How do you motivate team members who are burnt-out or bored?

I would chat with the team members to understand why they are feeling burned out or bored, and ask them what we can do to help improve their situation.  The solution will depend on their answers, and each case may be different.

The reasons for team member getting burned or bored and how to motivate them:

1. Working on the similar task for a very long period

• ·         Reassign task
• ·         Assign challenging task
• ·         Assign responsibility to handle a small team along with the task assigned.
• ·         Motivate: Explain the team member, his importance and contribution to the project and why the company is dependent so much on him for this task.
• ·         Ask to take a break.

2. Some team members are interested in working on innovative/inventive projects

• ·         This kind of team members are self-motivated and are very important for the organization for upgrading the technology/domain skills and for product improvement.
• ·         Along with the assigned task, allot sometime in the project plan (when there is an enough buffer in the project plan)for these kind of team members to come up with new ideas and to explore new technologies/solutions.
• ·         Allow to attend/conduct seminars or training sessions.

3. Not given higher responsibility.

• ·         Depending upon the skills and experience, motivate and elevate the team member to next positions.
• ·         E.g.  A experienced programmer wants to get involved in System Analysis and Design, assign responsibility of System analyst.

4. Work can be done faster if provided with appropriate or automate tools.

• ·         The ER, DFD, flow chart diagrams can draw quickly using drawing tools instead of using open office.
• ·         Use automates testing tools, if repeated test cases are to be tested for a certain period.

5. Proper process is not in place

• ·         The developer has passed the task for testing without unit test.
• ·         No proper documentation available: Requirement specification, Functional document, Design, Acceptance test plans.
• ·         Have good process & policies and put into practice.

6. Goals are not set

• ·         Talk to team member and check their goals. Assign if similar opportunities are available in the project.
• ·         Team does not know their responsibilities and what they will achieve at end of the project.

The first and the most important thing you need to do is to find out what motivates your team members.

Money is one of the key motivator in our lives. However money alone can't help. Some people are motivated by recognition.

Once you know what motivates your team members, give them what they need!

to motivate people first you should be motivated enough to spread motivation. every person is motivated differently, for me to get the best out of everyone i must find the spark that motivates them, channel the incentives and always keep a challenging working environment because challenges push people to work harder and be motivated. 

Give them new challenges and performance targets. Find out what motivates them and ask them how you can help them. If they are genuinely burnt out give them a break by giving them a recovery task or a long weekend in return for their extra hours worked.

If you can, breakup your new project into some smaller bit sized chunks, so the team can get a few small wins to build some momentum on

Recognize good work when it happens, right on the spot.

Motivate: Explain the team member, his importance and contribution to the project and why the company is dependent so much on him for this task.

Communicating permanently with the team members is really important to detect as soon as possible when they get bored or burned out and why. After listening to their complains, I will try to motivate those who are bored by involving them in other tasks so that they could keep learning and find interest in their work. For those who are burned out, it's important to help them reorganize and prioritize better their work.

My goal is to keep the team motivated and focused on the work we have to accomplish keeping in mind the interest of the company.

1. Involve them. Many employees want to be involved in the ongoing development and progress of their company, 2. Communicate. Very few businesses can be accused of over-communicating. A frequent axiom in business is, "No news is good news." However, employees want regular updates on the progress of the business and their personal performance. 3. Celebrate individual and team performance. Catch people doing something right and focus on recognizing excellent performance. 4. Set challenging goals. 5. Giving them the tools to succeed. No team will stay motivated if they do not have the necessary tools required to do their job. This includes; equipment, internal support, inventory, marketing materials, training, etc.

At first I have to understand the reason behin being Burned out or bored. If it is because of the routine work or being stucked in their position for a long time I believe that giving new challenghes works effectively. This can be done by expanding their work scope horizontally, giving new challenging assignments or job routation.

It might be the work load and stress, in this case giving long week ends or outing with them may help.  

NO! Don't ask them why they are bored or burned. This usually put pressure on employees and (depending on their rank and responsibilities) tend to doubt or lie, making it a common leadership error.

Instead, organized games style activities (you will have to play either) relating to the task they are already developing and in the meanwhile try to scratch feelings and emotions related to work doing rapport.

The latter explained above result (90% of cases) in employees expressing by THEIR-SELFS reasons related about trauma or boredom. This usually triggers brainstorming ideas to find team based solutions.

Have a nice day, and remember...you are AWESOME thing is you aren't still AWARE of IT. ;-)

Two completely different problems, burn out and/or bored at the job, however both need critical analysing to determine the root of the problem.

A little time out for the person with the burn out might help and then only addressing the issues, re-evaluating his/her time management, tasks in hand etc. and then monitoring progress/recovery with a helping hand if required. 

Bored at the Job - communicate with the person, assign new tasks which are suited to the person, i.e. something which creates new interest with new goals, yes goals! Without goals and interest in anything we do in live, most likely boredom will creep in and we loose interest and consequently create negative energy around us. Happy people deliver results, because they love what they do and they know what they do will make them happy and their fellow colleagues!

Take your members of staff occasionally to sport events they can participate in. Physical activity promotes the release of happy endorphins! Try it, it works. 

I work to inspire and motivate team work for achieving goals and influence valuable changes. 

I am always open to new ideas coming from team members. I consult with them frequently and encourage and support independent thinking.

I believe in establishing an open discussion for decision -making.

I recognize the skills of key team members and utilize their strengths to the benefit of the team.