Can you actually\r\nreally motivate other people? I would say “Only to a certain extent.” I do\r\nbelieve that it’s not difficult to get results from highly self-motivated\r\npeople, because they feel passionate about what they are doing and need very\r\nlittle additional encouragement. They roll up their sleeves, get started and\r\nknow exactly how good they are. The real art consists in being able to motivate\r\na person who hates their job! But if you have someone like that in your team I\r\nwould seriously advise you to offer that person another challenge that s/he\r\nfeels more enthusiastic about (if there is any option). It is therefore crucial\r\nto hire people who are self-motivated from Day 1. Believe me, it will save you\r\ntime, money and mental energy.
"},"body":{"body":"Can you actually\r\nreally motivate other people? I would say “Only to a certain extent.” I do\r\nbelieve that it’s not difficult to get results from highly self-motivated\r\npeople, because they feel passionate about what they are doing and need very\r\nlittle additional encouragement. They roll up their sleeves, get started and\r\nknow exactly how good they are. The real art consists in being able to motivate\r\na person who hates their job! But if you have someone like that in your team I\r\nwould seriously advise you to offer that person another challenge that s/he\r\nfeels more enthusiastic about (if there is any option). It is therefore crucial\r\nto hire people who are self-motivated from Day 1. Believe me, it will save you\r\ntime, money and mental energy.
When I was a\r\nteam leader during my MBA course I remember that it was quite easy to achieve my\r\ngoal of coming up with a great business plan. I allocated the tasks according\r\nto my team mates’ skills, strengths, interests and passions. Providing them\r\nwith regular constructive feedback and genuinely appreciating their input have\r\nproved to be effective. I learnt that if you notice and acknowledge what great\r\nwork others are doing, they will again work very hard, if not even harder later\r\non! Dream teams can achieve dream results. \r\n
But now imagine this\r\nscenario: Your boss asked you to come up with an idea on how to solve a certain\r\ncorporate issue. You are convinced that you have a great solution to the\r\ncompany’s problem. After presenting it to your boss all you get to hear is\r\n“This is sh*t!” What is the first thing that crosses your mind? Or let me ask\r\nyou differently: What is more likely to be your reaction? “That was it, I’m not\r\ngoing to work any longer for this kind of person/company!” or “Sh*t??? Now I\r\nwill show you what I can really do!”
Believe it or\r\nnot, but in case of Steve Jobs, this statement apparently helped him to get the\r\nbest out of his employees and make them create innovative and highly\r\nsought-after products. What would have put most of the people off, inspired\r\nothers to look beyond their own capabilities and create unimaginable products. But\r\nwe need to bear in mind that this method will not work for everyone and most of\r\nthe people might feel offended by such a comment. Damaging criticism can stay\r\nwith people for weeks, months or even years. Let’s be honest, everyone wants to\r\nhear what a great job they are doing, or what an important part they play\r\nwithin a company, isn’t it? I was always a firm believer that praise is the\r\nmost effective way to motivate people. Some years ago I’ve written a book about\r\nthe power of praise (in German) in which I mentioned the 19 rules to follow\r\nwhen praising others verbally.
However, there\r\nis something we can learn from Steve Jobs: Never be satisfied with your very\r\nfirst idea. If someone tells you that what you suggested is not as great as you\r\nthought, you should not see it as critique but as an opportunity to stretch\r\nyour imagination even further and then really come up with something outstanding!\r\nChallenge yourself and think of many other ways that can help you to solve the\r\nissue. There is no harm in asking also others for their thoughts, it might\r\nreally help you to come up with something impressive. In hindsight, you might\r\neven be grateful for it because you will realise one more time how brilliant\r\nyou really are!
As a parent you\r\nwill learn that every child is different. Well, in the corporate world it is not\r\nvery different. Every employee is different in its own way and is motivated by\r\ndifferent things. One person might be hungry for money, another person might\r\nappreciate more the verbal applause. Others again might welcome the idea of\r\nreceiving additional learning and career opportunities within the company.\r\nThere are many incentives you can offer your employees, such as: more holidays,\r\ntrips abroad, personal development options, company’s shares, meal vouchers, personalised\r\ngifts, movie tickets, salary increase, premium bonuses, etc.
For most of the\r\npeople money is the main motivator. However, I do believe that the best\r\napproach to motivate your staff in an impressive way would be to personalize\r\neach individual’s needs, regardless of your company’s size. This can be done by\r\nconducting a survey among current employees and during the final interview\r\nstage for new hires. Asking an employee what motivates them the most would be\r\nan effective way of giving employees exactly that what they appreciate the\r\nmost. Remember the benefits: you will have happier, more satisfied, more\r\nproductive and creative staff which last but not least, will stay longer in\r\nyour company.
"},"authorName":"Karin Schroeck-Singh","authorBio":{"authorBio":"Karin Schroeck-Singh is a passionate Public Speaker, eBook Author, and a freelancing Online Content Producer. She has an MBA from the University of Leicester (UK) and gained 18 years of international work experience in Italy, the UK and India."},"publishedOn":"2015-08-24T20:21:48.817Z"}},"pageContext":{"id":"e85bafce-a468-5335-ae49-ccd220202bab"}}, "staticQueryHashes": []}