20 Positive Affirmations for Work to Boost Team Motivation

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Motivation is a key element for the success of any team.

As a leader, you may try all sorts of methods to give your team motivation such as giving praise, using inspiration, organizing seminars, and rewarding good performance with awards, but it’s not always enough.

Besides, these kinds of motivation can be expensive and may not always work as you hope. Organizing seminars require money which may not always be available. In most cases, your team members may be all fired up after the workshop but a week later, the fire dies, and you are back to an unproductive team.

Awards may leave some members feeling unappreciated, depressed and this can affect their performance.

The right kind of motivation should flow from within the members. All you need to do as the leader is stir it up with the right words.

Show your team members that you believe in them, and they will believe in themselves. Show them that they are an essential contributor to the team’s success and they are sure to act the part. Empower them through positive affirmations.

What are positive affirmations?

These are positive statements that fight the self-sabotaging negative thoughts preventing individuals from living their best life and being productive. The statements have to be positive, in the present tense, and spoken as facts, not possibilities. Positive affirmations drive away depression, help bolster confidence, and ignite neural pathways to motivate individuals towards healthy behavior, according to MS Broudy.

Why give positive affirmations to team members?

Appreciate your team members for doing a good job. Although one person may appear like they are directly linked to the team’s success, the truth is everyone played a part.

Take for instance a soccer game, the goal striker may appear as the primary person responsible for the team’s success, but they could not have done it on their own. If the member who passed the ball had done it wrong, there could have been no goal.

Every member needs to be appreciated.

The right affirmations can build an emotional connection within the group and bring the members closer to you as their leader, and this is when the performance goes over the roof.

Your Members Want to Feel Loved

As a leader, your role is to be a nurturer to your team members. They want to feel that you care about them and their feelings. They should feel more than just tools to get you to your goals.

The affirmations should, therefore, come from your heart and feel real. They should show that you truly believe in them and are not just saying the words. They should display the affection you feel for the members.

They Want to Feel Recognized

No one likes to feel that everything would go on the same if they were or weren’t part of the team. Every member wants to feel recognized for the part they play and feel that you intentionally chose them for that role whether it is sales team success, or a sports meet competition.

Make them feel special, like the group’s success depends on their skills. Having the feeling that they matter, makes them want to put in their best effort.

Show them Admiration

Each of your members has a unique set of talents and skills. One member’s unique set of skills coupled with the other’s different set of skills create the magic.

But for this magic to happen, they each have to give their best. No one can give their best if they are consistently ignored and taken for granted. Shower them with praise and bring them out as people worth emulating.

Give Them the Feeling of Security

Everyone fails at one time. Your members need to feel that one slip-up does not mean the end of a career, or dream.

Assure them that you believe in their ability to gracefully rise from a fall and achieve more than they did before the failure. Tell them that you still believe in their abilities and strength to rise.

Related: Why Criticism Should Be a Priority for Team Motivation

Make Them Feel Accepted

A team includes their leader, and there’s no separation between you and the members. You are all one. You all have a common objective that holds you together. Every member should feel part of that family. A family lifts each other, and that is what your affirmations should give to your members.

Make them feel loved, accepted, and significant. Show your team members respect and don’t present yourself as better and above them.

How to Give Affirmations to Team Members

Giving the affirmations to your team members individually gives the statements more meaning. You can personalize the affirmations by mentioning the member by name, stating their achievements and giving specific details on their unique skills and contribution to the group’s success.

Here are 20 positive affirmations to get you started.

1.      You are a significant contributor to the team’s success.

2.      You are confident in your abilities.

3.      You are a respectable team member, and you accord the same respect to your partners.

4.   You are patient and persistent.

5.   You can accomplish anything.

6.   You empower your team members toward greatness.

7.      You are an unbeatable fighter.

8.      You are successful; success is in your nature.

9.      You are full of energy and great ideas.

10.  You love challenges and tackle them fearlessly.

11.  You see failure as an opportunity.

12.  You are irreplaceable.

13.  You have something unique to offer and share.

14.  You are creative and intelligent.

15.  You are passionate about the goals and committed to the team.

16.  You value each member’s opinion.

17.  Your positive attitude inspires success.

18.  You are the best.

19.  You are a master of efficiency

20.  We are a family bound together by a desire to succeed.

A leader’s words are very powerful at motivating his/her team members. The words can break or build the members’ morale to work. The right words can promote cohesiveness within the team.

Use the above positive affirmations or create your own, tailored to your team’s needs. Ensure your words come from within you and make the members feel loved, recognized, admired, secure, and accepted.

These affirmations, in turn, provide trust and support within the team. Members develop positive attitudes that promote forgiveness and unity.

A habit of continually uplifting your team is, without doubt, the path to a perfect team.

Did you find these positive affirmations useful? More on this topic in our Ultimate Guide to Motivating Leaders and Teams.