Month: April 2025

Words that Empower and Motivate Successful Teams

Successful Teams: Words that empower and motivate teams create bonds among the team members. These words acknowledge ownership of responsibility. Furthermore, they show recognition of team member contributions. What are some of these words?

Categories for Words that Motivate Successful Teams

Here are four categories for words that help teams become more successful.

  1. Inclusiveness
  2. Ownership
  3. Recognition
  4. Honesty

Inclusiveness

The words “we,” “our,” and “together” create bonds of ownership in a team.

Additionally, calling people by their name increases bonds.

For example, picture this presentation. A team leader is recognizing a team’s efforts in front of other people in the company.

The presentation of the team leader might go like this.

“Bill and Sue are new members on our team. Together, our team has finished ahead of schedule and below cost. Furthermore, we have exceeded our team goals.”

Ownership

Accepting responsibility for mistakes is an important trait for members of a team. These are examples of ownership statements.

“I regret my mistake.” “I accept responsibility for the things I could have done better.” “I can and will do better.”

Recognition

Award ceremonies serve several purposes. One is to make people feel good about their work. A second, is to motivate people through recognition.

However, team leaders don’t need to wait for an award ceremony to give credit. Here are words to recognize contribution.

“You did a good job.” “Thank you.” “I would not have expected less from you.”

Honesty

Nice words are not enough to empower teams. The members need honesty. When they make mistakes, team leaders must help them see those mistakes.

Misleading team members damages the team’s effort.

People who are defensive about their mistakes lack self-honesty. Insecurities cripple their ability to bond with a team. Rather than accept responsibility and correct their mistakes, these people become a burden to the team.

Here are some ideas for dealing with people who struggle with self-honesty.

Criticism of these people makes them feel more insecure. They become more defensive.

Team leaders can help defensive people become more effective team members by teaching them that taking ownership for their mistakes builds trust.

Additionally, team leaders can teach these people that most people make mistakes. However, denying mistakes or repeating mistakes makes these team members ineffective.

Team leaders can teach people how to own their mistakes with the words they choose. For example, “I was wrong. I made a mistake and will try not to make it again.”

 

Solutions: How Successful People See the World

Solutions: Viewing the world as a series of problems is discouraging, even scary. How can we change our outlook for greater success?

People who see solutions do not view the world as a series of problems. ~ www.jaywren.com

My Story

When I was a Navy bridge officer on a carrier, I had a commanding officer who required that all the bridge officers recognize the times when we needed to let him know about a problem. Sometimes, urgency required that we tell him before we had a solution. However, he also demanded that we bridge officers give him a solution when we could develop one. Furthermore, he asked that we give him more than one solution. He asked if we give him options.

His requirements for dealing with problems taught us to see more than the problems we met. We learned to think tactically. We developed skills to find solutions. This growth experience in problem solving prepared us to manage greater responsibility.

Perspective

Recognizing problems when they are real is a practical view of the world. Acting to solve problems is also practical. This action reduces our anxiety and clears our mind to make better decisions.

Resources

In many cases, we have what we need to deal with problems, if in fact, they ever happen. For example, there are solutions to reducing stage fright. When we fear speaking in front of other people, we are focusing on how other people will judge us.

However, none of us can control how other people will judge us. On the other hand, what all of us can do is to stay in the present moment and prepare for interviews and presentations.  When we know our material, and when we can present it with confidence in front of a mirror, giving our presentation to an audience becomes easier.

Solutions

When we see a problem ahead, we should always tell our supervisor long before the problem happens. Doing so gives them the time to find solutions.

Furthermore, we should not wait to find a solution to every problem before notifying our supervisor.

However, we can let supervisors know that we are working on a solution or that we have a recommended solution.

Problem Solvers Gain Respect

People who live with a head full of anxiety lack confidence. Expressing anxiety to a supervisor or team members weakens the confidence that these people have in us.

However, people who show others have how to solve problems gain respect and emerge as leaders.

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