Motivation

Motivation is the fuel that drives you – you have to think positively, know what you are going to do and why – and have the energy to do it.

Motivation isn’t permanent, it needs to be nourished daily – and you can never achieve happiness (which adds significantly to motivation) when you are not helping others.

Helping others makes you feel good – makes you feel better about yourself, which is highly motivating.

If that sounds circular – it is.

Others have said:

“It is attitude, not aptitude that determines altitude"

It’s how you see yourself – and how you see yourself in relation to others and to the tasks at hand

Someone said (I can’t recall where I read it):

“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want”

How not to hire!

When working with government agencies they sometimes create such strict rules that they defeat the purpose of what they are trying to accomplish.  One case in point is the interviewing process when trying “to be fair.”

When consulting to one of our Silicon Valley cities, I observed the interview process for potential new employees.  There was a panel of interviewers.  Each was given a specific question and their role was to ask that question of each candidate.  There was to be no deviation – and no additional questions – including asking for clarification or more information – were allowed.

The result – a false sense of fairness.  Candidates were graded based on their responses (often superficial) to the basic questions and at the end of the interview process little more was learned than what already appeared on their resumes.

A good interviewer will delve deeply into answers – asking for examples, additional information, clarification and anything that will enable her to really get to know the professional strengths and weaknesses of a particular candidate.

When I interview for high-level positions I might take as much as a whole day with the candidate.  Now clearly I don’t spend that much time with candidates for supervisory and below positions, but I do spend a few hours getting to know if they are who they say they are and if they will be a good fit for the people and the company considering hiring them.

I’m often told about a series of 20 minute interviews with a bunch of people.  I’m not sure how valuable these are – other than to weed out anyone who stands out to any of the team members doing this superficial interview.

Oftentimes, having a few highly trained and qualified interviewers spend more time is far better than a bunch of people who don’t have the insight or instincts necessary to spend a short amount of time each just to see if they like or dislike the candidate.

Nothing beats strong interview instincts and techniques – like most “soft skill” talents, the highly successful professionals are a combination of education, experience, and intuitiveness.

In my career, I’ve interviewed many C-level candidates for my clients – and those I selected were proven to be a good fit for the company and its culture.  Too, I learn little things that are useful for management.

For example, I once helped hire a CFO and observed that status was far more important to him than increases in salary.  He was subsequently rewarded by having a corner office, his own parking space, and other perqs that were obvious to one and all.  He was a happy camper.

Motivation

Motivation

Motivation is the fuel that drives you – you have to think positively, know what you are going to do and why – and have the energy to do it.

Motivation isn’t permanent, it needs to be nourished daily – and you can never achieve happiness (which adds significantly to motivation) when you are not helping others.  Helping others makes you feel good – makes you feel better about yourself, which is highly motivating.

If that sounds circular – it is.  Others have said:  It is attitude, not aptitude that determines altitude.  It’s how you see yourself – and how you see yourself in relation to others and to the tasks at hand.

Someone said (I can’t recall where I read it):  “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

Wishing Won't Make it So

Wishing Won’t Make it so
by
ArLyne diamond, ph.d.

How often have you heard yourself sigh and say:  “Wish I could increase my business” or “Wish I could improve my bottom line.”   How about:  “Wish my employees were more motivated, personable and customer service oriented.”

Wishing won’t make it so.

Improvement requires change.   They say the definition of crazy is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.  So, if you want to change your results, you have to change what you are doing.

BUT, change takes time.  It takes effort, training, looking at things differently, and figuring out what will and will not work.  Change takes management of the change process.

Years ago, one of our big semi-conductor companies had lost market share, products were no longer respected, they had poor morale among employees and even a significant drug problem.  A new CEO was hired and the first thing he did was insist his upper management team go away quarterly for three day retreats.  You can only imagine the screams when he first suggested they take the time to go away.  “BUT”, they screamed “we don’t have the time, we have work to do.”   He replied, “If we don’t take the time to think about what we need to do, nothing will change.”

Recently, a restaurant owner told me that her business was in a slump.  She asked some of her favorite customers what they thought she should change.  They replied they liked things just the way they are.  Based on this very limited research she made no changes.  Yet, it is not her existing customers she needed to research – it is her potential customers and her lost customers.  She knows she needs to make changes to increase her business, but the comfortable excuse that her current customers like the restaurant just the way it is allowed her to “do it this way because this is the way we’ve always done it” and thus not take the time to change.

A Professional therapist I know sits in her office wishing new clients would come to her.  So afraid is she of missing a phone call she won’t take the time to join local organizations such as her Chamber of Commerce and so she doesn’t attend any of the available networking events that would potentially lead to more business.  She just sits and wishes.

When I work with my clients to improve employee morale and customer service, increase business, and reduce unnecessary processes that cut into the bottom line, they learn fairly rapidly that the most important element of effectively growing their business is to take the time to work with me – and with their staff – creating and implementing change.

Wishing won’t make it so – but taking the time to strategically plan, to train, and to institute new processes and techniques certainly will get you what you wish for….. So, stop wishing, take the time to make it happen.

Losing a meritocracy

I love being involved in companies that reward people based on merit. It's good to know that those who excel are noticed and compensated accordingly. Not only does it help those people, it actually acts as a motivator to inspire others to do better.

But, what happens when an organization decides that there is an "unfair" range of payments for what on the surface seems like the same work. They deny the differences between those who are excellent, and create a flat fee for a particular service.

So what does that do? It reduces the motivation to excel for everyone - and in short order takes the organization from splendid to ho hum.

Without an I there is no team

Have you heard the expression "There is no I in team"? It's a bad slogan. It is a bunch of "I"s that make up a team. If individusals didn't count for something, than where's the desire, motivation, rewards for trying, etc.? Why bother. IfI am not important as an individual, if I am only one small cog in a big wheel - as unfortunately many people believe themselves to be - why bother - why try - why not just go through the motions?

It is our individuality, our egos, our desires to succeed and to be curious and to find and try new things that motivates us to be creative and to perform well.

There are many "I"s working cooperatively in a great team.