When it comes to productivity, you’ve got it mastered. But—whether you lead a team or regularly collaborate with others—your coworkers may not be as motivated as you want them to be. If you want to help motivate your coworkers, try doing one or more of these eight things!

1. Keep an Open Mind:

When you have the urge to encourage and motivate your coworkers it could stem from really great reasons or less-than-ideal reasons. Make sure you’re keeping an open mind. Other people’s work habits and ways of doing things aren’t necessarily worse than yours, they’re just different than yours. And the things that motivate you won’t necessarily motivate your coworkers.

2. Encourage Collaboration:

Getting things done together is a great way to make sure your excellent productivity habits rub off on your coworkers. If you want to keep people motivated, working directly with them and helping them succeed is a great way to do it!

3. Don’t Waste People’s Time:

Holding meetings when there’s nothing to discuss, sending redundant emails, and asking people to take time out of their day for useless reasons is a bad habit that a lot of people fall into. If you want to keep your coworkers motivated, don’t be known as the person in the office who regularly wastes people’s time.

4. Set Goals and Deadlines Together:

It’s easier to stay motivated when you have specific deadlines and goals. Set goals with your coworkers and, if you’re working on a project together, set small deadlines along the way to the larger deadline so you can hold each other accountable and keep each other motivated.

5. Thank You Goes a Long Way:

When you show someone how much you value them or how grateful you are for their contributions, you’d be amazed at how motivated they’ll become! It’s important to thank people for their hard work, help them celebrate their small wins, and encourage them to keep doing what they’re doing if you want to help motivate your coworkers.

6. Don’t Hover:

No one likes a micromanager. Whether you’re waiting for a task to get done by a collaborator or you’re managing someone, hovering is one of the fastest ways to zap someone’s motivation. Make sure your coworkers are all aware of their goals and deadlines and then give them the space and trust to manage themselves.

7. Laughter and Positive Thinking:

While some people look at positive mantras or quotes as cheesy, they can be incredibly effective motivators. You can put them in your email signature, or have them written around your desk so they can motivate you and the coworkers you communicate with on a regular basis. Similarly, taking the time to crack jokes and laugh with your coworkers may seem like it would hamper productivity but it’s actually a great motivational tool! Making time for laughter and positive thinking creates a work environment that is inherently motivating.

8. Offer Encouragement in the Face of Failure:

Beating someone up or berating them when they’ve done something wrong solves nothing. While you can offer constructive criticism, the best way to motivate a coworker who is facing failure is to offer encouragement. Show them that failure is okay, as long as they keep working to learn from their mistakes.

The urge to keep your coworkers motivated is often a noble one. And, if you go about it in the right way, you could end up working in a super positive, super-productive office. Try out one or more of these 8 ways to help motivate your coworkers!

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