Working in marketing and sales, there is a continuous need for change and development. Independent of the type of business you might have, you have to evolve and create. When people says “this is the new economy”, most of the time they are referring to changes in sales and marketing and not much on how the macro economy is evolving. Honestly, how many people do you know that actual understands what macro economy is?
What drives people? What drives employees? What drives me?
I started my research, which is basically to read books like a crazy person. Having my iPad2 with Kindle app is great. Every moment of idle-time was used to read up on motivation. It doesn’t happen often but when it does it is great! It just hit me. It is super simple.
How do you motivate people?
Well, a simple answer, you don’t! It is impossible to manually motivate people. How do I know that? Here is what I have tried with moderate or no success. Before you read the list, success is like paint. You have to add more and maintain!
- Financial incentives; fails as there is always someone that will offer more than you. There is always a way of calculating the total to be less then the amount someone else offers.
- Gadgets, stuff & gifts; fun at start, “gadget” have a very short half-life. If used right, small gifts boost moral and shows honest gratitude and appreciation.
- Ultimatums and threats; Well, haven’t much experience of delivering or getting these. I know of other areas that these work pretty good until people find another job. They don’t think about quitting, they will quit!
- Hard Facts; I have used it in many different occasions. It is a very good method. However, the people in the meeting have to be in the same mindset and status. If you deliver hard facts to someone not willing to listen, the outcome will be negative.
Only one technique for motivating people and it is…
The way I see it, there is only one way of motivating people. It consists of three steps.
- Mastery, be really good at what you do. If you have employees, see to that they are really good at what they do.
- Purpose, create and give purpose to what you do. If you can understand and create purpose, regardless of your occupation. The boundaries of work/employment/hobby will fade.
- Autonomy, put yourself in the center. If there is a problem, well it is YOURS! Yours to solve that is. Don’t wait, blame or procrastinate. Just do it! Focus on delivering rather than finesse!
If you can get the above three steps; well, you are on your way to total motivation. It is a funny feeling! If you don’t feel motivated, well, only you can fix it!
Any thoughts or other tricks you might have is most welcome, provide feedback and comments below!
Daniel Pink, one of my favorite authors. He boiled down many of aspects of productivity and effectivity in his book Drive. If you haven’t read it yet, do it now. I wrote a short review of the book as well.
Here is an excellent TED talk.
Thank you Dane for your comment. I agree in that showmanship or your art of presenting and telling stories is a veyr important part of our life. Not just work, but in many aspects of our lives.
Interesting remark regarding Los Angeles culture. Would be interesting to read more about the non-entertainment business and how it is effected by the “image” of the town.
Cheers,
Shahram
I was impacted by your statement to “focus on delivering rather than finesse.” As someone who lived in Hollywood for 20 years, I eventually had to train myself to be weary of charisma.
Showmanship is not just in the entertainment business anymore, it’s now a part of the entire Los Angeles culture.
Over time, I learned that I don’t need a show, I need results — and I learned to expect that from myself, too.
Thank you for a thought-provoking post, Shahram!
{ twitter = @danenow }