Employee Motivation

Source : Motivation123


The #1 Motivation Mistake
Managers around the world are committing a fatal error that is depriving their people and companies of improvement, progress, and success. While very few know of the dilemma, its solution is the most important and powerful principle that any coach or manager will ever learn.

Imagine stepping into an enormous kitchen overflowing with uncooked meals and desserts. All of the necessary ingredients for a countless assortment of dinners are there - you simply have to prepare them.

Now imagine preparing and cooking them in identically the same way. It doesn't matter what meal you are dealing with - you follow one set of instructions without fail.

Perhaps your favorite meal is a thick and juicy hamburger. If you're actually preparing and cooking a hamburger, you're right on track. But what if you're dealing with ice cream sandwiches. How well do you think throwing some ice cream onto a grill would work? Trying to flip it so both side get evenly cooked?


The Greatest Management Mistake
Preparing and cooking ice cream in the same manner as a hamburger would obviously result in failure. You can't treat all ingredients and meals as the same thing - they are all different, requiring different methods and techniques to achieve their particular result.

The greatest management mistake should be painfully clear: many managers treat all employees as the same assortment of ingredients trying to motivate them toward greater success using one cookie-cutter approach.

Just as failure results from throwing ice cream on a grill, so too will a manager fail in inspiring his people if he attempts to do so using a single method.

The people on your team are as different as baked beans and apple pie. They each work from a unique set of motivators, responding to some with excited action and others with boredom or even anger.

It's up to you to discover what drives each one of your team members. What elements excite them? What elements turn them off? It may take a little time and concerted effort on your part, but uncovering the powerful motivators that drive your people will be the best thing you can do for you and your team.

Remember, you may respond to financial rewards or incentives, but that doesn't mean everyone on your team will share your sentiments. Listen to your people. Recognize and utilize their motivators. You are dealing with a wide assortment of ingredients, and following this principle will allow you to prepare each one with amazing success.

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The Real Killer of Motivation

Source : Motivation123

Routine is a murderer.


Years ago, before starting the Motivation123 Web site, I had pockets full of plans and ideas. My mind was in a constant state of activity.

As for my reality, nothing ever changed. Nothing in my life went in the directions I had hoped for. It got to the point that I began to doubt whether or not a better life was even possible. Could I change?

Then, while paging through a magazine at the doctor's office, I came across a question, just a short team of words that gripped my attention.

It was simple--as most powerful truths are--but it made an immediate impact. And from that day I possessed a key to progress that has served me ever since.

Before we get to that answer, however, we need to pin down the problem.



The Killer
In a word, it's routine.

It's the pattern of living that, like molten lava, slowly crawls into adulthood, covering and consuming our hopes, dreams, and ambitions.

It's doing the same thing every day because that's what you've always done. It's a vicious circle of repeating actions and events that leads to nowhere.

The reason nothing was changing in my life was because I was stuck in a routine. Every day I followed the same basic outline of living: wake, work, sleep, repeat.

I had new ideas, to be sure, but my actions were old.

Then I was hit with the truth while waiting - for what seemed like weeks - in my doctor's waiting room.



The Question I Took with Me
The sad reality is that most people never realize what is happening until it's too late. That is the skill and cunning of habit and routine.

It wraps its arms around the minutes and hours of your life, distracting and luring you into autopilot, into a dazed mode of living.

All the while, the little time you have to construct your ideal experiences is being sucked away, stolen.

Routine is a murderer. It kills hope and the chance for change. It blinds us to the truth and with a scalpel cuts away our goals and ideas. Routine puts a hand in the face of growth and improvement, leaving room for nothing but the same.

You need a way out of the routine. And for me, the way out came in the form of a question:

'If you continue to follow the same patterns, what are the chances you'll ever experience the things you want to do and ever become the person you hope to be?'

I read the sentence again. What would my chances be? Things hadn't worked out so far, so why would doing the same thing result in anything different?



My Realization
I had my answer. My chances were none.

I would never do the things I had always thought about, never grow into the character I hoped for. If I followed the same routines, the same patterns, I could expect pretty much what I had been getting.

For some, this is the perfect scenario. But for me, I wanted more. I knew how much life had to offer and I wanted to dive in head first. I wanted to experience it all and live a life worth living again.

I looked around the office, looked at the people next to me. None of us would reach that place without a change in pattern. We were all trapped in a circle of habit.

This brings us face to face with a truth that most men and women would rather avoid.

It's relieving to let our goals live in 'someday.' We don't have to worry about never attaining them. Instead, we can put them off and fool ourselves.

'It will happen someday.' No, it won't.

The truth is, if you don't change your routine now, you will never reach those goals. You will never wake up to a life that matches the one in your mind. Never.

Don't hide from this. Accept it. Embrace it. Use it to smash through the chains of routine and drive you into a new way of life, into a new pattern of progress.

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Gain Control, Get Motivated

Source : Motivation123.com


Studies, along with a few minutes of rational thought, show that employees are motivated when they feel in control; nothing drains drive like a forced road march. One way to gain this control along with its gifts of motivation, is to do the following:

Think of a project that would help your employer make more money. Perhaps a new product or service you want to develop? A marketing vehicle yet untested? A process to cut costs?

When you have it, make an appointment with your boss. Share your idea and offer to manage the project in return for a portion of the profits. It's a win-win. Your company won't be losing money because you'd only be earning unrealized income. If your idea doesn't work, you don't earn a dime extra. If it works, you both make more.

A friend of mine, who worked for a gymnastics and dance academy, tried this idea. While helping a herd of students through back flips and somersaults, a thought lit up in her head.

There were a lot of kids who needed special attention in certain areas of their routines, attention that didn't fit into the weekly practices. Why not offer them specialized clinics on the weekends? (Having trouble with your handsprings? I've got the solution for you!)

The owner liked the idea, but didn't want to run it. No worries, thought my friend. She offered to do the work without an hourly wage, as long as she could get a percentage of the clinic fees. There was no downside for the company, so he happily agreed.

Because it was her baby, she was driven to make it succeed. She also made more money, for herself and the company. It was the perfect win-win scenario, a scenario you can replicate at your job. All you need is the right idea. Start thinking.

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How'd They Do It?

Source : Motivatin123

How do your friends get motivated? Your mother or father? Brother or sister? Children? Motivation is a favorite meal: they may be different for us all, but we've all got one.

Everyone has their own particular methods for getting motivated or excited or pumped up or inspired. Some are aware of it. Others are not, but it's there just the same. And by asking around to see how those close to you ignite their drive, you can often gather together more than a handful of tips and ideas that may also work for you.

There are a thousand gifts of insight wrapped in every passing mind. They often go unsaid and remain hidden forever. But you can stop them in their tracks and tap into the secrets that are trapped inside. We can all help each other to get motivated and inspired, and it all begins with a question--what drives you?

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My Uncomfortable Secret to Motivation

Source : Motivation123. com

A five-letter word is my secret.

As you probably know, routine casts a trance-like power with devastating impact. As a result, it is an absolute necessity to break free of its grasp.

If you can't find a way out of the vicious pattern and into a new set of thoughts, feelings, and actions, you have no hope of changing or improving your life.

Consider this five-letter word my guaranteed release.

Working with remarkable speed, it personally shakes me out of autopilot, delivers an eye-opening wake-up call, and motivates with more force than anything I know.

Not bad for a five-letter word.

My hope--and my assumption--is that it will have the same positive effect on you.

The Word, My Release
I know a time will come when I'll no longer be able to act on the things I want, the things I've dreamed about experiencing and things I've always wished to become.

I will have to let them go. I will have to let go of all those exciting ideas I tossed about in my mind, all the goals carefully constructed while daydreaming.

They will have to be put to rest, once and for all. And I will never experience them.

Never.

This is a frightening thought for me. It is startling, can be gut-wrenching, and tip-toes toward terrifying.

But it's also something else. And it's here, on the other side of the coin, that I find my secret.

The Flip-Side of the Word
Coming to grips with reality can be scary.

So much so, that most men and women choose the other door. They hide from the truth and tuck their dreams into the fairytale 'someday.'

'I'll do it someday...someday.'

A sigh of relief follows and it's back to the safe and comfy routine. No need to face fears, no need to rise to challenges, no need to take action. That will all happen someday--but not today.

If only this were true. It is not.

Here is the truth: Someday eventually meets the edge of the cliff. Someday eventually runs out.

Someday eventually turns into never.

Frightening? Perhaps. But it's also your way out. It's also your release from the routine that strangles your hopes and dreams.

By focusing intently--and I mean intently-- on 'never,' in regard to your lifelong wishes and wants, you will be shocked out of your pattern of procrastination and jolted into a new mindset.

You'll have the motivation you need to stop hesitating because you know, without question, if you keep it up, you'll never experience the life you've been waiting for all these years.

Without action, talk is only noise. Below is what I do in particular to get the most out of this five-letter word. It's something you can do, anytime and any place, to dismantle procrastination and ignite your inner drive.

Action Steps - Short & Sweet
Think of something you want. Not a lip-service dream, but something you truly desire, something either for yourself or for someone else.

Our results have shown that people imagine themselves experiencing the joys of progress or success when asked to think of a goal.

This time I want you to do the opposite.

I want you to imagine, vividly, that your idea, your chosen dream or goal, cannot happen. No matter what you do, you'll never get it. Never. Never.

If you do it right, you'll feel anxious, like you have to get up out of your seat right now and do something before time runs out. This is the power of 'never.'

Don't hide from the truth. Let it smack you in the face and punch you in the gut. Only then can it snap you out of the routine and drive you into action. Only then can it change your life.

If you don't do something now, you may never do it then.

Never hide, never avoid, never run from 'never.' Use it as a fire to place beneath your greatest ideas and accept it as a truth that can set you free.

Embrace...'never.'

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