Motivation - The Energy Behind Action

Many people think motivation is just an emotion, or a thought. Its not! Motivation is the energy behind action.

No motivation and your actions are empty; without substance. However, if you add motivation to your actions, they become powerful and effective.

Motivation is the sister of intent, and together, they make us effective or ineffective people.

How is Motivation Energy?

Motivation begins with a thought or a desire. These thoughts or desires have real energy within them, and they energize whatever they touch. If these are in conversation, they energize your speech and the hearing of those that listen to them. This is a fact.

Every good salesman knows he cannot sell anything unless he is motivated and believes what he is doing is also good for those who buy. If the salesman is not “sold”, he will never sell. Being sold is his motivation energizing his thoughts, speech and finally actions.

The fact that motivation is energy is seen most easily in those people whose task it is, to convince others. You simply cannot convince others unless you are convinced. You cannot be convinced unless you are motivated.

Motivation Dispels Procrastination

Putting things off; a common human trait, is also a cause of a great many human ills and unhappy situations. If you are motivated, however, you “just do it” as the slogan goes, and step by step you eventually progress.

Do not procrastinate. If you do, you’re ideas, your thoughts become impotent, and you become impotent with them.

How to Become Motivated

There is an old prayer, where a saint is walking along with road in his bare feet, his shoes long ruined and discarded. He prayed for shoes. Just then he saw a man without feet! He withdrew his prayer, and thanked God for all his blessings.

You need no more to become motivated than to realize if you are reasonably healthy, and have the basics of life, you are more than well off. Your motivation then should be to be better in what you do, how you look, what you say, and most of all, how you are.

One needs no more than to realize most of the people in the world do not have the basics of life, yet they survive. If you ponded that thought, your motivation comes of itself.

Turning Motivation into Action

This is the easiest part of the discussion. One turns motivation into action by setting goals. Your goals must be somehow realistic, and somehow achievable. They should be (in part anyway) achievable in a reasonable amount of time. Motivation somehow needs some reward, like a horse needing a bit of sugar after working a while.

Your actions, now charged with motivation, and having a destination (goal) are the stuff that built empires. The stuff that put man on the moon, and every other wonderful achievement in man’s history.

You can apply these simple facts in your life, and you will see it improve for the better, no matter what. You must be motivated, and your motivation will energize your actions. An action, energized by motivation, and having a goal has a very large chance of success, regardless of its magnitude.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sacha_Tarkovsky

Read More...

Building Self Motivation

Motivation is sometimes tough to maintain, particularly for those who suffer from low self-esteem. However, motivation is integral to our ability to accomplish our goals and even complete tasks throughout our lives. We require daily motivation at work, at home, at the gym and even at play. Sometimes depression can rob us of our motivation and we stagnate. It is a difficult cycle as lack of motivation keeps us from completing tasks, which equates to failure to most people. This failure, in turn, causes people to have even less self-esteem. In order to prevent this, a motivation strategy must be implemented to achieve motivation success. It can be done, but it takes work. It is also important to recognize and overcome some common motivation killers.

Depression is a major motivation killer. People who are depressed will experience a significant decrease in motivation. In order to combat this it may be necessary for the person to use medication therapy to treat the depression. Depression may cause the person to experience a lack of desire to even get out of bed. It may be difficult for the person to leave the house or even to complete daily tasks. A motivation strategy to combat this is for the patient to first get a physical to make sure that the depression is not a symptom of an underlying, serious health condition, and then seek psychological counseling and possible medication therapy. Motivation success is possible if proper steps are taken to seek treatment.

Another condition that will rob a person of their motivation is insomnia and fatigue. Being sleepy all the time can distinctly impact daily motivation. Insomnia can cause excessive daytime sleepiness, or EDS, which can zap a person of their energy, thus destroying their motivation. When lack of motivation turns into failure on projects or daily tasks, a person’s self-esteem can be further robbed. He or she may feel like a complete failure and that frame of mind spills over onto other aspects of their life. Of course, treating the insomnia can have a dramatic affect to the person’s daily performance. In best-case scenario, motivation will return naturally. However, once the habit of procrastination and lack of motivation is set, it is difficult to break. Motivation success can be accomplished by time management and set time schedules to complete projects. It is important that a person be evaluated by a physician to ensure that the insomnia is not caused by a more serious health issue.

Perhaps the greatest robber of a person’s motivation is low self-confidence. Low self-esteem can cause a person to feel that they are unable to effectively complete projects or that if they try they will only fail. This is the most common barrier to a person’s motivation success. This goes far beyond just “sucking it up and moving on,” it becomes a physical inability to complete or sometimes even begin tasks. Sometimes the project may be too large or overwhelming or the person may lack the organizational skills necessary to be effectively self-motivated. This could range from cleaning a closet to working of a multi-million dollar project at work. All the talent in the world is useless if motivation is lacking. Organization is a good motivation strategy because it breaks down the task into parts that can be accomplished. Another motivation strategy it to set small goals over short periods of time. Try setting daily goals, weekly goals and monthly goals as well as long-term goals. Once you see that you can accomplish your daily goal, you will see that you are not a failure. Success feels good and it a great motivation booster.

Psychological counseling can help a person suffering from lack of motivation and low self-esteem. This is not the “head shrinker couch” that you see on TV. Those are exaggerated versions of counseling and you won’t likely have someone peer intently at you are ask repeatedly, “Now, how does that make you feel?” Instead, your therapist is likely to become a major player is increasing your self-esteem and motivation. Counseling can help you achieve motivation success. The counselor will walk you through exercises to increase your self-confidence which, in turn, will help your motivation increase. Additionally, the counselor can give you motivation strategies and if you follow the direction and work with the counselor, you will boost your self-confidence and achieve motivation success.

Kevin Christopher is the creator of http://www.time-success-freedom.com. Your online source for personal development and motivational tips and ideas.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_Christopher

Read More...

Leveraging a Sales Person's Motivation

Sales people who have clear objectives, the required competencies, and a supportive working environment still require a level of desire, willingness and positive thinking to complete tasks or sales activities in order to optimize performance. This state of willingness could be restated as motivation, the mental game or the internal forces that affect the outcomes, intensity and perseverance of a sales person’s voluntary behavior.

Sales Managers need to evaluate each sales person’s motivation, skills and the thinking supporting them due to shifting corporate goals and competitive threats. Given that there is a broad range of individualistic practices within the sales population, it is likely that each sales person is motivated in different ways and a good sales manager or sales leader, according to my experience, has the responsibility to identify those differences and leverage the individual potential from each and every sales person.

In David C. McCelland’s theory of learned needs he suggests that achievement, affiliation and power are the important sources of motivation. As he suggests, however, high achievers are self-motivated to high levels of achievement while low achievers require direction and reinforcement from others. He goes on to say that employees can learn to become more achievement oriented but recognizes that there are different types of employees bringing a balance to our social framework.

This is why it is so key that sales managers understand sales people for the individuals that they really are. Daniel Goleman, who has done extensive work in the area of Emotional Intelligence, suggests that those employees with potential are motivated by a desire to achieve for the sake of achievement and states further that managers with strong emotional intelligence are themselves self-motivated individuals – These principles should then apply to sales people and sales managers.

If motivated sales people are more willing to exert certain effort over a period of time in order to achieve a goal, then what role does the sales manager have in his or her interaction with that sales person?

It is important for sales managers to have a grasp of each sales person level of ability and motivation according to Dr. Paul Hersey. He suggests that the ownership of the task between the sales manager and the sales person be shared in accordance to the various possible levels of both ability and readiness. A training company named Gilmore and Associates devised a model that incorporates these notions and I have worked with them to further its usefulness.

It is important that a sales manager determines what the over all ability of a sales person is prior to attempting to teach, share or transfer the key aspects of the tasks to that employee.

The same holds true for motivation but I would suggest that the aspects of motivation are often overlooked by sales manages as it is the more difficult of the two to identify and manage. Just as with ability an evaluation of motivation should be considered and then skillfully engage, encourage and recognize the mental game and thinking of each individual sales person.

[I believe that ability is mind to hand while motivation is mind to heart. Think of it this way – Sales Performance equals Ability (Mind to Hand) times Motivation (Mind to Heart) or SP=A(MH)XM(MH)]

Sales managers often remedy performance issues with more skills training when from my experience more often than not the underlying performance issue is the thinking and motivation of the sales person. This generally means the wrong solution for the wrong problem incurring more overhead cost, lost opportunity cost and often a further slippage in the motivation of the sale person.

Different levels of the sales person’s ability will mean a different coaching style on behalf of the sales manager in order for the task to be completed at the required level of performance. Lower ability will mean more sales manager involvement and a specific teaching style will be necessary. As ability increases so too does the ownership of the task by the sales person increase, as he or she will begin to determine what is required in order to complete it. A sharing style becomes the most commonly used style by sales managers during this next phase. As the sales person’s ability level optimizes the role of the sales manager shifts more to a transferring style. Involvement of the sales manager is far less and ownership for the task is now primarily that of the sales person.

Typically the same holds true for levels of motivation (M) with respect to the same task although the characteristics and processes for engaging it are more emotional than behavioral. It is here that the passion for sales managing sales people comes to the forefront.

Sales managing a sales person with low motivation will require a nurturing sales manager, one that will engage in the values and principles of the sales person more so than technical abilities for that task. I believe that emotional factors have to engage the sales person’s values in order to stimulate the whole sales person. As the sales person’s motivation improves you follow through with encouragement reinforcing the positive and helping them see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. At the highest level of motivation you simply recognize their capability supporting them to the highest possible level of success.

A sales person with high ability and motivation with respect to a specific task is more apt to have higher levels of success with the role of the sales manager being that of a provider of information or in a position to just delegate and reward with little need for intense interaction.

As a sales manager’s proficiency increases with the use of this model, his or her competency at identifying the issues of ability and motivation will also increase. This will provide the sales manager with an advantage as he or she mentors and coaches his or her sales people for greater results. For the longest time I have used this model intuitively but from time to time I have been known to reference a wallet size cheat sheet that I have carried with me for at least twenty years. A real testimonial to the Gilmore model!

Ron Foss is the Senior Partner of EQ Management Group committed to improving management capability and more information can be discovered at http://www.eqmg.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ron_Foss

Read More...

Employee Motivation - The 5 Factors That Drive Performance

Employee motivation is a mystery for many managers. But, it doesn't have to be. Instead, understanding how motivation impacts employee performance, and understanding how to use motivation to improve performance can be reduced to five master keys. Organizations desiring to improve employee motivation need a system in place that consistently rewards employee achievements. I'm always surprised how few organizations have such a system.

However, not all employees respond to the same motivations. Each person has his or her own likes and dislikes, passions, interests and desires. The role of the successful manager is to learn how to identify what motivates each employee, and learn how to leverage those motives to simultaneously fulfill the goals of the organization, as well as the goals of each employee.

The five key employee motivation factors include: satisfaction, appreciation, recognition, inspiration and compensation.

1. Employee Motivation By Building Satisfaction

In their book "The Service Profit Chain," James Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, and Leonard Schlesinger make a compelling case that regardless your business, the only way to generate sustained profits is to build a work environment that attracts, focuses, and keeps talented employees. In other words, they have to be motivated to show up, get committed and perform at a level of excellence.

Employee motivation as it relates to employees satisfaction is vitally important. And, it goes way beyond just a "happier workforce." Why?

Because there is an undeniable link between satisfied, motivated employees, and satisfied customers. In other words, focus on creating satisfied employees, focus on employee motivation, and those motivated, satisfied employees will take care of your customers.

2. Employee Motivation Through Genuine Appreciation

At times, managers unknowingly sabotage employee motivation by failing to recognize the positive behaviors and achievements of their employees. As a result, employees don't know whether or not they are doing a good job.

I recently had an employee of an organization tell me, "The only time we ever hear anything from management is when we do something wrong!"

Fortunately, savvy managers can improve employee motivation by rewarding employees with personal attention. This can include a pat on the back, a hand-written note, or a quick comment in the hall.

When showing appreciation, be specific. Instead of just saying, "We really are grateful for the good job you do around here," the approach might be, "I really appreciate how you handled the Franklin Industries account last week when we had to get their rush order out late Friday afternoon. Your effort really made a difference."

By being specific, the employer comes across as much more sincere, and the employee realizes their actions are truly being watched. And, a highly level of employee motivation is the natural result.

3. Employee Motivation Through Recognition

Many people will do for recognition what they will not do for money. And, this is the manager's secret weapon for employee motivation. Some people are motivated by the opportunity to get their name on the wall, receive a trophy at an annual banquet, or see their name in the company newsletter. It gives them an "emotional payoff" for their actions.

Look for ways to increase employee motivation by recognizing excellence in the workplace. Ring a bell every time an individual or team hits the production target. Put up posters with the photographs of team members who have had the most days without accidents. Give out awards for attendance records. Just do something. It is so inexpensive, yet highly effective in your efforts of employee motivation.

4. Employee Motivation Through Inspiration

Inspiration comes from leadership. This form of employee motivation includes the company's mission, purpose and goals. People want to be part of an organization that is going somewhere, that stands for something, and that provides a meaningful service to the marketplace.

If you want to lead an inspired, mission-guided organization, follow these steps and watch employee motivation improve dramatically.

Have a clear mission - in other words, know where you are going.
Be excited and passionate about your mission. After all, if you don't get excited, they won't either.

Be able to communicate the mission, it's value to the marketplace. In other words, why it's worthwhile.

Make sure everyone in the organization understands and can communicate the mission.

Be sure employees understand how they fit into the process of fulfilling the organization's mission.

Make the connection between the mission and the individual values and goals of your employees.

Keep your mission in front of everyone in the organization.

5. Employee Motivation Through Compensation

Some employees are motivated by money. In fact, most are motivated by money; at least for their basic needs. Employee motivation through compensation can come in the form of raises, performance bonuses, commissions, profit sharing, or any number of "extra benefits" like, automobiles, vacations, or other tangible items purchased and used as rewards.

I noticed an interesting program in a hotel where I recently stayed. They have a sophisticated system for rewarding employees based on customer feedback. Throughout the hotel, they have placed customer feedback forms and boxes for depositing the forms. When customers comment on the performance of a hotel employee, the employee accumulates points that can be used to purchase rewards like trips, gifts, and other incentives.

Taking Action On Employee Motivation

Whatever the chosen method, it is important to have a system in place that builds employee motivation. Not every person is motivated by the same factor, or combination of factors. Offering all five - satisfaction, appreciation, recognition, inspiration and compensation insures that the organization has something to contribute to the motivation of each employee.

JP Maroney a.k.a. “The Pitbull of Business Development” is a business growth strategist, best-selling author and award-winning speaker. Receive his FREE “Strategic Briefing” e-newsletter by visiting http://www.JPMaroney.com or calling 1-800-304-5758.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=JP_Maroney

Read More...