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  • No Excuses

    Most people won't become an entrepreneur or even a manager because of their fear of failure. But, everyone has self-doubt - even successful entrepreneurs and managers. If you have ever struggled to accomplish a goal, Kyle Maynard's story will encourage you. Most of the problems you have faced do not come anywhere near the problems he has faced. Watching this video and reading his book, No Excuses , will inspire you. Kyle faces challenges without "excuses." What goal have you been putting off because of self-doubt? How has Kyle's story motivated you to want to accomplish the goal?

  • Employee Resolutions for 2013

    Happy New Year! What are your New Year's resolutions for 2013? Will you make better grades? Will you lose weight? Will you increase your exercise? Those are some of the most popular resolutions made by people every year. The annual Glassdoor survey looks at feedback from more than 2,000 U.S. based employees and job seekers. From this research, a list of employees' work-related resolutions is developed. For 2013, almost one in three (32%) want to get a raise, one in four (24%) want to develop their leadership skills, and another one in four (23%) plan to look for a new job. Other top priorities among employees for 2013 are below: What are your 2013 work-related resolutions? (If you don't work, ask several workers for their top work-related resolutions for 2013.)
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  • The Most Valuable People

    Most of us associate MVP with sports; the most valuable player (MVP) does the most for the team. In their book, ADMIRED 21 Ways to Double Your Value , Mark C. Thompson and Bonita S. Thompson apply MVP to business and say, "The Most Valuable People create other MVPs by helping others reach their goals and realize their potential." This is especially important for managers. Your manager should make sure that you have all the resources you need to do your job. The Thompsons studied people who enjoyed their work and found it meaningful. Valued traits included supportive/helpful, straight-forward/clear, hardworking/ambitious, cooperative, honest, loyal, fun loving/friendly, and family focused. For example, a salesperson sells solutions and value, not products. Suggestion No. 5 in the book says, "Start where you are." Before others can have confidence in you, you have to be really good at what you do. Others must believe that you can help them. How can you contribute to the success of others in ways that they will notice?
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  • Tips for Motivating Virtual Teams

    "About 43 percent of HR professionals predict that the demand for workplace flexibility will have a strategic impact on operations in years to come, according to the February 2011 Workplace Forecast by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM )." One option for workplace flexibility is telecommuting, which is most often associated with working from home. It could also include offices that accommodate employees who don't need permanent desks. Examples include hoteling where mobile workers reserve workstations at the office and reserving telesuites with videoconferencing technology to meet virtually with clients and fellow employees in other locations. Past growth is depicted in the graphic below. The Vaya Group , a talent management consultancy, recommends the following tips for motivating virtual teams: Invest time upfront to form relationships, despite the distance - Getting to know team members is critical, even when face-to-face interaction is limited. Take time to learn about each worker's career aspirations, strengths, development gaps and style. Recognize accomplishments in unique ways - Recognition is a powerful driver for keeping employees engaged in their work. Consider creating a team newsletter that highlights individual efforts or host yearly award banquets over the web. For both personal and professional milestones, send employees customized gifts, whether it's a gift card, flower arrangement or gift basket. Schedule regular coaching sessions - Frequent phone or video conferences with employees will allow you to present new assignments that align with their interests and strengths. Remember to use these or separate conversations as a way to gather feedback. Listening provides an opportunity to learn more about remote workers and ways their work experience can be improved. Create interactive ways for teams to communicate - Allowing work teams to engage across distances can lead to higher career satisfaction and sense of belonging. Go beyond email to develop an interactive team intranet that allows individuals to share ideas, post accomplishments and ask questions. Utilize web conferencing, web cameras and other virtual systems that permit more real-time conversations. Enable opportunities for periodic face-to-face interaction - Schedule face-to-face team kick-off meetings and regularly scheduled subsequent live meetings. These face-to-face meetings can be incorporated with team-building exercises to give staff additional opportunities to develop a personal connection and build camaraderie. If meetings are infrequent, create virtual team-building games, such as having everyone send in little-known facts, then displaying it for the group to guess who it describes. Read the attached Vaya Group whitepaper. Which ideas do you think would motivate a remote team? Explain.
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  • Motivate Employees with Contests

    Jim Sullivan shares seven contests to motivate restaurant employees. Contests include The Perfect Guest Check, Sales Bingo, Floating Ten, Scavenger Hunt, Team Poker, Beat Your Best, and Who Can Introduce the Manager to More Customers? How could each of these contests be used by a manager in a non-sales environment to motivate employees? Which contest would motivate you the most?
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  • Enchant Employees

    In last week's post, I blogged about Daniel Pink's ideas on motivation . Guy Kawasaki uses Pink's ideas and talks about MAP - Master new skills; Autonomous - work independently; Purpose - work toward a higher purpose to make the world a better place. Kawasaki's book is Enchantment. In this video he talks about "How to Enchant Your Employees." Managers should empower people and be willing to do the dirty job - do whatever it takes. How can managers show people who work for them that they will do what it takes?
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  • Motivate People Today

    In his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us , Daniel Pink examines three elements of motivation-autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers techniques for putting these into action. He notes that people perform best when they strive for mastery and believe that their task is meaningful. He stresses that managers should strive to understand employees' thinking and behavioral preferences. This helps get the workforce aligned with management. Ten ways to motivate from Pink's book are listed below. Analytical types want to know that a project is valuable. People who are structural by nature want to know their work aids the company. They like to be rewarded in writing. An encouraging email is an appropriate way to communicate with them. Social people want to feel personally valued. They prefer to be rewarded in ways that touch the heart. Written notes are appreciated. Innovative employees must buy into a cause. To them, the big picture is important. Quiet staffers don't need a lot of fanfare, but they appreciate private, one-on-one exchanges. Expressive people feel more motivated when assignments are openly discussed. They like public recognition, with pomp, and with ceremony. Peacekeepers hope everyone will move in the same direction. Hard-drivers are independent thinkers. If they agree with you, they will be highly motivated. They like extrinsic rewards and they tend to want whatever it is right away. Those who are focused team members must have confidence in the leader and the mission, otherwise, they will falter. They want to know up front what kind of reward they can expect. Leaders must make sure that promises are fulfilled. Flexible people go along with the team, as long as a project does not contradict the plan, and they will be happy with any kind of recognition. Which of the ways listed above would motivate you the most? Why don't external rewards like money-the carrot-and-stick approach--work?
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  • Turn procrastination into action

    When you are trying to finish a project, it's easy to NOT decide what to do next. Procrastination kills productivity because it makes any job a chore. The Now Habit by Neil Fiore stresses the importance of positive self-talk. Internal talk translates into feelings, inactions, and actions. When thinking "I have to do this" or "I should do this," your mind is actually saying: "I'm being forced to do what I don't want to." To put you in control of yourself and your work, Fiore suggests the following five self-statements that turn procrastination into action. I choose to, When do I start? I can take one small step. I can be perfectly human. I must make time for play. If you can't master positive self-talk, you'll never be able to get through a workday without feeling overwhelmed. Which of these self-statements help (motivate) you the most?
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  • Give your charisma a boost

    Leaders are charismatic. We teach leadership, so you can learn to be more charismatic. Olivia Fox Cabane , the Executive Director of Spitfire Communications and the author of The Charisma Myth, explains that there are three components to charisma. 1. Presence - When you meet someone, you make him or her feel like he or she is the only one in the room. 2. Power - You broadcast confidence. 3. Warmth - You express goodwill and empathy. Charisma is about how you make people feel about themselves. Be present, fully attentive and truly authentic. In the attachment, Ms. Cabane explains the importance of sincerity. How will you boost your charisma?
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  • Use Pinterest for Vision

    A vision is where you want to be in the future; it is where you are going, not where you have been. In the past, people cut pictures out of magazines to make a collage portraying their vision. Today, you can use Pinterest to create an online vision board. The purpose of a vision board is to keep you focused. It keeps your goals constantly in mind. The best managers are almost always described as "visionary." Yet, women managers fall behind men in this measure. On the envisioning scale (being able to articulate a vision of the future and translate that into a strategic direction for the organization), INSEAD professor Herminia Ibarra found that "women leaders are not perceived to be as strong as men when it comes to articulating a vision of the future and translating that vision into a strategic direction for the organization." Find more on 'Women and the Vision Thing' in the January 2012 issue of the Harvard Business Review . Maybe creating a vision board will help! The Internet offers an endless number of digital images. With your future in mind, search for the exact pictures which portray your vision. If you want to start your own business, find images that capture that idea for you. Then, create your vision board out of these images. Have fun looking for pictures or quotes or headlines that inspire you. Choose a lot of images and phrases and words. Pin your favorites on the board. You might want to create several boards - one for each area of your life, such as school, work, health, spirituality, relationships, etc. Add comments to remind yourself of why you chose the picture. It is good practice to include a photo of yourself on your board. Look at your vision board every day for motivation. If you find it helpful, you can share your vision across other social media sites. Do women managers lack vision? OR, is this a perception of female managers?

  • Co-workers Can Ruin Your Diet

    Food is at the most basic level of Maslow's Hierarch of Needs . We know that food can be used as a motivator. In addition, food at the office is often used to celebrate, to be social, to build teamwork, to relax, and to de-stress. According to a Wall Street Journal article about a January 2012 survey of 325 women who have dieted or are dieting by Survey Sampling International for Medi-Weightloss Clinics, 44 percent of them said their co-workers are a source of pressure to go off the diet. Pressures include being made fun of, encouraged to eat more, and being given food that is not on the diet. Picture Source: Sue Shellenbarger, "Colleagues Who Can Make You Fat ," The Wall Street Journal , March 15, 2012 Dieters are trying to be healthy, but it is very difficult for them to deal with a fattening work environment. Are the motives of co-workers good? If you were on a diet, how could you ask your co-workers for support?
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  • Challenge Yourself to Do More

    Recently, Dr. Wright Lassiter , Chancellor of the Dallas County Community College District ( DCCCD ), challenged employees with an adaptation of William Arthur Ward's poem, "Do More." "Do More" by William Arthur Ward Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work. "Dr. Lassiter's Personal Challenge to DCCCD Employees" I will do more than belong - I will participate. I will do more than believe - I will practice. I will do more than forgive - I will forget. I will do more than teach - I will inspire. I will do more than comment - I will help. I will do more than be fair - I will be kind. I will do more than dream - I will work. I will do more than give - I will serve. I will do more than hope my people are accountable - I will hold them accountable. I will do more than wish my people understand - I will give feedback. The DCCCD has over 7,000 employees, and Dr. Lassiter is the top manager. He used a poem to try to motivate employees to do more. Does the poem motivate you? Explain. If you were to use this poem for motivation, would you delete any of the lines? Which ones? What would you add?
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  • Corporate Social Responsibility

    In Corporate Social Responsibility: Making Good Business Sense , the World Business Council for Sustainable Development defined the strategy as, "...the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as the local community and society at large." Many companies encourage charitable efforts on the part of their employees. Apple Chief Tim Cook announced that Apple would match its employee's charitable contributions to non-profit organizations up to $10,000 per year (2011). Other companies pay their employees for volunteer time (an hour each week, for example) at local charities. It is important for managers to support employees' charitable efforts. While most companies can't afford to match their employees' contributions or pay them for volunteering, they can show support in other ways. For example, a manager could support an employee's charity of choice by volunteering or participating in a fundraiser, such as a walk or run that raises money for charity. When a business chooses one important cause, such as McDonald's and Ronald McDonald houses , it is important for the entire team to be in agreement. Managers should talk to employees about the causes that are important to them before choosing a cause. Then, once the cause is chosen, managers must make sure employees are engaged and motivated because the cause becomes part of the business strategy. How do you think employees show their appreciation for getting volunteer time or matching charitable contributions? Do companies lose money by letting employees contribute their time?

  • AT&T CEO Gets Pay Cut

    AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson will get a $2 million pay cut for the failed T-Mobile deal. (Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET) Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57383703-92/at-t-ceo-gets-$2-million-pay-cut-following-t-mobile-defeat/#ixzz1nGgKOjtV The failure of the AT&T and T-Mobile merger cost AT&T more than $4 billion. As a result, CEO Randall Stephenson's 2011 compensation was cut by more than $2 million by the human resources committee of AT&T's board of directors. (See the regulatory filing at http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/732717/000119312512070387/d282492dpre14a.htm .) Compensation takes the form of income. Money people received in return for their services is important to them financially for what it will buy, status, and recognition. Salaries and wages are determined by qualifications, performance, and pay for similar jobs within an industry, local labor market, and laws governing compensation. CEO Randall Stephenson's 2011 compensation was more than $18 million. Do you think losing $2 million will improve his performance in 2012? What does Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene theory of motivation tell us about compensation and motivation?

  • Job Enrichment at Zappos

    Zappos, an online shoe and apparel shop, wants motivated employees. At headquarters, employees dress up in costumes on a regular basis; have a nap room, phenomenal company benefits, and many more perks. Tony Hsieh, chief executive, told ABCNews.com , "One of our core values is to create fun and a little weirdness. We really recognize and celebrate each person's individuality, and we want their true personality to shine in the workplace." To keep high-quality employees, Zappos offers new employees $4,000.00 to quit at the end of their training session. Zappos does not want employees who are only working for a paycheck; Zappos wants employees who want to be at work. Two to three percent of new employees take the $4,000.00 at the end of their new employee training session. The classic article on employee motivation is Frederick Herzberg's, " One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees ?" The idea is to enrich jobs. Employees gain an enhanced sense of responsibility and achievement and are motivated to do their best work. How does Zappos enrich jobs? If you were offered $4,000.00 at the end of your new employee training session, would you take the money and go, or would you stay? What do you think about offering new employees any type of severance to leave?
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