Motivational skills encourage employees to boost productivity and achieve successful results. They involve communicating effectively with team members and delegating tasks regularly to show you trust in their capabilities. Learning these skills can help nurses become a more effective and inspirational leader.

1. Motivational skills
Dr. Sumity Arora
Panna Dai College of Nursing, Deen Dayal Upadhya Hospital
Delhi

2. Motivational skills
• Motivational skills encourage employees to boost productivity and
achieve successful results.
• They involve communicating effectively with team members and
delegating tasks regularly to show you trust in their capabilities.
• Learning these skills can help nurses become a more effective and
inspirational leader.

3. What are motivational skills?
• Motivational skills are qualities that allow leaders to
encourage and inspire team members to boost productivity
and improve work quality. Motivating people requires a
strategy to ensure they achieve desired outcomes.

4. Motivational process
• The motivational process entails the following:
• Evaluating personalities: Understanding each team
member's personality traits determines which motivational
techniques work best. For example, some may respond to
positive feedback, while others prefer incentives.
• Sharing expectations: Conveying your expectations of the
team helps them determine what to prioritise and achieve.
Clarifying how they can achieve outcomes motivates them
because it eliminates confusion.

5. motivational process
• Communicating rewards and consequences: Informing team
members of the benefits they can expect upon completing tasks
adequately motivates them. State the consequences of failing to
meet standards to provide additional incentive.
• Giving feedback: Give team member feedback throughout their
projects to guide them on what to maintain and improve. During
this stage, asking them if they're experiencing any obstacles
helps them achieve goals.
• Recognising effort: Upon task or project completion, praising
team members for their efforts and successes is an effective
motivating tool. Recognising them publicly, for example, in
company-wide emails and memos or on websites and social
media, can motivate employees to improve their work quality.

6. Examples of motivation skills in
nursing
• Explore the following motivation skills examples while
motivating others in nursing :
• Communication
• Effective leaders communicate to their teams effectively to
motivate them. This includes informing them about
expectations, goals and potential rewards. To improve
your communication skills, so you can motivate employees,
consider the following:
• Use the seven Cs of communication. The seven Cs of
communication include being clear, concise, coherent,
complete, concrete, correct and courteous.

7. Examples of motivation skills
• Tell a story. Use personal and famous stories of conquering challenges to inspire
your team members to improve productivity.
• Give clear objectives. When employees have clarity on what leaders expect, it
motivates them to work harder, so provide clear objectives stating how and when to
perform tasks.
• Delegation
• Delegating tasks shows employees that you trust their results and appreciate their
work ethic. When delegating work, consider giving team members autonomy to
increase their confidence. You can also give employees new tasks or challenges to
stimulate them mentally. These actions motivate employees to produce high-quality
work because they feel more responsible for outcomes. The following tips can help
you delegate tasks effectively:
• Identify the right employee. Understand your team member's strengths and
workloads so you know who to task with what. Alternatively, you can state all
pending tasks and ask employees to select the tasks they're capable of performing
to show trust.

8. Examples of motivation skills
• State why you're delegating tasks. After selecting suitable team members for tasks, tell them why you chose
them. This shows them their value.
• Give clear instructions. Inform your team members of your goals and timelines and give them an overview of
how they can help you achieve them. Give them a chance to handle the task in their own way so long as they
produce results.
• Provide adequate resources and training. If your team members are using new tools or software, show them
how they work by demonstrating once yourself, practising with them and then letting them try. This shows that
you value their input and want them to produce quality work.
• Send feedback and praise. When team members submit their work, start by commending them for completing
tasks on time. Follow this with comments on what they understood well and what needs improvement.
• Empathy
• Empathy helps leaders build relationships with team members and understand their emotions and
circumstances. These factors allow them to relate with team members and motivate them using suitable
techniques. You can show your team empathy by doing the following:
• Hold informal conversations. Join team members' conversations during breaks or invite them for after-office
beverages to get to know them. This enables you to learn their personalities.
• Celebrate events. Attend celebratory events such as birthdays and baby showers. This increases office morale
and makes the workplace more enjoyable.

9. Examples of motivation skills in
nursing
• Create an ergonomic workplace. Consider providing team members with more comfortable office chairs and
desks. This shows you care for their physical well-being.
• Goal setting and tracking
• Providing a clear sense of purpose motivates employees to increase productivity. You can give them this sense
of purpose by setting SMART goals. Consider setting up a dashboard or tally board to track everyone's progress.
Viewing their colleagues' progress can also serve as a motivational tool. Follow these steps to set SMART goals
that can motivate teams:
• Specific: Ensure the goal is straightforward and specific to eliminate confusion. Use the five Ws to set a specific
goal by stating who's involved, what you want the team to accomplish, where the goal has an impact, when you
expect the team to produce results and why it's crucial to achieve the goal.
• Measurable: Provide metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that you plan on using to track the team's
progress. For example, you can state how many deliverables you need each person to complete within a day.
• Achievable: Set a goal you know the team can achieve by evaluating if they've previously managed similar
projects or tasks. Provide resources and training to ensure they can achieve successful outcomes.
• Realistic: Determine if the goal is realistic by assessing if the team has adequate resources and training to
deliver results within deadlines.
• Timely: Consider dividing large goals into smaller objectives and giving each a deadline to make them timely.
Ensure that all timelines lead to project completion within deadlines.

10. How to improve motivation skills
• The following steps can help you improve your motivation skills:
• 1. Ask for feedback
• Consider asking your team, colleagues and superiors if your motivation skills are adequate. You can set up
meetings to discuss this, send out surveys or start a casual conversation in the office to gather this information.
Ask them to give you feedback on how you can improve. These actions show employees you value their opinion.
• 2. Practise your skills
• Try to practise your skills regularly to enhance them. Include a practice session in your schedule and state the
skill you want to improve. For example, if you want to improve your communication, you can decide to practise
your communication with a colleague every other day or every week.
• Related: Using motivation in management to help your team succeed
• 3. Find training resources
• Search online for videos, articles or podcasts discussing motivation skills and use them to improve. You can also
search for short courses on specific skills. For example, you can find a short course on goal-setting to help you
set more effective SMART goals that motivate your team.
• Motivation skills in the workplace

11. How to improve motivation skills
• The following tips can help you demonstrate motivation skills in the workplace:
• Communicate with your team. Schedule meetings with your team members or
chat with them via email to find out how they're progressing with their work. Ask if
they have any challenges and try to address them to help them complete their tasks.
• Delegate tasks often. When you get large projects or tasks, subdivide them and
delegate them to team members depending on their skills and availability. Switch
the type of tasks you delegate to challenge them and keep them active.
• Show empathy. Strive to form relationships with your team members by organising
informal events such as game nights and team-building exercises. These motivate
employees and make the office more enjoyable.
• Set and share goals. Have a goal-setting session with the team to determine
timelines and specific tasks for new projects. Ask them to share their input and
contribute to the decision-making process to demonstrate trust in their abilities.

12. Thank you