Newsletter: Motivation

I remember hearing a great line on a TV sitcom: “I am completely surrounded by no beer.”

Not that I watch TV sitcoms. Just heard it as I was passing through the room.

The line does reveal an interesting facet of human nature however, we are often not much good at motivating ourselves, but prefer to look at what we haven’t yet got. We all get discouraged by the person we go to with some good news saying “I have done X for you” and their response is “What about Y?”. That's such a good motivator! All of us would probably prefer the response “Thank you for X. What about Y?”.

I recently got some bad news via an email and felt very put out and let down. I must confess to an emotional reaction, but decided that being miserable and demotivated was not really worth it. Instead I made myself ask “What opportunity is there here?”. Boy that was tough, I would have preferred moaning my head off. But it worked (after several coffees) and my motivation levels returned. It made me think, perhaps motivation has a lot to do with whether we choose to look at positives or negatives?

This would explain why I feel great after seeing my friend Mick, who has M.S. How can I be demotivated after that? How dare I? We all have this experience I think of seeing others worse off and then biting our tongues. Perhaps it is something we can apply in the workplace.

How about starting meetings with “What has gone well this week?” Or asking the team to bring along some good news stories. Maybe even sharing some personal good news which gives everyone a bit of a boost. It’s not that work is miserable, but it is full of problems and unless we are careful that is all we talk about. That can hit motivation, and maybe it would be useful to pay attention to some good things as well.

The biggest motivator is of course ‘thank you’. A client of ours did a study late in 2009 and asked trades-people what motivated them. The Senior Execs found it hard to believe that it was not primarily money, but rather it was senior staff going round saying ‘I really like that job you have done, well done’.

So what other ideas are there for raising motivation levels? Control is a big thing for most of us. How about a team workshop asking where we can introduce flexibility and control of the way we work? Also smiles. That sounds daft I know. But smiling increases motivation, as long as we can avoid the Cheshire Cat syndrome. Most of us frown when listening to others .. what about a grin now and then? And finally of course beer. Socialising does more than allow people to let off steam, it builds a team spirit which has a motivational spin off.

I once worked for a manager whose famous saying was that a good beating was motivation enough. He failed to understand human psychology, that if we are demotivated we will find ways to minimise our input. We want our staff to maximise their input, and to do that they have to want to. There are 4 international leadership qualities which enhance motivation, and beating people up is not one of them. Mail us if you want to know what they are.



Mark Miller is Director of Goodfoot., click here for further details