Archive for the 'Motivation' Category

Sexual Immorality

Nick Roy February 21st, 2008

Several studies by Ames (1997), Gladue (1990), and Meyer-Bahlburg (1995) conclude that there is a critical period in a fetus’ development that predisposes the person to be attracted to a particular sex later in life. This critical period has to do with the brain’s neural-hormonal control system. So female fetus’ that were exposed to testosterone were more like to become lesbians later in life, while male fetus’ that were exposed to increased levels of estrogen hormone were more likely to be gay.

Everything psychological is simultaneously biological.

Related article: Love Won Out

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Relieving Stress At Work: Try Playing Video Games

Nick Roy November 12th, 2007

How do you Relieve Stress at Work? It may seem next to impossible to find time to relieve stress at work, but a few well-spent minutes can dramatically increase your productivity. With the majority of workplaces becoming more stressful everyday, coffee breaks and watercooler chitchat are out when it comes to office stress relief. Now, playing video games at work are all the rage when it comes to relieving stress at work.

An increasing number of companies are letting employees play video games at work in order to boost morale in their workplaces. Some are going as far as setting up break rooms with video games consoles to create a fun and relaxed atmosphere for their employees. Almost a quarter of white-collar workers currently play video games at work, and 84 percent say they feel more relaxed after indulging in child’s play, according to a recently released survey.

Some workers even admitted to playing video games during business meetings or conference calls, but most played during breaks or intermittently throughout the day, according to the nonscientific survey by video game provider PopCap Games. Garth Chouteau, PopCap Games Spokesman says “it is akin to doodling.”  Remarkably, “you really don’t use all of the mental bandwidth you have when you’re playing video games at work.”

More than a third of higher-level executives admitted to playing video games at work, compared to 23 percent of other white-collar workers.

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Communication Within a Carnival Setting

Nick Roy November 3rd, 2007

While doing my research for one of my classes, I found the following study by Ashley Dawn Johnston of Liberty University. The study addresses Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y management paradigm as applied toward carnival executives’ (CEs) communication to employees. Fifteen CEs were interviewed and elicited narratives that held either Theory X or Theory Y paradigm. From the narratives it was discovered that most CEs held a Theory Y paradigm toward employees. However, it was also discovered that the Theory Y paradigm may be a result of increased use of foreign labor or a swing in the carnival industry itself.

Ashley Dawn Johnston is a graduate student at Liberty University. She is currently finishing up her Master of Arts in Communication degree.

Download the full paper by Ashley Dawn Johnston, Contradiction And The Carnival: A Study Of McGregor’s Theory X And Theory Y Framework Applied To Communication Within A Carnival Setting

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Retaining Key Employees When Closing a Facility

Nick Roy August 5th, 2007

When deciding to close a facility, what are ways to ensure that key personnel remain with a company to the end of its transition. What tools would be suggested to ensure that a company have their servces for the complete time period?

For most employee’s, the instinct from hearing about the closure will be to immediately begin seeking other employment. If they wait until the actual closure to start looking, they could, depending on the local market for their skill sets, find themselves without an income. By the way, this only works if a company announces that they will be closing at some future date. If you were with a company that decided to close its doors right away, then that will create a negative image amongst the employees as well as customers.  A typical severance package is one week of pay for each year of service; some may have a specific upper limit (say, 12 or 15 weeks). For example, if you were with a company for five years, then severence pay would be five weeks. If you were with the company for twenty five years, then it would be twenty five weeks of severance pay. Have your key employees been with the organization long enough for such a package to be worth staying for? What do you plan to offer to other staff who are still with you when the facility is closed? You could also offer something like an additional month’s pay. Also outplacement assistance (interviewing skills, drawing up sums, etc). Do you plan to offer your employees outplacement services? It is considered goodwill for a company to assist the departing employees with finding other employment.

Before you do that you should give some thought to how you define “key” employee, and whether there are any demographic differences between “key” and “non-key” employees. Last thing you need is “so-and-so is getting x because he’s such-and-so, and I’m only getting y because I’m not such-and-so.” Also you should have some written agreement that in exchange for x we are giving you y. This agreement should be reviewed by an attorney with expertise in your state/locality.

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Motivation Theories

Nick Roy August 21st, 2005

According to Maslow, human needs are categorized into five levels. Each category is activated in order with the lowest level activated first and each subsequent level becoming active until the previous one is satisfied. For example, a person’s social needs cannot be satisfied without the basic and safety needs being met.

However, this is only a theory and is rarely the case in real life. Any category can be activated, or become important in any given situation. For example, different income groups have different priorities of needs. Lower income groups tend to place a high priority on social needs. Higher income groups place a higher priority on self-actualization and self-esteem, since material things like housing are taken care of.

The job itself can be motivating if the employee feels that they are using all of their skills, that they have a sense of ownership in the task, and that they receive feedback on how they are doing.

Employers who attempt to raise their employee’s pay may not be motivating them, since not everyone is motivated by money. Some people are motivated by what they are seeking, such as getting a college degree, or saving money to start their own business.

Popularity: 16% [?]

“He Hate Me”: Turning Their Bad Attitude Into Your Great Results

Nick Roy July 23rd, 2005

By Brent Filson

“He Hate Me” is one of the most famous nicknames in American football. But it’s real importance isn’t to football but leadership. Understanding the leadership lesson of He Hate Me will notably increase your leadership effectiveness.

“He Hate Me” was the nickname of Rod Smart, a leading rusher in 2002 for the Las Vegas Outlaws of the now defunct XFL pro football league. Looking for an edge, the XFL allowed players to put nicknames on their uniforms. “I was always saying, ‘he hate me,’ all through camp in Vegas,” Smart said. “If I didn’t get the ball, I’d talk to the other running backs and say, ‘he hate me, man; this coach hate me.’ I was always saying that.” Smart put He Hate Me on the back of his number 32 jersey, and now the name lives in lore even though XFL has been out of business for years.

When I first saw Rod Smart play and his “He Hate Me” jersey, I thought, “Forget about football. That’s a leadership lesson!” That’s because “He Hate Me” and leadership often go hand-in-hand.

Clearly, leadership is not about winning a popularity contest, it’s about getting results — not just average results but more results faster continually. To lead people to get the latter,you often must challenge them to do not want they want to do but what they don’t want to do.

That’s where “He Hate Me” comes in. When you move people from being comfortable getting average results to being uncomfortable doing what’s needed to get great results, strong feelings, hatred and anger, are often triggered. Having people resent you, even hate you, comes with the territory of being a leader. In fact, if you are not getting a portion of the people you lead angry with you, you may not be challenging them enough.

This does not mean you let their anger fester. You absolutely must deal with it. After all, you can’t motivate angry, resentful, “He Hate Me” people to be your cause leaders.

Here is my four-step process to help you deal with angry people you lead. (1) RECOGNIZE. (2) IDENTIFY. (3) VALIDATE. (4)TRANSLATE.

RECOGNIZE: Recognize that if you don’t face up to the anger of the people you lead, that anger will eventually wind up stabbing you in the back.

Many leaders could care less about people’s anger. They say in effect: “People should do what I tell them to do. Period. Their feelings are irrelevant.” If ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ is your way of leading, don’t engage in this process. I submit, however, that such leadership is far less effective than the leadership that motivates people to be your ardent cause leaders.

Making motivation happen involves first understanding if people are angry with you or not. Often, people won’t tell you they are angry. They’ll try hide it from you either out of embarrassment, trepidation, or wanting a sense of control.

Here are ways you can recognize that people are angry with you. The first is that you can see it on their faces or their body language. The second is that you can tell it in a drop off in their performance. The third is that you hear from other people they are angry. The fourth is they actually tell you they are angry.

IDENTIFY: Identify the causes of their anger. This may not be as simple or as easy as you think. They may be angry, but they may not want to talk about why they are angry or even admit to you that they are. Don’t back them in a corner. Don’t make judgments. Don’t get angry yourself. Get interested. Don’t say, for instance, “You’re angry … ” Instead, ask open-ended questions like, “Are you angry with me?” — a question that seems on the surface only slightly different but that will make a big difference in the consequences of your interactions with them.

Once you and they have identified that they are angry, come to an agreement as to the actual reasons why. Drill through superficial reasons to the bedrock of why. They may say they are angry because you are giving them more work to do. But digging further, you may find out that they believe the supposed extra work will set them up for failure, and they might lose their jobs. So, they are really angry not simply for work-load reasons but for job security reasons.

VALIDATE: Validate their anger. Their anger is real and important to them. It’s who they perceive themselves to be (at the moment they feel angry) in their relationship with you. Many people embrace their anger. They may see it as the one thing that they can control in an environment in which they feel out of control. If you try to ignore that anger or belittle it, they will feel you are belittling them.
Tell them that you know they are angry and that you want to find out why. Avoid saying things like, “I know you’re angry … but … ” That “but” can harden them against you. Saying, “Help me understand why you feel angry about what I’m doing.” can get you farther than the “but.” This is not to condone their anger nor approve of it but simply to come to an agreement with them that it exists and that you intend to do something about it in a way that will be mutually beneficial.

TRANSLATE: Their anger is your opportunity, an opportunity to translate their anger into your results. Because, as you’ll see, their anger can be great raw material for results.

People get angry for many reasons. * Their time is being wasted. * Their individual worth is not respected. * They feel threatened. * Their efforts are not appreciated. 5. They are not given voice or choice in their work. * Their values are not recognized or given credence. * Their leaders cannot do their jobs well. * Their leaders focus on their own needs. * Their leaders don’t understand and acknowledge their needs. * Their leaders don’t provide clear direction. * They are being overworked. 11. They are being set up to fail.

Here is a process for translating their anger into your results.

I call it the problem/solution/action process. The key to this process is that people’s anger usually stems from an unresolved problem. A. With their help, identify the problem. B. Come to an agreement with them as to the causes of that problem. C. Help them find a solution. D. Challenge them to take action to solve the problem. E. Link that action to increases in results.

You can apply this process to any of the aforementioned reasons people get angry. As an example, let’s apply it to the first reason. Often, a key challenge in getting others to take new action is their complaining you are wasting their time.

A. Draw up two lists, one composed of the aspects of their job they believe waste their time, and the other of the aspects they feel are crucial.

B. Come to an agreement with them on which aspects are truly a waste of their time and which aren’t. Without such agreement, they may remain angry with you. For instance, they may feel that their having to complete a particular report or aspects of that report wastes their time. If you think that such reports are absolutely essential, you cannot continue this process unless you convince them that the reports are essential or that you will change them to make them essential.

C. Once you come to that agreement, work on each aspect in the “waste of time” list by applying this analytical tool: Decide if you want to leave it alone, change it, or eliminate it. There is no fourth choice!

D. If you have chosen to change it, have them suggest actions they will take to do so. Note the sequence here. Your first step in changing an aspect is to elicit from them what needs to be changed and the actions required to affect the change. If need be, you can always veto their choice. But if you first let them make that choice, you may find that they have delineated actions that tap a new vein of results. At the very least, they will be committed to those actions, since they go right to the heart of solving the problem of their anger.

E. Link those actions to increases in results. For instance, now that they have reduced, eliminated or changed a particular aspect of their job that was a problem for them, how will that translate into money saved/earned?

Be advised: You may be confronted by “professionally angry” people who will be angry and stay angry no matter what you do. Just being you or just being a leader or just being you as a leader gets them angry, and nothing you can do or say seems to change that. But keep working the four-step process. It’s your best way of remedying even the “professionals” anger.

About the Author
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at www.actionleadership.com

Popularity: 15% [?]

Learn To Manage People

Nick Roy July 2nd, 2005

By Arthur Cooper

If you are a manager you are by definition dealing with people. You are managing them. As such, to be successful you must be able to build up a rapport with those you are managing.

If you are to get the best from your staff you must be able to encourage them, cajole them, or otherwise persuade them. Of course ultimately you may have to discipline them, but this is a last resort.

Why is it then that so many managers are so bad at dealing with people?

For those who have risen up the ranks of a large company this can be a consequence of being appointed as a reward for competence or even excellence at their previous job, but of never having being trained in management. They may have been excellent at what they did before but need to be guided, mentored, and coached for their new people-oriented role.

A large company really has no excuse not to provide the training needed. It has the experience of others to draw on and it has (or should have) the dedicated resources and structures in place to train internally or to buy in training from specialists. The consequences of not training its staff can be disastrous to a company’s future. If it does not appreciate the absolute necessity doing so then it deserves to fail. If your company won’t train you, think hard about changing companies.

Some employees find themselves in another kind of situation. For those who’s job and responsibilities have grown in line with the growth of their company the opportunities for training are not so obvious. Those who started in a company made up of just a handful of people find themselves in positions of authority and power in a company employing scores or even hundreds of people, simply by virtue of having been with the company from the start. What was a small concern has metamorphosed into a much larger set up with hierarchies and levels of authority that simply were not there at the outset.

What are they to do? Are they to learn their management skills by making mistakes, both costly to the company and disrupting and upsetting to the employees? Or is it better to try to learn from the previous mistakes and experience of others? After all, learning from the experience of others is what training is all about. Leadership and management skills are possibly the most important to get right first time because what you do directly affects all those you manage. You cannot manage in isolation. You cannot make your mistakes in secret.

So if you find yourself in this position, with no formal company training laid on, you must take your own training in hand yourself. Take advantage of what advice and guidance you can lay your hands on. If the experience is not available within your company you must seek it elsewhere – from conversations with other businessmen, at seminars, and from the mentoring and coaching available from specialist organisations. Take advantage of books, self study courses, and the wealth of opportunity for learning that exists on the internet.

The internet is rich with possibilities to improve your knowledge and skills. This is true of so-called people skills just as much as for the more technical subjects. You will need to practice your skills with real people in real life, of course, but there are many good interactive training programs available with built-in coaching and feedback on a personal basis from real experts.

You must look after your personal skills training. You must do it. You must do it for your own sake if not for the sake of the company. You cannot afford to be left behind. Who knows the future of the company? You may be old friends of the owner, but what if he sells the business? Could you compete in a new environment being swept clean by new brooms? You may hold a senior role under the current regime, but would you be an overpriced anachronism under the new? You may have a long practical experience, but will that be valued in a new qualification oriented environment if you can’t speak the language or don’t know the specialist terms?

So if your management skills leave something to be desired or if your leadership skills are in need of a boost, don’t wait for others to point it out. Take the lead. Manage your own life. Take charge of yourself and do something about it. Now.

About the Author:
Arthur Cooper is a business consultant, writer and publisher. For his mini-course ‘Better Management’ go to: http://www.barrel-publishing.com/better_management.shtml Arthur Cooper may be contacted at http://www.barrel-publishing.com/

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