Motivate employees, Team Motivation

That is the million-dollar question that business owners, consultants, and management gurus have been asking since the day that the guy who invented the wheel started hiring people to make and sell wheels.

Business owners pay motivational speakers a handsome sum of money at conference centers all over the world to come in and motivate the troops, even though extensive research has shown that you can’t really motivate another person, at least not for any extended length of time. You can dangle carrots and wield sticks that will have short-term effects or that will appeal to an individual’s susceptibility to greed or fear, and you can even inspire his higher nature, but even these motivators will work less and less effectively as time moves on.

You may not be able to motivate someone else, but you can discover what motivates you. Moreover, you can use that awareness as a key to unlock all the latent creative talents and passion within yourself. Intrinsic motivation that comes from the inside out is the only lasting passion that will be there day after day, and won’t need a constant stream of reminders, nudges, encouragement, threats, and bribes to maintain.

As an intrapreneur™ (a person who works within a small business for a solo entrepreneur but is personally vested in their responsibility for creating a profitable business through assertive risk-taking and innovation) you must find that internal passion, but part of your role is also to help your team find the passion within themselves.

How do you find this hidden motivational switch? What inspires one person to do her job with passion, while another equally gifted person may perform the same task begrudgingly or mechanically, doing only the minimum required “to get by”? Why is one person inspired to do one particular task, but not inspired about another task? How many of us feel happy that it’s Monday and excited about what’s on deck this week? You spend at least eight to nine hours a day at your job—almost 25 to 30 percent of your life. If you’re a clock-watchin’ kind of gal, you’re missing something really important in your work life—passion.

Sadly, many people don’t enjoy their work. Worse still, they have no expectation that they should. They simply show up for work, look busy, and collect a paycheck to pay the bills in order to live–and work. Is it any wonder why most heart attacks and strokes in America take place on Monday mornings, as people begrudgingly ready themselves for another week of unfulfilling labor?

Being passionate about your job is more than the old cliché, “Do what you love.” It’s about looking forward to going to work. It’s looking at the clock at 2 p.m. and realizing that you never took your morning bagel out of the toaster. It’s working past “quitting” time, not because you’re swamped with work, but because you’re so involved that you don’t notice time. Is this the reality of your world?

If you’re not passionate about your work, you may feel like you’re just going through the motions, and wondering if this is all your life has to offer. You may be asking yourself, “What happened to my dreams?” If your life is currently full of passion, Don’t Be a Yes Chick will help you identify the traits that contribute to it so that you’ll always have the tools to mend your confidence when it gets low or when you need a reminder of why you do what you do day in and day out. If your life isn’t driven by your passion now, Don’t Be a Yes Chick will help you learn to identify what you’re passionate about and find some simple ways to restructure the “stuff” in your life so that it feeds your desires.

If “finding your passion” involves running off to Paris, Pisa, or Prague to study art and history, or quitting your job to become a pianist, or something else that may disappoint those around you, rest easy. We’ll help you unleash your passion whether you’re in Des Moines, Detroit, or Dayton. Even if you chucked this life and ran off to something more aligned with your fantasies, chances are that if you don’t know how to identify the key elements of that passion, you’d quickly find yourself exactly where you are now, but without a steady paycheck.

“When work, commitment, and pleasure all become one
and you reach that deep well where passion lives,
nothing is impossible.” Anonymous

You can read more about Finding your Passion and Fulfillment in Don’t Be a Yes Chick, being released Spring 2011.

employee playbook

THE EMPLOYEE PLAYBOOK

Everything you need to turn around your people, processes, productivity and profitability is right here in this free e-Book.

•••

Feel like your people—and their productivity—are a mess? Don’t worry, this book has your back! Download this book for free and follow our advice about how to empower your employees to step up and lead!

You have Successfully Subscribed!