10 Principles of Motivation

Here are a few basic principles about motivation… you must connect with your team members, not just communicate with them…

1. All people are motivated… some people are like a water faucet. They have the motivation, all you need to do is provide the opportunity for the water to flow.
2. People do things for their own reasons, not for yours or mine… we need to show people what’s in it for them. When asking them to do something we can answer them by using rewards and recognition and appealing to their sense of pride in achievement. People change because of pain… when the pain is staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing, people will change.
3. The key to effective communication is identification…. when something becomes personal it becomes important. When dealing with team members isn’t enough to appeal to them on the basis of loyalty. They need personal reasons for showing loyalty. We can get our employees on board more readily if we show them how the change personally affect them for the better..
4. The best way to get people to pay attention to you is to pay attention to them… this means listening to others and not just hearing them. Listening is active, not passive. If you listen to individuals long enough, they’ll tell you what their concerns and problems are. It’s very important for leaders to listen to their staff and team members. You be amazed at what you learn.
5. Pride is a powerful motivator. everybody’s proud of something. If you make your people proud, you can use it inside to channel their motivation. Pride is closely associated with self-esteem and is the only one thing that counts in a business. Nothing else matters, because what they feel about themselves is what they give to your customers
6. You can’t change people. You can only change their behaviors…. to change their behavior. You must change, the feelings and beliefs. This requires more than training. When you educate people you deal with them at a deeper level relative to behavior, feelings and beliefs.
7. The listener’s perception becomes the leader’s reality…. people don’t respond what we say. They respond to what they understand us to say. When others observe our behavior, they respond to what they perceive we are doing and they will try to emulate us.
8. You consistently get the behaviors you consistently expect and reinforce…. you should look for ways to reward others for doing the things you want them to do. The reward may take the form of financial incentives prizes or simply giving public recognition for a job well done reinforcement can be positive or negative.
9. We all judge ourselves by our motives, but we judge others by their actions… when team members engage in undesirable behavior, we shouldn’t try to assess motives or change them. Just deal with the behavior we can change the motives of our employees, but through positive or negative reinforcement you can affect their actions…

Follow these principles and you’ll find yourself surrounded by motivated team members who are channeling their energies toward corporate goals goals in which they have personal stakes.

The Problem Solving Tool/Questions

If anyone wishes to present a problem…. Please answer these 5 questions first…

1. What is the problem?
2. What is the cause of the problem?
3. What are all the possible solutions to the problem?
4. Which solutions do you suggest?
5. What are the first and subsequent steps to solving this issue?

The Outcome Frame Tool

Do you have a problem to solve?
Trying to figure it out?
Got a dilemma with no answers…?
try this outcome frame with a challenge, problem or conundrum…

1. What do we want?
2. When do we want it?
3. How do we know when we get it?  What will it look like?
4. What else will be different?
5. What resources can we bring to bear?
6. How will we use these resources?
7. What is the first step?
8. What are the next steps?
9. Repeat #1-8…

Managers Hold the Key

Research by the Gallup organization found that managers and supervisors play a direct role in motivating employees to top level performance…

These 12 motivators directly affect profits, turnover, and customer satisfaction…

1. I know what’s expected of me
2. I have the opportunity to do what I do best
3. In the past seven days, I’ve received recognition or praise for doing good work
4. My supervisor seems to care about me as a person
5. Someone at work encourages my development
6. In the last six months, someone has talked to me about my progress; my opinion seems to count
7. The mission of the company makes me feel my job is important
8. My coworkers are committed to doing a quality job
9. I have a best friend at work
10. I have had opportunities to learn and grow during the last year
11. I am compensated fairly
12. I have freedom to be creative/independent

The 7 C’s of Success

Here are the unique qualities of top achievers and peak performers….adapted from Brian Tracy.

1. Continuous learning… read one book a week and stay on top of trends, developments, and technology.. organize your time to conveniently fit in both right brain and left brain reading.
2. Courage… willingness to do things you know are right, the things no one else wants to do. Find and do the things that need to be done in the face of uncertainty.
3. Creativity… flood your life with ideas from many sources. Exercise your mind like a muscle…and take some time to simply think, meditate, and pray.
4. Concentration… the ability to focus on one thing, single-mindedly. The opposite of multitasking, it is doing one thing at a time until it’s complete.
5. Constraints… most all obstacles to success come from within. Find out what’s constraining you—your family, your community or your country, and deal with it. Identify the issue and incrementally, methodically, sequentially, and proactively solve the problem.
6. Competence… be excellent and proficient in that which requires your best. Pick a few things and become the expert. Make competency in these areas priority number one.
7. Clarity… 80% of our success comes from being clear on who we are, what we believe in, and what we want. Take the time do the work; dig deep and answer the question..” What do I want?”

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