Do you need some inspiration to help you encourage your team to keep pushing towards its goals? The following tips will help you get your volunteers and staff to narrow their focus and continue giving their best effort to your cause!

Reflect on Past Achievements

It can be difficult to continue giving your best if you are working on a long-term goal, or, facing an especially hard challenge. At times like these its good to talk with your team and reflect on your past achievements. Meet with your team and remind them of all the challenges that you have successfully overcome in the past, and how this new situation is very similar. Working together, side-by-side, you will meet this challenge and reach your goal, just as you have in the past!

Remind Your Team What’s at Stake

Help your team stay focused on doing their best by reminding them of the impact of their work. Try to show them, on a regular basis, how each task, no matter how seemingly insignificant or small, helps to contribute to the positive change that your organisation is making in the lives of others.

Host Activities that Build Comradery and Team Spirit

Throw a party for your team to celebrate your achievements. Do something fun together, such as go bowling or go as a group to a local stadium and watch a fun game or other event. Invite members to bring their favourite dishes to a potluck at your facilities. Whatever shared event you host, make sure that it’s something that everyone will enjoy attending, and give everyone plenty of time and opportunity to sit back, relax and talk and get to know one another as individuals to increase the likelihood of friendships forming. Events like these make it easier for everyone to relate with one another as they share the workload each day.

Be Flexible

Another way to ensure that your team has a positive volunteer experience is to be mindful of, and respect, that they have other life commitments. Look for ways to be flexible in scheduling, and the types of tasks that you ask your volunteers to perform. Give them meaningful work, but also look for ways to accommodate the other demands from their personal and professional lives. Offer opportunities to job share, cross train and work remotely to make it easier for volunteers and other staff to make a genuine contribution without asking them to overextend their energy levels.

Ask for Feedback

As leaders, we tend to think of feedback in terms of letting our team members know their strengths and weaknesses and ways that they can improve their performance. You can inspire your team to keep giving their best by asking them for their feedback about your leadership style and your volunteer program. Ask probing questions such as what they like most about their volunteer experience, and what things they would change if they could. Asking your team for its insight shows how much you value and respect them and will encourage them to continue volunteering in the long term!

Don’t Forget to Say Thanks!

Everyone likes to feel wanted, valued and appreciated for their individual effort. Look for ways to call attention to the special contribution that each volunteer makes and the way that they uniquely make a difference. Thank your volunteers, verbally, in writing, and with your day-to-day actions to show them just how much they are appreciated and how much you care about them, personally, to keep them interested and engaged with your organisation and the work that you are doing!