One of the biggest challenges for a rowing club president or captain is to manage, motivate and assist their club committee in running the club. Sometimes this all comes down to motivation and engagement with your current committee members, which we can help you improve!

5 ways to motivate your rowing club committee:

1. Socialise To Strengthen Group Bonds & Familiarity

One way to get your club committee more productive and invested in their work is to get them socialising with one another. Social psychology suggests that procrastination itself can be a benefit to productivity, when focused around colleagues interacting with one another. And we all know sitting around \”talking rowing\” is such fun.

Regular social gatherings and events strengthen bonds by helping form things such as inside jokes. It gets the team talking and enjoying each others\’ company which encourages them to spend more time working together. Turning work into an engaging fun activity also helps team members produce better results.

2. Support Members & Work In Teams

Just like the previous suggestion, this one is all about strengthening the bonds between committee members. Working in teams brings everyone closer together, resulting in an environment that encourages improved productivity. Constantly supporting and following up with each member helps ease the stress of club work. This is also a good way to trial members in leadership (or other such) roles which we\’ll talk about later in this article.

3. Address & Solve Issues (The \”Suggestion Box\” Approach)

Listening and responding to feedback and requests from your committee members will earn you their respect and admiration as a club leader or team manager. By doing this you generate a positive and ever-developing work environment that improves on a regular basis. Beware you don\’t show favouritism for certain club members though, as it can isolate less favoured club members leading to further issues. You have to keep a neutral stance on issues and back up all changes with reason.
What\’s more, by constantly asking for feedback you\’ll find loads of brilliant ideas that help the club overall (not just the committee!). A good example of this could be when a committee members raises the issue of boathouse organisation complaints from athletes. If you\’re able to solve that issue you both reduce complaints that committee member is getting and make athletes happier at the same time.

4. Celebrate achievements and give praise: R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Showing respect to those who deserve it has been a motivating tool for a very long time. To put it simply, when people are recognised for their achievements it makes them happy. To feel more happy they wish to repeat or further their success.
Rewarding members who do well in the club isn\’t the only way to give them respect though. By just mentioning everybody\’s achievements in every club committee meeting helps brighten the room. One way this could be implemented is through Gamification with some kind of progressive achievement system, which is definitely worth checking out.  We saw a public recognition certificates in St George\’s Rowing Club; each said why the member had received the certificate.

If there are members feeling they aren\’t getting recognition, but because they aren\’t doing recognition-worthy activities, then give them the chance to shine because they obviously want it! That leads on to…

5. Give Members The Opportunity To Prove Themselves

Rowing club committee members are working with your rowing club because they want to make a difference in their community. Help them be proud of contributing to the bigger whole and give them chances to be known for their efforts.

There are loads of ways to increase the motivation of your club committee members and each club culture is different. It is up to you as a leader to find out what makes your committee members the happiest and most productive.

But before we finish off this blog post we\’d like to show you Maslow\’s hierarchy of needs (right). This is a chart which shows the basic needs any given individual must have fulfilled to achieve the highest levels of motivation. Follow this chart in your drive to motivate your club committee members and you\’ll find yourself surrounded by driven individuals ready to make your rowing club succeed. Let\’s take a quick look at each level…

• Physiological needs: these are the most basic of needs such as food, warmth, shelter, etc. Most (if not all) of these should already be met by day to day jobs. It often refers to a person\’s income and whether or not that income can provide the bare necessities.
• Safety: each member of your club should feel that they are in a save environment to work in. If they\’re unsettled due to safety concerns then their motivation to work will slip, or be distracted.
• Social: here\’s what we\’ve been touching on the most – making sure your committee members\’ social needs are met.
• Esteem: we touched on this also with recognition of good work in our number 4 way to motivate your club committee. They need to know they\’re doing well!
• Self-actualisation: as our last point (number 5) this is the highest level need of motivated peoples. The need to succeed. Everyone has a need to do well but they need all the basics in this hierarchical chart as well as a chance to prove themselves.

Follow our tips and this simple chart of motivational needs so you can build your rowing club committee into a productive and successful group.

Got any examples you can share of tips that helped motivate your club?