Prozac for angels

Motivation sometimes seems a lot like magic. Some people can do it. Other people can’t. Your boss tells you that you need to “motivate your people,” but doesn’t tell you how.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “motivate” as “to give someone a motive.” It goes on to define “motive” as something that causes a person to act. In business you’re told to “motivate” the people who work for you. In police work, we’re told, you solve a crime by figuring out the motive.

I’ve got the motive, which is money, and the body, which is dead!

In the movie, In the Heat of the Night, Police Chief Bill Gillespie is sure he knows who committed the murder that Detective Tibbs was originally arrested for. After all, Chief Gillespie has figured out the motive, or so he thinks.

But he was wrong. You’ll be wrong, too, if you think you can figure out people’s motivations. You can only guess at motivation.

You can observe behavior, what people say and do. You can observe performance. Since that’s all you can observe, that’s all you can manage.

Don’t worry about the horse being blind. Just load the wagon

When John Madden was the coach of the Oakland Raiders his players sometimes challenged him when he asked them to do something. Rather than explain in detail, Madden would just reply: “Don’t worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon.”

In other words, don’t worry about the things you can’t control. Spend your time on the things you can control.

You can’t get inside someone else’s head and make him or her want to do something. You can’t control another person’s behavior.

But you can control your own behavior. And you can use your behavior to influence the choices that other people make and the actions other people take.

Tell your people what you want. Then make sure they understand.

Do things that support what you say. We call this “walking your talk.”

It’s simple. If you pay attention to productivity numbers, so will the people who work for you. If you comment on people’s appearance, they will pay attention to appearance.

It can work the other way, too. If you pay attention to how neatly reports are formatted instead of paying attention to the content, your people will catch on. If they have to make a choice they’ll spend their time and effort on making reports look good, rather than beefing up content.

In the end, managing is all about behavior. But it’s not about misbehavior.

Ain’t misbehavin’.

I was a bright, active, talkative child in a world where children were expected to sit still and be quiet. Consequently, I was in trouble a lot when I was in school

Time after time my teachers would call my mother and ask her to come down to school because I was “misbehaving.” When they used that word, it was a certainty like night following day that they would get one of mom’s favorite lectures.

Mom would turn her mom look on Miss Smith or Mrs. Sally or Mr. Schnabel. “There is no such thing as ‘misbehavior,’” she would say. “There is only behavior.”

“You are calling what my son does ‘misbehavior’ because he’s not doing what you want him to do. But he’s got a reason. Now let’s see if we can figure out what we can do so he’ll want to do what you think he should do.”

If more bosses had listened to my mom, more workers would be productive and happy. That’s because people do things for their reasons, not yours. Your job is to figure out how to make their reasons work for you.

You can’t control their reasons or choices, but you can control the consequences of their behavior. As one of my trainees once put it: “The just should be rewarded and the unjust punished in accordance with their deeds.” There are two kinds of consequences, positive and negative.

If at first they don’t succeed, praise, praise again.

Praise is the most common and easiest to deliver positive consequence. Recognition, awards, promotions and special privileges are also positive consequences.

Use praise to encourage. Encourage them to try new or uncomfortable things by praising their efforts. Encourage them to continue doing good things by praising their work. There are simple rules for praise.

Praise specific actions or performance that you want to encourage. Don’t praise people just to praise them.

Deliver praise inconsistently. Don’t praise every good thing or your praise loses its power. But most US managers are nowhere close to praising too much. They don’t praise enough.

That’s why there’s one more rule. You should look for opportunities to praise that meet the criteria above.

Stop in the name of love.

A reprimand or correction is a negative consequence. So are formal punishment and discipline.

You use negative consequences like reprimand to get people to stop behavior or performance that you don’t want. Be specific about the behavior or performance you want to change. Many times you will get best results with a mix of negative consequence for unacceptable behavior and praise for efforts to change.

Negative consequences of all kinds should be delivered consistently. If you promise that it will happen, make sure you keep your promise.

Be wary, though. Remember Mark Twain’s Hot Stove Rule. Twain noted that a cat who sits on a hot stove will not sit on a hot stove again. But he won’t sit on a cold stove either.

If you use negative consequences too much or exclusively, your people will stop the behavior you want to stop. But they’ll also stop trying.

Wouldn’t it be magic?

The science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke said that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” In other words, if you can’t figure out how it’s done, it will look like magic to you.

If you use your behavior to influence the behavior of the people who work for you, it will look like magic to others. “Wow,” they’ll say, “That manager sure is a motivator.”

The word encouragement emanates from the Latin word Cor, meaning heart. It means to give courage, confidence or hope. Having courage is having the ability to disregard fear and to be brave. The easiest way to be brave and fearless is to listen to and follow your heart. To further your level of success you must establish a system for self-encouragement.

Pursue activities that you feel passionate about.

Performing activities that you enjoy and that are fulfilling will help you to build momentum toward your life of EASE. As mentioned in Step Three of the Creating Your Life of EASE chapter, in the Activate your Life Book, it is the feelings that achieving your goals will give you that make them fulfilling in the first place. The most important aspect of establishing your system for encouragement is to focus your attention on the feelings that achieving your ideal life will give you. There is no point performing activities that do not make you feel compelled to perform them. You will know if the activity is correct for you by instinct and by the feelings you get when you perform them. Before setting any goal or performing any activity, ask yourself the following questions:

Why do I want to achieve this goal?

What is the underlying feeling it will give me?

What does this mean to me?

Is this feeling compelling enough to maintain my motivation in the long term?

Self-acknowledgement

An excellent way to encourage yourself, and to become more aware of your progress, is to acknowledge yourself for your achievements. Often we get caught up in the things that we havent achieved in our lives, which take our focus away from what is really happening.

If you are struggling to see any personal progress I recommend writing a list of everything you have achieved in your life. This will very quickly give you a different perspective on your life and the progress you are making toward your goals.

Perhaps the best way to acknowledge yourself is to reward yourself every time you achieve a significant goal. Rewarding yourself builds motivation and confidence. Each time you achieve a goal, CELEBRATE! You deserve it!

Rewards also close-off the energy that was created while moving toward the goal. If you dont acknowledge yourself for achieving a goal, it will actually become unfinished business and, even though you have achieved it, some past energy will be stored thus not making 100% of your energy available in the present.

Design a list of rewards that you can give yourself for achieving your goals. These could be tangible rewards such as a dinner out with friends, a new piece of clothing, a pampering day at the spa or a well-earned holiday, or intangible rewards such as feelings. You will notice, as you begin to achieve your goals, that the feelings of achieving the goal are often the greatest rewards. The feelings of strong self-confidence, self-belief and heightened self-worth that come with achieving your goals are priceless.

Self-appreciation

Another excellent way of encouraging yourself is to have gratitude for all of the things you have in your life. Often we get caught up in the negative things or the things that we dont have or dont want in our lives, and this takes our focus away from all the positive things that we do have.

If you are struggling to find the positives about yourself, I recommend keeping a pen and paper beside your bed, and each night before you go to sleep writing down everything that happened during the day that you are grateful for. Within no time you will have a very different perspective on yourself, your life and the things and people in it.

Accountability and support group

Identifying key people in your life that you can share your vision of an ideal life with and asking them for their encouragement and support to help you to achieve it is a great way to encourage yourself. Even better, why not all support each other and form an EASE creation group, where you meet regularly to discuss your goals and vision for your life of EASE. In doing this you will not only encourage each other and feel supported, but you will also keep each other accountable to follow through on your plans.

List the people you would like to have in your EASE creation group.

If you follow just one or two of the suggestions in this article I guarantee you will start to build a greater sense of internal motivation which can only lead to you achieving all of your goals in a lot easier fashion.

“Being an elite performer on the playing field of life is not about being perfect. Rather, it is about cultivating a mental focus towards mastery in every area of your life. It is about committing yourself, from the core of your heart, to manifest and polish your highest talents and become the person you are destined to be.”
Robin S. Sharma

Her name was Cindy, but around the office, she was better known as “Solitaire Cindy.” Whenever I walked by her desk, the Solitaire screen on her PC was running. Frankly, it bugged me. Why should Solitaire Cindy game her day away while I busted my hump in my job, along with my fellow employees? I asked her manager how she felt about that. She sighed, “For what we pay Cindy, she does a decent job, so she’s earned the right to futz around.”

I even talked with Cindy myself, hoping to encourage her. But, she shrugged as she flipped a card with a click of her mouse.

It was like a Mexican standoff.

Cindy wasn’t motivated. But I blame management. They neither confronted her nor gave her any motivation. Like so many managers, they took the path of least resistance. People would prefer to put up with mediocrity than make waves with employees.

You Have Choices on How to Address Mediocrity in Your Sales and Marketing Organization.

For instance, would you:

• Disconnect Cindy’s Solitaire software to force her to step up to the plate?
• Confront her, running the risk of annoying her and losing her (and finding her replacement)?
• Ignore Cindy’s overall mediocre performance because of the things she does do well, risking a ripple effect on the other employees who work hard while Cindy follows her own path of least resistance?
• Initiate a meaningful dialogue with her to find out why she’d rather play computer Solitaire than be a proactive worker in your sales organization?

If you were like some of my large business-to-business sales organization clients, you probably think installing programs to monitor and restrict employees’ Internet access is the answer. But that only treats the symptom, not the disease.

If you were like most misguided managers then you feel it’s not your job to inspire excellence. You would choose to ignore Cindy’s overall mediocre performance. I’m sorry but chances are your sales team will not magically motivate themselves. You must address mediocrity issues ASAP so they don’t snowballs into a major problem.

An effective sales team leader would:

• Initiate a meaningful dialogue with their sales team
• Remember all members of their sale team are individuals with motivations as different as their work styles
• Respect and respond to those differences so their sales team performs above and beyond expectations
• Understand their employees like they understand their customers
• Find out what their sales team truly values

You risk losing your best workers if you don’t discover ways for them to feel successful and accomplished in their positions. And, the only way to understand what people value is to engage. That’s why I strongly suggest that you talk with your sales team. Really listen to what success means to them!
8 Questions You Must Ask Your Sales Team So You Can Take Them to the Next Level

Armed with the answers to these 8 questions, you can implement meaningful reward systems, programs, and promotions that’ll turn mediocre employees into happy and productive sales performers.

1. What do you feel is going well for you at our company?

2. What have you accomplished so far that you’re really proud of?

3. What else besides a bigger paycheck would make you feel more successful at work? In life?

4. What would you have to accomplish in order to feel successful five years from now in your sales career?

5. What do you enjoy most about your sales job?

6. What two things would you most like to achieve in the next six months?

7. In order to make your sales career more interesting, what would you like to do more of? Less of?”

8. How do you define success?

Get Your Sales Team Motivated

If you want your sales team to feel successful and triumphant in their jobs, you must make them feel valued. I can’t even begin to count the number of times clients have called asking to help them motivate their employees. Over and over, they tell me their business would improve if only Joe or Jenny Worker would “step up to the plate” or “put in that extra effort.” But all they have to do is ask their employees what motivates them, and how they want to be motivated!

Remember, motivated employees have the drive to succeed. So start asking questions and motivate your sales team today, so you can grow your business tomorrow!

The U.S. Export-Import Bank is committed to providing financing for American exports to many countries in Africa. There are substantial opportunities for American companies to sell to the South African countries that in 2006 purchased over 12 Billion dollars of U.S. exports.

The market opportunities in Africa are ginormous. With a total market size of over 400 billion dollars and a population of over 680 million people, the continent is hungry for food, housing, energy, transportation products, health products and services, and sanitation facilities.

In the health care market there is an enormous need for quality pharmaceuticals. Fake drugs are a problem in Africa. Similarly, quality health care services are lacking. The large African health market is in need of companies to distribute medicines and other health related consumer products and essential prevention and treatment products.

In the telecommunications market there is a great need for increased mobile phone services. There is also a need for pre-paid test messaging services; eventually, Africa will catch up to the internet/computer revolution.

The water market presents new opportunities as cities grow faster than the water infrastructure can expand. There is an urgent need for devices to abate pollution caused by industrialization, agricultural runoff and lack of sanitation services. In these areas, high tech inventions that are relatively inexpensive to sanitize water will create social and health benefits for millions of people.

In national energy markets Africa is a century behind the times. Kerosene is the main fuel source for lighting. Firewood is the primary fuel source for cooking in urban and rural markets. There is a tremendous need for solar powered LED lighting, high tech home cook stoves and alternative cleantech energy sources.

The Export-Import Bank of the United States is the official export credit agency of the United States. Their mission is to assist in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets. They provide working capital guarantees to U.S. companies in the form of pre-export financing. They also provide export credit insurance and loan guarantees to facilitate transactions. They also provide buyer financing. A select number of U.S Banks partner with the Ex-Im Bank to provide working capital loans, accounts receivable financing, bridge loans and long term financing. For more information regarding the Ex-Im Bank visit their website.

The bottom line: With a willing U.S. seller and a credit-worthy African buyer, the United States Export-Import Bank is anxious to help facilitate exports to the vast Sub-Saharan African marketplace.

Copyright © 2007 Gregg Financial Services

www.greggfinancialservices.com