Team Pep Talks

Remember back in your school days when the coach or teacher would get the team together and pump-up everyone right before the big event? More often than not, regardless of the level of success the team had just knowing that someone believed in you made the entire experience worth the effort. As we ‘grow up’ we sometimes expect other people to generate their own motivation and forget how important it is to tell our team that as their leader we believe in them and have their backs covered.

In an environment where our teams are often geographically spread, the need of bringing people together for motivational talks is extremely important. By not having the opportunity to meet fellow team members or the team leader the sense of belonging and combined achievement often starts to dwindle and possibly even disappear all together. Everyone hates the feeling dead weight by a distributor who is no longer achieving their targets and goals. More often than not, it is easier to motivate this person to deliver their absolute best rather than asking them to ‘move on’.

Some of the techniques that are now becoming more common for long distance group activities are:

-        Group Blogs: A collaborative blog with more than one author can serve two purposes: Allowing your team to share knowledge, ideas, and thoughts on topics they feel are important and serving as a marketing tool. As the leader of your team you need to be careful to monitor the tone of the blog and make sure that it’s achieving the positive energy that you’re aiming for. This is especially more important if you open up the blog to your consumers as well.

-        Group Wiki: A slightly more advanced option than the Group Blog, group/company wiki’s are being used by a greater number of organizations to encourage knowledge sharing. Group wiki’s should not be accessible by anyone outside your team since there is a possibility of leaking trade secrets.

-        Virtual Book Club/Coffee Meeting/Lunches: These activities may seem slightly mundane; however they will definitely create a sense of belonging in your team. You may want to consider rotating a ‘Club Lead’ position for the virtual book club to allow everyone a chance to take a leading position. In any virtual meeting an invitation and ‘thank you for participating’ note can create excitement for the current and upcoming events.

In the case where you have your team located near your vicinity and where everyone has the ability to meet in one location, it’s much easier to have motivational group events. These can be in the form of happy hours, dinners, or just a coffee get together.  During these events don’t lose sight of your main objective: to give your team a strong pep talk. You may want to create a bullet-point list of topics that you would like to cover during the get together.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American Poet once said:

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”

As the head of your team you need to ensure that enthusiasm is regularly injected into every member of your team. Take some time out from your busy schedule and focus your energy into your team members; everyone will be guaranteed to achieve greater success.