Motivating Project Team Members: Personal Recognition

For project managers who do not have the authority to provide financial recognition to outstanding accomplishments of individual project team members, there's still opportunity to reward and motivate. There are plenty of inexpensive and even free ways to reward your top performers.

Top performers are a rare find. If you have a star performer on your project team, one of your top priorities should be to keep him or her engaged and motivated. When the star of the team is happy about the project and engaged, the rest of the team will be more motivated to give their best.

When you notice a behavior that is above and beyond the average accomplishments of your project team members here are a few ways you can encourage the star:

1. Send an email to the team member noting his or her specific accomplishments and how that has benefited the team. Copy the individual's manager to share in recognizing the accomplishment. A good manager will reward the team member with more trust, more flexibility, more opportunities for career growth, and more incentive pay.
2. Share the accomplishment with the team in a meeting and name the individual and the specific contribution. It may go something like this, "I want to thank Jennifer for going above and beyond by completing development ahead of schedule. Many of you have tasks that depend on this, and this will relieve some of the pressure for you. Great job." Public acknowledgment of positive behavior goes a long way.
3. Celebrate one-on-one. It never hurts to challenge someone that if they do the impossible, you'll owe them a lunch. Many people will work harder just to make you buy them lunch. It's not the lunch that's important. It's the acknowledgment of the challenging task and the willingness to give something of yourself.
4. Give away gift cards. When someone on your project team does something outstanding, be ready with a supply of gift cards. You can pull the individual aside, thank them for their work, and let them know that the gift card is a small token of appreciation for their contribution.
5. Write a hand-written note. In this fast paced email age, people especially appreciate the time and thoughtfulness behind this gesture. A note of thanks or congratulations will often stay in the recipients top drawer for months or even years.
   

One caution with each of these motivators - use them cautiously. It will backfire if you use these ideas to manipulate or if you use them to acknowledge mediocre behavior. Use them wisely, and your team will gladly follow your lead.