How to Inspire Your Team When Running an Agency

When we started Reliable PSD (a coding company that partners with agencies and freelancers to turn their designs into code) there were 5. Now there are closer to 25.

Growing our team came with new challenges: Keeping people motivated, making sure they’re happy, and making sure everyone feels like Reliable is as much their home as it is ours.

Here are a handful of ongoing things we do to achieve these goals.

1. Create deadlines around, not for, your team

Imagine you’re sitting at your desk, happy because you’re on the last leg of a big project. Suddenly someone arrives, and tells you, “We just got a newer, bigger project, and I need you to have it done in half the time you did the last one!”

Here you barely finished pushing one boulder up the mountain when another was dropped in front of you. The rage swells. Your blood pressure rises. You swear you’ll quit soon, as soon as a better job opens up.

This is a struggle that so many creatives and coders face in their daily lives. It overshadows all of the compliments you give them, all of the praise, even the increases in salary.

Unrealistic deadlines spark tension because they spark fear.

“There’s no way I can do this. What happens if I can’t? Will I be fired?”

Fortunately, there’s a very simple solution: don’t give clients deadlines without first consulting your team.

A quick conversation with the team members involved will give you an accurate scope of when they feel they can get it done.

Sometimes, even after speaking with them, you still have to give a deadline that’s tighter than they’d like. But at least you’re involving them in the conversation, letting them be heard, and if you do need to give a tighter deadline, you’re explaining why and making them feel like they’re involved in that too and not just like this has been dropped on their plate out of left field.

That feeling of involvement and consideration goes a long way at keeping your team happy and motivated.

2. Monthly happy hours

One of our favorite things is treating all of our team members to a happy hour every month. We buy the food, drinks, and they relax, get to know each other outside of work, get to see their bosses outside of work, and just have a great time.

The results are really awesome. Every time, people grow closer and you can see it in how they interact with each other in the office. They make plans outside of the office too and form friendships that last.

Simply being a fellow human, this is just really exciting to watch. But it also has a very practical application: the better people can communicate with each other, and the more they know and trust one another, the more efficiently they get things done.

When people feel very familiar with each other, they drop pretenses and can get right to the heart of the matter when discussing needs for projects, concerns, complications, and more. And when people like & care for each other, they want to help each other more and go above and beyond for one another.

It also shows your team that you care about them beyond the work they produce. It shows that you care about them having fun and enjoying the finer things in life. That’s a rare thing to find in a boss.

3. Give them opportunities to learn

And don’t limit those opportunities to their expertise.

For example: When we asked our European offices what they would like to learn, we were surprised by the answer – English.

While we thought they would want to attend coding seminars, or perhaps design-related seminars, the answer that kept coming in was English.

(Some are fluent, or near-fluent, but many know just enough to get by.)

And that makes sense. English has become the language of commerce. By learning it, they cannot only communicate better with our team members in America, but should we ever part ways for some reason, they’ll have better opportunities ahead.

It warms our heart to be able to give them that. But not only that, it also warms theirs.

This just continues the “happy hour” culture described above. When you’re team knows you’re looking out for them for their best interest for their entire life, and not just the work they produce, they want to do better for you. They want to stick around. They want to grow, expand.

As people, we all have a desire to become more. When team members feel that they’re not becoming more, that they’re stuck, or that they’re even becoming less, they start to explore other work opportunities.

By creating a culture of learning and growth, they’ll become better, and they’ll stick around longer.

Also: When people devote time to study and growth, even if it’s unrelated to their expertise, their minds grow sharper and stronger. It keeps your team at the top of their game.

A few more for good measure.

Four. Good team members don’t need to be micromanaged. So don’t micromanage them. It makes them feel mistrusted, which kills rapport & motivation. (If you find you have to micromanage though, they might not be the best fit.)

Five. We encourage “water cooler conversation.” Why? Because relaxing and blowing off steam is very important to productivity, and again, good team members don’t need to be micromanaged. They’ll get their projects done on time.

Forming bonds with other team members is important to motivation. This encourages that.

Six. Publicly praise people who go above and beyond. This creates a culture where other people seek that same recognition. Recognition is something we all crave. Others will follow the model of those that you praise so that they too can be praiseworthy.

Seven. Privately praise. While some things call for the entire group to know about an accomplishments, most of the time, a kind, sincere word in private goes far enough. And when you praise people for things they wouldn’t expect any praise for, it shows that you really care and notice.

Your turn: Do you have any tips for inspiring your team? Did you get anything particularly helpful from this article? Tell me about it!

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment below and let’s discuss.

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