Motivating your team is one of the most challenging things when managing a team.

One key factor in team member motivation is helping them find a role that lets them shine and aligns with the company's needs. If you’ve read the business classic Good to Great by Jim Collins, you would know how important it is to put the right people in the right seats on the bus. You want to put people in roles that let them build on their strengths. When a person is doing something they are good at and excelling in their job, it builds their confidence and sense of ownership in the company. It’s a win for the employee and also a win for the company.

While there are other motivators, such as money and perks like working from home or employee benefits, let’s focus on motivators related to the actual work.

As the company grows, if you are the business owner or manager, you’ll need to shape each team member’s role to align with the direction in which the company is growing. Roles shouldn’t stay stagnant, they should evolve to adapt to changing business needs.

Here are three steps I take with my team to help them refine their role in the company.

EXPLORE

Sit down with your team member and ask them what the bright spots in their day are. What do they think they excel at, and what areas would they like to spend more time on? How does this align with the company’s goals?

It’s great if they love taking photos, but if there’s no client need for this skill set, then what they’re great at isn’t aligned with what the company needs. You could draw a simple Venn diagram to see where their skills and the company’s needs align.

DO & OBSERVE

I’m a big believer in trying things out and seeing if there’s a fit. How would you know how the market would respond or whether you would like something until you’ve tried it? After you’ve had the initial discussion with your team member and figured out what they’re good at and enjoy doing, the next step is to see what upcoming projects would allow them to test their skill set. Even though they may think they’re good at something, until they’ve tried executing it, it’s still just an idea on paper. I once thought I would be great at crafting. Boy, was I wrong.

Before you set out on the pilot project, make sure you and the team member agree on the measure of success. Don’t make it too complicated. Find just one key metric that would tell you whether the test worked. If you make the measurements too complicated, you start getting into analysis paralysis.

For example, if a content creator on your team who usually writes the content believes they can also excel at creating short videos, the engagement rate would tell you whether they are creating engaging videos. Even though you have a metric, don’t forget to observe the qualitative data as well. Is the team member enjoying the work a lot more compared to their usual tasks? Nothing beats passion when it comes to employee commitment to their task or project.

EVALUATE

The evaluation period should be long enough for the employee to thoroughly test their skill set and generate the key results to show whether they’re good at the new task. I would suggest a minimum three-month period to test out the new task. During the first month to two months, the employee will be picking up the new skill, and then you will see that in the next few months, they will be refining the skill and work process to make them more efficient at the new task with higher quality output as they get better at the new task.

If they’re great at the new task and it’s an area that aligns with the company strategy, then it’s time to have another sit down to discuss their workload. Do they have enough bandwidth to shift their workload to take on the new task? Does the new skill qualify them for the next job up the ladder? Or will it be more of a horizontal move to another department?

From my experience, it takes an employee six months to a year to get from beginner’s to maybe intermediate level at a new skill. This applies to skills such as digital ad planning/placements/strategy and video content creation (figuring out shot angles, music tempo, storytelling through motion vs static visuals, etc.)

Be realistic in the timeline and plan the progression for the new skill, so both parties understand what thresholds would determine when the employee’s skill set has reached the next level.

Employee skill development isn’t a one-time thing; it’s an ongoing process. As a boss, you should continually observe each member’s strengths and weaknesses to bring out the best in your people. I hope our three-step process also helps you develop your team!