There are five methods tested by experts in this area that can help facilitate team progress and reap the easiest benefits to achieve:

1st Create Meaning

People have a deep desire to do meaningful work. Making progress boosts their professional motivation, but only if the work matters to them.

Having meaning is having a purpose, at Living Tours Group our purpose is the one that motivated me to create Living Tours 20 years ago: Proud and Patriot of our country I wanted to show the world, to the tourists who visit us from all over the world, the best we have, we are and know how to do in Portugal and later extended to Spain. This was the purpose behind the creation of Living Tours, this is clearly present in the company's first name, Living in Portugal - Living in Portugal - how we live, our culture, our values, with the original logo with the colors of the national flag with red, yellow and green and our mascot the Rooster of Barcelos, symbol of Portugal in the world.

This is the purpose that the people who join our LivingTouriana team come to help create and develop, growing together with the current team that brought the company this far and together we will take it further.

At all of our companies over the past 20 years, one of the most valuable things we've done is implement systems that ensure every team member, in every department, feels the meaningful impact their work is having on the world.

For example, we have a program called Living Experience, which is dedicated to sharing powerful stories, testimonies and feedback about how the efforts of each team member affect the lives of real people, from all over the world – they can be found in our Living Magazine, available on the Group's Blog, where every quarter the best experience is chosen and awarded, the most impactful one, which created a positive impact whether on a guest, a partner, a colleague, something that makes sense and goes beyond the performing a job, something that brings meaning to what we do and that brings purpose to our daily lives at Living Tours.

Managers cannot leave this to chance, in an increasingly digital world, where we deal more with numbers, statistics and screens, it is easier than ever to lose sight of the meaning behind the metrics.

When work seems meaningless, motivation evaporates.

2nd Define Clear and Achievable Objectives

It's important for leaders to set clear goals so team members know exactly what they need to do. The goal should be broken down into smaller interim milestones, focusing on early wins to build momentum. Progress must be tracked to ensure that small victories do not go unnoticed.

In our companies, we use objectives and results – a periodic goal-setting framework – across all teams to ensure this happens.

3rd Provide Autonomy

Once the desired outcome is clear, leaders must give team members space to take control. Encourage them to chart their own path, using their skills and knowledge.

One of the most important traits on all of my teams has been allowing people the space to fail and succeed. My job as CEO is to play the role of a supportive facilitator, not a critical micromanager.

4th Remove Friction

Leaders must proactively remove any obstacles, bureaucracy and approval processes that prevent the team from achieving daily progress. This includes identifying and providing the resources they need to do their work.

Holding frequent feedback meetings with all my directors has allowed me to do this quickly and decisively. Team members tend to know exactly what's getting in their way – but a vast majority of leaders rarely bother to ask them, and when they do, they rarely act quickly enough to solve the problem. This causes a deterioration in trust, and team members become increasingly reluctant to talk about friction, which causes problems in the future.

These feedback meetings are held by the direct leader to their teams, I hold them with my direct team of leaders and they hold them with their direct teams, allowing obstacles and friction to be removed across the entire team of people who work in a company, with a clear and clear purpose. it has to make sense to everyone.

5th Publicize Progress

Leaders need to highlight, publicize and praise progress as high, far and wide as possible. Recognition reinforces behavior, but also acts as evidence to adjacent teams that progress is possible for them too.

In every company and team I lead, the team leader is asked to release a weekly update to the entire team detailing all the progress their team has made that week. I myself hold a weekly meeting with all the leaders for two hours. Where we analyze problems, objectives, results and where we are getting to, week after week. This ritual has been incredibly powerful in creating a collective sense that we are “getting somewhere,” and when people feel like they are making progress, they are more motivated, happier, and more engaged with leadership.

Golden Rule: Harness the Power of Progress – To solve problems, encourage and celebrate small victories. This provides continuous forward momentum, which creates an atmosphere of success and a positive feeling that a team is moving towards its big goals. Employees are more motivated when they are involved in the work they are doing, and feel like they are making a difference.

Professionally, the most rewarding feeling in the world is the sense of continuous progress.