Category: Hints & Tips

Hints and tips for MS Office and other applications. Contributions from our team of talented trainers.

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Motivation: the art of getting people to do what you want

Getting The Work Done Willingly And Well!
Practical ways to motivate

Motivation: the art of getting people to do what you want them to do, because they want to do it. Sounds good?

Dwight D. Eisenhower certainly thought so – he said it! Let’s talk about motivation – what can a manager do to motivate the team? To make the team want to achieve the business goals just as much as they do? There are a number of theories around on this topic.

I’d like to focus on motivation at work, and look at the psychologist Frederick Herzberg and his Two Factor Theory of Motivation, which he shared with the world in 1959.

Herzberg found that the aspects of work people considered favourable when they were satisfied with their work, were not the same as those highlighted as sources of dissatisfaction. He referred to them as motivators and hygiene factors:

Hygiene Factors

Hygiene factors at work can be likened to hygiene at home – a source of complaint if not right, but not a reason to get excited. The idea is that hygiene factors will not motivate you, but if they are missing or not right, they cause dissatisfaction.

Examples could be working toilets, comfy chairs, a working heating system, or a reasonable level of pay. If these are not provided, they can be a huge source of dissatisfaction.

As Herzberg discovered, removing the source of annoyance (the toilets are no longer blocked, here’s your chair and the heating’s working again!) does not cause motivation.

The opposite of dissatisfied is not motivated – it’s just no longer dissatisfied (it’s about time, the toilets should never have been out of order anyway!). In summary, we need the hygiene factors to be in place and correct. They’re never going to motivate anybody, but they do have the potential to demotivate.

Motivators

Herzberg’s second set of factors are known as motivators. He argued that active motivation is based around these; they enable people to derive satisfaction from their work and they provide a stimulus to work harder. Here are some examples – which ones can you apply?

  • A sense of achievement – give the team something to achieve and acknowledge them when they do. Agree SMART goals which are also stretching.
  • Recognition for the work done – behaviour that is rewarded will continue! Praise them when praise is due. Also provide constructive feedback to help them to do it even better.
  • A chance to take on more responsibility – delegate tasks as much as possible, to demonstrate your faith in their abilities.
  • A chance to use their initiative – when delegating a task, where possible try and give them the what but not the how, i.e. specify the end goal but let them decide how they get there. They will feel very involved and the commitment and ownership will be instant.
  • Doing interesting work – aim to delegate a balanced range of tasks, so they get to try something different. Variety is the spice of life!
  • Personal growth – ensure the team members have the skill and the will to do their jobs well. Some may have a skills gap. Provide the relevant training so they can learn and develop in their role. Help them to be the best they can be!
A final thought

All of the above sounds good, but it all starts with you. Leading by example is a huge motivator, and is a big focus of our mentoring courses London. Good leaders have willing followers. If you can be positive and enthusiastic about work, then your team can too. But if you can’t, don’t hold your breath!

 

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Building Confidence And Assertiveness at Work

BUILDING CONFIDENCE AND ASSERTIVENESS AT WORK:

Wikipedia describes confidence as “a state of being certain either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective.”

The Latin word from which confidence derives (fidere) means “to trust”, either in oneself or someone in whom you are confiding.

confidence at work
ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING LONDON

More often it means someone who is brave and extrovert enough to be who they are and to state what they want. It blends with our understanding of having boldness, an absence of fear.

Self-confidence is the certainty that you are going to be fine in whatever situation.. an inner trust in oneself.

How do we then instil this confidence in ourselves?

The mix of positively visualising how you want an event to turn out, with an inner surety that you can handle things, can create a feeling of calm and confidence that all will be fine. Even if exactly what you envisaged does not come about in the way you wanted it to. You ‘know’ that all will work out well regardless. That challenges are temporary.

Is confidence linked with assertiveness?

Yes. Confident people are able to convey their ideas, wants and needs much more readily than those who are fearful of a) the outcome backfiring on them b) being seen in a way that is too aggressive. That is, they see their actions or demands as being perceived how they themselves view the arrogant person: none too likeable.

Confidence is about self -perception. We can change that self-perception in a number of ways.
Sublime reactions

There are thousands of subliminal affirmations which and bring out confidence from within, yet it is through practice that we gain a level of belief  in ourselves and our behaviour.

So how can we take those first steps?

Using such mind-changing programmes, you may end up getting what you were trying to avoid: yet here is the paradox. The thing that will change your behaviour is you confronting the situation and acting differently to how you normally would.

The key to confidence is to embed the behaviour: use it more. Relax into it, even if at first it makes you anxious.

 

The four keys to confidence:
  • Experience your first success as success. Even if it ended up not as expected, the success was in the doing.
  • Develop positive psychology. See the positives of what happened. For example: “I took the chance to speak to someone first. I’ve never done that before. I kept my gaze when ordinarily I look away.” Doing something different makes us feel more confident.
  • Practise this behaviour. Copy others who you think are good role models. One lady said to me “I’d like to be as confident as the lady on the station every morning. She oozes confidence.” How does she know what the woman is actually feeling? When you are relaxed in yourself, others see your confidence shining through. Consider attending confidence courses London, to develop yourself.
  • Neutralise your old thought patterns which trigger old emotions. When you hear your ego mind saying “see, you look a twit. There you go again, getting your words all mixed up. You never learn.” Try interrupting the pattern by shifting your attention to something else, or saying ‘no’ and moving on to the next thought. You have a choice.
Believe that every step you take is a success.