9 Proven Tactics to Engage People in Your Project
By: Paco Cantero
Tags: Team Building, Inspiration, Teamwork, Leadership, Entrepreneurship

Before being an entrepreneur, 20 years ago, I worked for big companies, and I learned a lot about:

How to manage people.

How to motivate them.

How I can make them believe in the project I want to develop.

In this article, I’m trying to do my best based on:

My experience in multinational companies.

All the things I read/see in other projects.

Ideas that come to my mind every day.

Here I share 9 points I consider a must to engage people in your project.

1. Listen to them

The first thing you have to do before speaking about your project (something you’ll be looking forward to doing) is listening carefully to the person you have in front of you.

What does he want?

What is she looking for?

Why is he interested in your project?

What moves her in her life?

What are his expectations?

Without listening, you won’t go further. You need to know what people you’re hiring expect from you and their lives.

2. Motivate them with the whole project

It’s your turn!

You have to speak, to describe, to motivate that person with your project.

He has to see how your eyes shine, how you have a clear and defined path, how everything makes sense to achieve the goals.

3. Make them participants of your project

Make all the people that surround you feel participants in your project.

It’s not your project. It’s theirs too.

Their duties are essential to achieve the company’s goals. Everything matters. Because it’s true. If you have any task which is not necessary, you won’t do it and, therefore, you wouldn’t need that person.

4. Pay attention to their personal needs

One of the most common answers I received while interviewing people was this one: “I felt like a number”.

That’s what you have to avoid.

Listen carefully to people, their personal lives, their personal issues.

A company can always do something to help the people who work in it.

5. Make them feel they’re inside a solid group

As human beings, we need social relationships. We’re not prepared to stay living alone for our whole lives.

That could be fun for a small amount of time, for a small stage in your life, but, as Aristotle said:

“Man is a political animal.” — Aristotle

We need to share our lives with others, our illusions, motivations, projects, and passions.

Make people connect. You must provoke that. It’s your responsibility.

Whenever people engage with each other inside a group:

Magic appears.

Great things come out.

Projects become successful.

6. Give them freedom

You have to believe in delegating responsibility.

It’s how people grow. It’s how projects grow.

They:

Will appreciate your trust in them.

Will feel valued.

Will feel an essential piece inside a colossal project.

Never measure in hours. Always measure in goals or achievements.

7. Always ask for suggestions

Make them real participants in the project.

Ask them:

What they can think about an issue.

How they would solve a problem.

How they would improve the project.

…and listen to them.

8. Make them feel their efforts are worth it

Any effort has to be recognized.

They have to feel that what they are doing makes sense.

They have to feel it’s worth it.

9. Pay as much as the project can support

Without putting the project in danger, you should always try to pay the most.

Motivate, share, delegate… Everything sounds beautiful, but if there’s no money behind all that, it’s just a matter of time before the project fails.

You have to retain the talent and compensate people for their efforts to believe in the project and give their time (life) to it.

Takeaways

It’s not easy:

To find people who believe in your project.

To hire them.

To make them work together.

To make them feel good about each other.

To keep them in.

…

But it’s the only way to create a significant project in life.

You will live fantastic moments all together.

“Fighting” together, as a team, as a consolidated group, and achieving victory is an unforgettable experience they will never forget.

Neither will you.