The power of motivation
From Winston Churchill to David Brent, motivation has been a key component in every leader’s arsenal. Get it right and you can have a deep and thoughtful impact upon your team, deliver results that make your competitors marvel at your supremacy, leave a legacy of quotes for generations to benefit from, and profit from a fiercely loyal and hard-working team. Get it wrong however, and you’ll be for ever remembered for all the wrong reasons! Throughout time exceptional motivational quotes endure, they resonate and implant themselves in our subconscious to be called upon when the moment arises to help us remain focussed on our goal. Here are just a couple of examples from the truly profound through to the quite ridiculous for you to enjoy:
If you’re going through hell keep going. – Winston Churchill
Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. – Henry Ford
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. -Thomas A. Edison
I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. ~Thomas Jefferson
Do or do not. There is no try. —Yoda
Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days you are the statue. – David Brent
Avoid employing unlucky people – throw half of the pile of CVs in the bin without reading them. – David Brent
“People say ‘How can you sell this for such a low price?’ I say, because it’s total crap.” – Gerald Ratner
So, what is motivation?
What motivates some people to run a marathon and others to sit on the sofa and watch an entire season of breaking bad in one sitting? Pop motivation into google and you’ll end up with literally millions of hits. But what is it and how can you maximise it?
Essentially motivation is the individuals desire to do, and the benefit or reward to the same individual for doing. But what works for one may not work for another. So how do you capitalise on this remarkable phenomenon to engage and reward in the workplace?
Well the first thing you need to do is to have a goal. What is it that you want your team to achieve? Is it a last-minute order that requires supreme effort to deliver, or maybe a downturn in this quarters’ sales that needs rectifying, are you changing the culture within a struggling organisation or simply a new leader in the business and wanting to make the right impression? Whatever the reason, it must be clear in your mind what it is you want, and then you can begin to assess how the reward and recognition stage works for your team.
The reward aspect is an integral part of inspiring and motivating the team, the “what’s in it for me” bit. Now motivation doesn’t always have to be financial, but it does depend on the effort you’re expecting your team to exert.
Non-financial rewards include:
- Flexible working hours
- Dress down Fridays
- Bringing pastries and donuts for breakfast
- Organising events to encourage socialisation outside of working hours
- Secret Santa
- Coffee chats [Informal one to one chats with the boss]
- Employee of the month program
- Birthday cards
Individually they may not mean much, but start adding them together. Do you want to be the leader that rocks up in the morning carrying donuts, before giving one of the new recruits their first birthday card, who follows that up with a cappuccino and a chat with one of your longest serving employees, then a team meeting with the latest reports and improvements required, and finally emailing everyone to confirm this evenings bowling competition? Or do you want to be the manager who walks in and just fires off the latest improvement report expecting immediate action, calling half of your team incompetent, then demanding your 8:30 coffee before you begin your daily recruitment activity… because “the people of today just don’t want to work”.
These are just a fraction of the easy and effective ways of connecting with your people and motivating them to deliver your goals with minimal cost implications. Simple actions like the above go a long way in uniting your team. They’ll feel recognised within the organisation and as a result will want to deliver your needs and desires, because you’re delivering theirs.
Financial rewards
However, sometimes you may need your team to be a little more driven and competitive. This is where financially motivating your team can pay dividends. Offering bonuses, sales incentives and target awards are the usual drivers, but how about offering something more personal and imaginative?
- Spa breaks
- Foreign holidays
- Experience days
- Sporting events
- Team building trips
Whatever rewards you offer, the most important thing is to know your team. If your team are rugby watching fanatics, grab some Twickenham tickets? Or, if they love the outdoors why not head to the Lake District for some outward-bound activities? By knowing and understanding your people, you can tailor your motivational activity to match their wants and desires. By bringing your goals to meet your teams needs, you can begin to create a formula that matches what you want with what makes your people tick and thereby getting them to want to get up in the morning and run through brick walls for you.
One of the great things about motivational practices is that they can create momentum. Now momentum is incredibly difficult to get started, but once rolling becomes a powerful force. If you can get that motivational momentum rolling, you’ll find it takes on a life of its own within your team, empowering them to create their own motivational experiences that are personal to them. The result being a happier, more focussed, and result driven team that will strive to make you proud.
Now at Lanonyx we can’t motivate your team for you, but we can provide some tools to help. Please give us a call on 0333 0022 440 or contact us to discuss all your Call Logging and Call Recording software requirements, and one of our friendly team will be here to assist you.