One more time how do we motivate people?
One more time how do we motivate people?
o There are only two psychological parameters you want people to manage, their feelings and their thoughts.
o If someone is not clear about what to do, or how to do it then they will not do it well.
o Everyone one brings feelings and thoughts to work from outside work and these can erode work performance.
o People are more committed and motivated on projects of most interest to them than to the company or team leader or company goals (even if they did agree and sign to them?
o People do not like unpleasantness or abuse or to be constantly told they are no good or lazy or ineffective.
o People prefer pleasant surroundings.
o People will leave a job if they can go to a similar job, with similar circumstances and conditions, and get more money.
o Performance pay on its own does not work very well in gaining increased performance’ performance pay is no substitute for effective leadership which needs to be in place if performance pay is to pay off.
There could be other issues, but this list provides a good base and enables creation of a definite plan for ‘motivating’ the team.
Step 1 Get clarity: Gaining real clarity is harder than it sounds. Do not accept anything but complete clarity which can be tested. Clarity is ensuring that people know and accept the goals as achievable, and are very clear on those goals. Second, knowing the goals is not enough; people also need to be very clear on how to achieve the goals, not in broad or general terms but the quite precise actions needed. Adopt the rule: If someone cannot tell you exactly what they need to do to achieve some particular goals then they cannot and will not do it, or do it with much less effectiveness than you think.
Step 2 Establish people emotional comfortable with what they must do: Once people clear then you need check if they comfortable with doing what they need do. For example, a sales person may know and agree to need to prospect by phoning database after hours, but when put to comfort test, they are not emotional comfortable with doing it and most likely they will not do it, or only do it to some small degree, or do it poorly as fits their emotional predisposition. If you do not take time to explore their emotional response, you may ‘discuss’ telephone prospecting with team, and think they are all onside and agree and then find it does not happen.
There is no simple solution, suggestions include following:
1. Provide training in self-management and managing emotional responses to actions essential and agreed to.
2. Review with person other ways of achieving number of opportunities that do not involve after hours phoning.
3. Use the team members good at phoning to ‘buddy’ with those who are not.
Step 4 Establish that at work the focus needs to be on the actions needed to succeed. Discuss and agree with the team that the focus at work is work, and in particular to adopt those actions essential to achieve the goals agreed to and that many of the home or private issues and concerns are not relevant at work and there needs to be a deliberate effort to leave them at home.
Step 5 Guide people to focus on their own work success. Get people to agree they want to be successful in their job, show them how to be successful, encourage and reward the actions that will make them successful, and expect them to get on with it.
Step 6 Provide guidance on performance and how to do it better. Any actions acted out regularly can and will become rote, therefore it is important people are guided to reflect and review the actions needed to be successful and to keep them sharp and effective.
Step 7 Ensure the business processes that underpin staff performance are clear, simple, and effective. Business processes are the responsibility of management. If the business processes are ineffective, and if people feel they are compensating for weak business processes, then they will become apathetic toward their performance.
Step 8 Provide positive recognition of good performance and reprimand poor performance. A simple carrot and stick approach, it still has its place for providing and setting definite lines of demarcation.
Step 9 Provide a reasonable working environment. We are getting down the list of factors in order of priority, but it is still important.
Step 10 Treat people with respect. It is simple, treat people as you would expect a friend to treat you.
Step 11 Ensure competitive salaries and wages. If you keep losing good people to the opposition, then you need review your wages and salary policy.
Step 12 Use money wisely. Performance pay works, but the performance pay policy needs to be well constructed, operated independent of the management, and have the respect of the staff expected to respond.
There is no one thing to do, people are more complicated than that. Now it may be possible to tweak and adjust this list, but it sensibly and fairly charts the sort of factors that need to be in any comprehensive strategic program for enabling best possible staff performance against the profit and loss.
One more time how do we motivate people - To learn more about this author, visit Graham Little's Website.
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Aiming for some degree of safety, I first offer a summary of the issues surrounding motivation which are non-controversial.
o There are only two psychological parameters you want people to manage, their feelings and their thoughts.
o If someone is not clear about what to do, or how to do it then they will not do it well.
o Everyone one brings feelings and thoughts to work from outside work and these can erode work performance.
o People are more committed and motivated on projects of most interest to them than to the company or team leader or company goals (even if they did agree and sign to them?
o People do not like unpleasantness or abuse or to be constantly told they are no good or lazy or ineffective.
o People prefer pleasant surroundings.
o People will leave a job if they can go to a similar job, with similar circumstances and conditions, and get more money.
o Performance pay on its own does not work very well in gaining increased performance’ performance pay is no substitute for effective leadership which needs to be in place if performance pay is to pay off.
There could be other issues, but this list provides a good base and enables creation of a definite plan for ‘motivating’ the team.
Step 1 Get clarity: Gaining real clarity is harder than it sounds. Do not accept anything but complete clarity which can be tested. Clarity is ensuring that people know and accept the goals as achievable, and are very clear on those goals. Second, knowing the goals is not enough; people also need to be very clear on how to achieve the goals, not in broad or general terms but the quite precise actions needed. Adopt the rule: If someone cannot tell you exactly what they need to do to achieve some particular goals then they cannot and will not do it, or do it with much less effectiveness than you think.
Step 2 Establish people emotional comfortable with what they must do: Once people clear then you need check if they comfortable with doing what they need do. For example, a sales person may know and agree to need to prospect by phoning database after hours, but when put to comfort test, they are not emotional comfortable with doing it and most likely they will not do it, or only do it to some small degree, or do it poorly as fits their emotional predisposition. If you do not take time to explore their emotional response, you may ‘discuss’ telephone prospecting with team, and think they are all onside and agree and then find it does not happen.
There is no simple solution, suggestions include following:
1. Provide training in self-management and managing emotional responses to actions essential and agreed to.
2. Review with person other ways of achieving number of opportunities that do not involve after hours phoning.
3. Use the team members good at phoning to ‘buddy’ with those who are not.
Step 4 Establish that at work the focus needs to be on the actions needed to succeed. Discuss and agree with the team that the focus at work is work, and in particular to adopt those actions essential to achieve the goals agreed to and that many of the home or private issues and concerns are not relevant at work and there needs to be a deliberate effort to leave them at home.
Step 5 Guide people to focus on their own work success. Get people to agree they want to be successful in their job, show them how to be successful, encourage and reward the actions that will make them successful, and expect them to get on with it.
Step 6 Provide guidance on performance and how to do it better. Any actions acted out regularly can and will become rote, therefore it is important people are guided to reflect and review the actions needed to be successful and to keep them sharp and effective.
Step 7 Ensure the business processes that underpin staff performance are clear, simple, and effective. Business processes are the responsibility of management. If the business processes are ineffective, and if people feel they are compensating for weak business processes, then they will become apathetic toward their performance.
Step 8 Provide positive recognition of good performance and reprimand poor performance. A simple carrot and stick approach, it still has its place for providing and setting definite lines of demarcation.
Step 9 Provide a reasonable working environment. We are getting down the list of factors in order of priority, but it is still important.
Step 10 Treat people with respect. It is simple, treat people as you would expect a friend to treat you.
Step 11 Ensure competitive salaries and wages. If you keep losing good people to the opposition, then you need review your wages and salary policy.
Step 12 Use money wisely. Performance pay works, but the performance pay policy needs to be well constructed, operated independent of the management, and have the respect of the staff expected to respond.
There is no one thing to do, people are more complicated than that. Now it may be possible to tweak and adjust this list, but it sensibly and fairly charts the sort of factors that need to be in any comprehensive strategic program for enabling best possible staff performance against the profit and loss.
One more time how do we motivate people - To learn more about this author, visit Graham Little's Website.
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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