow you wholeheartedly and contribute positively towards achieving the desired outcome. The one more thing contributing towards motivating your team is for your team to know that you possess the required knowledge and leadership qualities required for the job to be done. A real leader will always try to engage with his or her team both at personal and professional levels and promote culture of supporting the team members in every possible way. I have always got the desired results from this approach and will keep following the same in the future.

One thing that allows degree of freedom is to motivate your members and reward them on out of the box thinking. Once they know, their inputs are being put into action, this would field their energy further.

Another significant aspect to contemplate involves granting them complete confidence and authority to complete the task, and ongoing supervision by leaders during its execution greatly contributes to the attainment of the objectives.

Op Team is the nerve center of all the activities and the personnel chosen in the team needs to be carefully evaluated by the top man - groomed and set them to take up challenges which are key drivers for propelling the functions and giving an opportunity to be flexible in the dynamic situations and have the ops work on auto pilot at all times

Set the goal, encourage them to tackle it and remind them that you hired them for their skills. Don't micromanage. Give support, feedback, and guidance where necessary but let them be the experts.

Ensure they can work with anyone in achieving the goal. Encourage them to share ideas and concerns in an effort to make achieving goals more likely. Cheer them on when they make progress.

In the intricate dance of ops, aligning the team's values and objectives with the org’s overarching purpose is fundamental. Ops, often seen as the beat that keeps the company's rhythm, must perceive the interconnectedness of their tasks with the broader company vision. I strive to underscore how every efficiency measure, every streamlined process, and every innovation steers the org closer to its goals. Beyond that, it's vital to cultivate an environment where the team feels empowered to voice their values, seeking purpose in the tasks they handle daily. When there's a clear alignment between the ops team's endeavors and the org’s ethos, we witness not only heightened productivity but also a deep-seated passion for the mission at hand.

People do what they're incentivized to do and what interests them. Show them how the goals fit into their (and the business's) values. Ask them what their personal career goals are, show them how the work they do towards the company's goal will help them make progress towards their personal goals. Give them opportunities to work in ways that also move them towards their personal goals - such as doing different types of work or leading small projects that will help them build skills, experience, and knowledge they'll need to achieve their personal career goals.

We've worked hard on creating flexible growth paths for each of our teams: what technical, social and business skills are needed to "level up" yourself in your role? These we use to individually reflect on, and create a growth plan, with SWOT, actions, celebrations when getting there and milestones towards growing in our role. These plans are public for everyone in the company, so we can learn from another and read what's driving colleagues. The milestones are even more public - they sit on a physical kanban in the office, with swimlanes "to do", "doing", need help" and "done", and an overall milestone goal for the entire company (with a celebration to match). It motivates us individually, but also nudges towards helping stuck teammates!

Give positive feedback and reward the team Recognizing, rewarding and applauding achievement inspires team members as they can see themselves progressing towards the goals and vision of the company. When employees achieve results, put in extra effort, or do outstanding work make sure to tell them that you’re grateful and be specific in your praise and to reward them for hard work, whether this is in the form of monetary rewards, gifts or more responsibility and delegations

People do what they're incentivized to do. Motivate them by speaking to their personal values and goals. Create a monetary incentive plan that ties to team performance in achieving goals (or other types of non-monetary incentives). Encourage, recognize, reward - and track everything along the way to stay on course.

Make sure your dissenters have a home. All the suggestions above are excellent in driving efforts to shared objectives but... What if the visionary outlook promoted by seniors actually drives limiting activities based on shared constraints (such as budget, perceived risk etc)? So if dissenters, iconoclasts (those excellent within their spaces) or those that perceive risk or constraint on these well cultivated shared commitments, find a place and develop plans to optimize if the visionary outlooks don't quite pan out.