Posts Tagged ‘motivation’

If you are good at what you do and are the type of person who gets things done, sooner or later you will find yourself in the position where you have to manage others. While some make that shift from being the doer to the manager with easy, others find it a struggle.

So what actions could you take to become an even better manager?

Action 1: Be Honest With Yourself

It is really easy to fall into the trap of believing that because you are the manager you need to be the best at everything. The reality is you don’t and cannot be the best at everything. Stop pretending that you know it all.

Action 2: Invest Time To Save Time

One thing so many managers complain of is having too much to do and not enough time. However unlike a computer you cannot buy an upgrade in the amount of tome you have. So what’s the answer? Make a one off investment of time to train someone else and then assign responsibility for a task to them.

Action 3: Find Out What Motivates

On just about every management and leadership course I run people bring up motivation as an issue. When I ask them when was the last time they asked employees what motivates them, most acknowledge it was no time recently. If you don’t know what motivates others you are always going to find it a struggle.

Action 4: Don’t Avoid Problems

It might be tempting to avoid problems in the hope that they will somehow disappear into thin air. In reality this never happens. The problem just gets worse. Deal with them rather than letting them hang around like a bad odour.

Action 5: Show Trust

Trust takes time to gain and can be lost in minutes. Truth is the best way to gain trust is to show others you trust them.

Action 6: Never Forget What It Was Like At The Bottom

As people climb the career ladder it is easy to lose sight of what life was like when you were just starting out. Always try and stay connected to what it is really like at the bottom of the hierarchy when you had little or no experience.

Action 7: Delegate A Lot

Delegation is vital to your success and has many benefits in terms of developing and growing others. It also gives a huge message to others that you really trust them.

Action 8: Try Not To Criticise In Public

Yes this requires a lot of self discipline but when you criticise in public you run the risk of losing the respect of the individual and potentially your whole team.

Action 9: Praise and Acknowledge

When you praise someone it lets others know you are noticing and care about them. Remember too that you can acknowledge effort as well as results.

Action 10: Accept That It Is Ongoing Work In Progress

Despite what you might read you never reach the point where you are the perfect manager. You have to keep learning and growing in order to continue to deliver success.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps highly rated professionals to become high performing leaders and managers. He invites you to sign up for his free management mastery course

Motivation is often a big challenge for leaders and managers. In this short video blog post I share some tips and insights.

Please leave a comment with your best tips.

Motivating a team of people is one of the biggest challenges facing leaders and managers.

Trouble is so many managers and leaders believe, often incorrectly, that money is a motivator. Yes, people need to feel like they are fairly rewarded for what they deliver. However, as research shows, money in itself is not a long term motivator.

So how do you find out what motivates people? Well, you could simply ask them. After all, it’s important enough to ask at the time of recruiting, why would it not be useful to check with people you have not employed periodically?

Once you have an idea what motivates people, you might want to:

1. Regularly praise people when they have done a good job.
2. Learn to see challenges and problems from their perspective and acknowledge their point of view.
3. Give them new challenges or opportunities to build their skills.
4. Get them to deputise for you at a meeting or while you are on holiday.
5. Make time for staying in touch with your people rather than just being tied to your desk.
6. Understand and help them to achieve their career aspirations.

The reality is that a lot of motivation is common sense. Sadly, it is often common sense which is not all that common.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Keeping people motivated is probably one of the biggest challenges that a manager faces. So what are the top tips to be a better and more successful motivator?

Tip 1: Set clear goals

Everyone wants clarity about what they are expected to deliver. Make a point of setting crystal clear goals.

Tip 2: Listen more and speak less

People understand that decisions have to be made. At the same time, they want to feel like they have had the opportunity to contribute. Listening to the ideas of others can be hugely beneficial to motivating others.

Tip 3: Praise regularly

Make a point of praising people, not just for achievements but also for effort. Sometimes just having a go leads to confidence and motivation being lifted.

Tip 4: Encourage others

Managers who take the time to encourage and support others get that time returned in bucket loads.

Tip 5: Show them they can count on you

Sometimes, when things are not going well, the team will find themselves under incredible stress. At these times, you as the manager or leader need to show the team that you can be relied upon to stand up for them.

The bottom line

The truth is motivation is rarely about money but about doing some simple things well.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. For more information click here

As a manager, major part of your role is to get the best from the people that you manage.  You know that a motivated employee will go that extra step to deliver or help you to deliver results.  So what are the 5 golden rules when it comes to motivating?

 

Rule 1:  Get to know your people

                                                                                                        

Yes you probably know who all of your staff are, their job title and what they do.  On the other hand do you really know what it is that motivates the people you manage.  While everyone needs to earn a wage, each of us has different things that motivate us.  For some it will be being supported, for others it will be about having autonomy and others might thrive on challenge.  If you don’t know what motivates people you could easily end up de-motivating people by using inappropriate strategies.

 

Rule 2: Make time for those that you manage

 

Most managers are busy people and no doubt you are to.  When you have your deadlines to meet and results to deliver it is all too easy to forget about the people that you manage.  If you fail to set aside time for interacting with the people that you manage it simply will not happen.  If your boss never made any time for you, how motivated would you be?

 

Rule 3:  Make a point of noticing effort and achievement

 

The best mangers realise that time spent letting people know that you are aware of the effort they are making or the result that they have delivered is time well spent.  All of us to a greater or lesser extent thrive on getting feedback so don’t lose out on the opportunity.

 

Rule 4: Create a sense of excitement

 

All jobs after a while become more routine and less fresh and exciting.  As the manager you need to try and keep that sense of excitement in roles.  This might be by challenging people to find new or better ways of doing something or giving them more freedom to do things their way.

 

Rule 5: Remember it is rarely about money

 

Yes everyone needs to earn what they view is a reasonable rate of pay for the time, expertise and effort that they have given.  On the other hand study after study into what matters to employees reveal that the source of dissatisfaction is rarely just about money.  Make a point of keeping the things that make people tick at the forefront of your mind.

 

 

Bottom Line – A happy, motivated team of people who you manage can help you deliver great results.  So what do you need to give more attention to in order to be a more successful manager?

We are all unique.  What motivates one person might be a complete turn-off for another.  If you know what motivates you, you can use these motivators to getting you going when you are stuck, lethargic or procrastinating.  Sources of motivation include:

• Deadlines
• Fear
• Rewards
• Appreciation
• Contributing
• Visioning
• Producing outputs
• Connection
• Feedback
• Change
• Progression
• Challenge
• Stability

During the next few days take time to identify:

• Your motivators
• How you use them
• How you could use them more

One of the biggest challenges you will face as a leader is staying motivated and motivating others.  People often believe that there is some magic potion around motivation but the reality is that it can be tough.

Self Motivation

Self motivation is key as a leader, so how might you do it:

1. Set yourself personal goals for each day
2. Stay in a positive frame of mind
3. Try to avoid long discussions with people who are negative
4. Get use to looking at different perspectives
5. Celebrate successes – you could even record these

Being self motivated is not about wandering about with a huge smile on your face but having the determination to keep pushing on even when times are tough.

Motivating Others

If you think that cracking the whip is the way to motivating then you are way off the mark.  Some of the simplest things are the most powerful:

1. Make time to interact with others
2. Listen to their concerns
3. Help them to explore different perspectives
4. Acknowledge a job done well
5. Say thank you!

A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself how you would like to be treated as this will often guide you in difficult times.

I have been running a survey recently on newsletter topics that my readers would find most helpful and motivation is a theme that is continually being highlighted. With so much uncertainty in many industries and sectors right now because of the challenging economic conditions, it is easy to see why keeping people motivated would be a major challenge for managers.

So what would be my top tips for keeping people motivated in these challenging times?

Tip 1:  Make time for people

Yes you might have so much to do that you think you cannot sit down with individuals and your team to discuss challenges and what you can collectively do about them.  The reality is that a short regular meeting can go a long way to keeping spirits up.  It takes little or no time and the payback will be significant.

Tip 2:  Listen more

You might have heard the phrase a problem shared is a problem halved.  In other words sometimes people just need you to listen to and acknowledge their worries and fears, even if they know that there is no immediate answer or solution.

Tip 3: Say thank you

It never ceases to amaze me that managers forget about the cheapest and sometimes most powerful form of motivation which is to say thank you when people have met the deadline, pulled out the stops and generally done that little bit extra to deliver.  Even a two line e-mail can have a positive impact.

At the end of the day keeping people motivated is a key part of your success as a manager right now.  Let me have your thoughts and tips on what works when it comes to keeping people motivated. 

One of the key roles of anyone who is managing is to get results through others.  To get others to deliver results for you, it is vital that you motivate them.  Managers often believe that pay and rewards are the key things that motivate people.  Without doubt pay and rewards play a part of motivating people you manage but contrary to common belief, they are not the primary motivators of the majority of staff. 

The truth is that is often things that cost little or nothing which motivate.  For example:

• Saying thank you when people have put in extra effort
• Praising people when they have done a good job
• Offering opportunities to acquire new skills or experience

What do you find is most powerful when it comes to motivating others?