Choose Meeting Ice Breakers Carefully!
 

Meeting ice breakers, whether games or other activities, can provide vital energy to meetings or other gatherings of people. Well chosen ice breakers ease people through the discomfort of getting to know others better. 

However, a badly chosen meeting ice breaker can cause more discomfort than it cures. We’ve all felt the pounding heart, the drying mouth, and the rising panic as your turn to introduce yourself creeps….up…..slowly….. No one enjoys ice breakers from hell, so choose wisely.

Here are some tips on how to choose appropriate ice breaker games...

Things to consider when choosing a meeting ice breaker:
1. Size of the group
2. Purpose of the meeting or gathering
3. Purpose of the ice breaker
4. Preparation required
5. Materials required
6. Time available
1 - Size of the group – some ice breakers work best in large groups of 20 or more, some are better for small groups of 5 or so.

Tip – if you have too many people for the ice breaker, split into smaller groups of the right size and run the icebreakers concurrently.

2 - Purpose of the meeting or gathering – what are you doing after the ice breaker? Are you brainstorming new ideas? Discussing year end results? Kicking off a new project? Match the mood of the ice breaker to the mood for the meeting.

Tip – Be ready to switch icebreakers if you mis-judged the mood on the day. Have a store of icebreaker ideas, ready for use when you need them.

3 - Purpose of the meeting ice breaker – Will it ease introductions, get mental juices flowing or just be downright silly?

Tip – icebreakers don’t have to be restricted to the start of meetings. Well timed icebreakers will lift flagging energy levels or encourage creativity.

4 – What preparation is required? – simple icebreakers are effective when explained clearly. More complicated icebreakers require preparation, and venture into team-building territory, possibly requiring different facilitation skills.

Tip – Choose simple icebreakers over complicated ones, and factor in preparation time.

5 - Materials required – there’s no baggage with verbal icebreakers! Pens and flip charts are usually required for meetings so that’s easy too. But if you’ve got bigger, bolder ideas involving ropes, scissors, balls, cards or other such fun, make sure you think this through!

Tip – make a checklist of materials and bring them. Be ready to improvise or switch icebreakers if you forget the crucial item or don’t have enough to go round.

6 - Time available – group energy levels will be zero if each one minute introduction takes five minutes! Be realistic about the time you have for the meeting ice breaker and stick to it.

Tip – choose a short punchy icebreaker to get energy levels up, and longer icebreakers when more disclosure is desired.

We are all a bit shy and a little awkward in group situations, so be kind to your fellows and use icebreakers. Ice breaker games or activities can speed up processes which left to their own devices are painfully slow or do not happen at all.

A well chosen icebreaker is worth it’s weight in... ice! Choose your meeting ice breakers wisely and you will reap the rewards many times over.

By Lyndsay Swinton

Does Cash continues to be the most used form of employee motivation?
 
Cash continues to be the most used form of employee motivation while merchandise and travel come in second and third, respectively. It should be asked whether or not these are ordered based on effectiveness in the workplace. Some companies believe whole-heartedly in their incentive programs and other companies do not believe in giving rewards at all. In all probability, the way to motivate an employee is going to be different in each situation and with each employee. But overall, what method of motivation seems to work best?

In every hiring situation both the worker and the employer agree upon a salary for the given job description. It seems as though an employer should not have to give bonuses or prizes in addition to the worker's salary. If the employee does not accomplish the job he was hired to do, he should get fired rather than get threatened with just an absent bonus.

The Library Personnel News journal illustrates an example of an unmotivated worker to show the importance of employee motivation to a company's bottom line. They show that if an employee who makes $25,000 a year wastes one hour a day the company will lose $3,200 of equivalent work time by year's end. It becomes astounding when the figures used come from a salary of $75,000 or when two salaries are added together. Motivating a reference librarian is probably easier than motivating, for example, a grocery store clerk because the person who chose the public sector position will likely be the person who is more motivated to help the public. But beyond being a little extra motivated to help the public, the librarian is human like all other workers, which means that she is not immune to being unmotivated. A discussion on motivation in private sector work environments can be compared quite accurately to motivation in a public library. There are customers (patrons), bosses, and problem-employees at both institutions. Some organizations prefer to motivate with cash. Behlen Manufacturing Co. in Columbus, Nebraska is a medium-sized company with about 1,400 employees. On a monthly basis, the company gives a minimum of $250 to the employee who comes up with the best idea for increasing safety or productivity.

Nucor Corp. in North Carolina is a large company with 8,000 employees. This company uses weekly cash bonuses to motivate its workers. The amount a person gets paid has to do with the amount of output that gets produced by that employee. The employee's base pay can be as low as one-half that of other similar companies but the bonuses can be as high as 200 percent of their hourly wage. He believes that the secret to motivating employees is money. The steel producer generated a record $4.6 billion in revenue last year. This proven system is about giving the responsibility to lower level employees. Senior officers at Nucor earn their income the same as the ground floor workers--they get a lowered base salary and are given bonuses of up to 200 percent based on the company's success. It seems that money is a good form of motivation. Having a portion of the worker's salary dependent upon the amount of production appears to work well for Nucor and would probably motivate workers in other lines of work as well. On the other hand, extra monetary compensation can be pretty costly and people are likely to take it for granted over time.

David Rowley says that many managers are surprised when presented with research indicating that cash is not an employee's number one motivator. Cash does, however, motivate people to take a job and continue to work at that job. As soon as a particular pay level has been attained though, motivation tends to diminish. The author believes that this problem of being unmotivated by cash is becoming worse because of the increasing level of wealth in our society. Since these needs are met immediately after being hired, it is easy to lose motivation when all we are working for is more money. The fourth need on Maslow's Hierarchy is of self-esteem. According to Rowley, this is the need that most managers confuse with pay.
 
By   Sam Bryant

 When Employee Motivation Begins ……

Employee motivation is a hot topic. We all know that employee motivation drives productivity. But how do you keep employees motivated? Well, in my opinion, companies can do very little to motivate you. Why? Because true motivation begins when we are internally driven.

For years, I have heard people say they feel that the company is exploiting them. They may be right. And some form of exploitation will always exist. But I have always had a different point of view. And it is this: We have the power to exploit any company instead of them exploiting us. Let me explain…

If you have heard my speech or read my book No Condition is Permanent, you already know how I came to America unable to speak English and with only $5. Apparently, I would be a prime target for exploitation.

But instead, I was motivated to seize every opportunity that would increase my value in the workforce. I didn’t wait for the company to motivate me. Their idea of employee motivation was to fit their agenda. But I had an agenda of my own.

Would you like to know how to do the same? Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could do the exploitation instead? Good. Here’s how to do it:

Identify the most critical area of your company. What I mean by that is…there is a department in your workplace that is critical to the operation. No matter how bad things are, they cannot afford to close that department. It’s the bread-maker.

Learn everything you can about that department and more. Then make it a top priority to secure a position in that department. Or volunteer for cross training. Even if it isn't offered at your workplace, suggest it.

Take advantage of every opportunity the company offers. Right now, your company may have a tuition reimbursement program or money available for you to attend educational training. Are you aware of it? Then, take advantage of it.

Unfortunately, the company I worked for didn’t offer those opportunities. I spent a lot of my own money taking courses and attending seminars. The goal is to use the company’s resources in order to increase your value to them. Does that make any sense?

Ask to be mentored. Many companies have a mentoring program. Or if they knew better, they would all have one. Maybe it’s time for you make that suggestion.

The way to do so is to investigate how other companies run their mentoring programs and present your findings to the top echelon. If that doesn’t work, simply ask someone at a high-level position to mentor you.

Network within. This one is pretty basic. It was the topic of my last newsletter. Now, it’s great to hang out with your co-workers. But the people at the top need to know who you are. I am sure you have heard the saying, “It’s not what you know. It’s who you know.” Wrong. It’s not even "who you know." It’s "WHO KNOWS YOU!"

Be proactive. If the people at the top play golf, take some golf lessons. While I was working as a doorman carrying bags, I started taking golf lessons. Why? I saw how passionate the big guns were about golf. Even then, I knew that could a professional tool to use later in my career. And I was right.

Take every opportunity to network with the people at the top. When there is a business function, always try to participate. But be sure not to over indulge. It might seem okay to you if the others are all drinking. But trust me, someone is paying attention.

That might hurt your future with the company. Besides, there are many people at work who like to talk too much anyway. They may hang out with you, but will later spread the news about you. So, be very careful.

Model their success. That's right. When I was working as a doorman, any time I noticed a book on the back seat of an apparently successful person's car, I would buy and read that book.
I did the same thing when I was a new immigrant working as a janitor and struggling to learn English. I collected letters from the trash and studied them. I wanted to learn to write business letters. Because I knew it was going to serve me later. And serve, it did.

Okay, I think you would agree with me that employee motivation happens when we are internally driven to go to the next level. You see, you’ve got to prove to your employer that you have the drive. Once you do so, the opportunities for advancement may come your way.

I have heard the experts talk about employee-motivation strategies. To me, it’s a bunch of gibberish. YES, perks are always a plus, but perks are temporary. An environment that is conducive to learning and offers opportunities for growth is what creates lasting motivation.

You see…I have one piece of advice for any company that wants to motivate their employees: Give them the opportunity to become someone they never were before, and watch your production and loyalty thrive. It’s not about what we are getting…it’s about who we are becoming in the process.

Okay, the above advice is for the company. And here is yours…use the ideas I just shared with you, and exploit your company. It’s legal and it’s ethical. GO FOR IT!!

I wish you incredible success!

By Rene Godefroy

Financial Incentives May Not Motivate

Jeffrey Pfeffer said:

"Incentives should be used not to drive behavior but instead to provide recognition and to share the company's success with its employees. There are, unfortunately, few shortcuts in leadership-and using financial incentives to fix companies isn't one of them."

The study found that organizations increasingly have been using individual incentive pay with the intention of improving productivity and efficiency. It cites a salary survey by Hewitt Associates, the compensation and human resources consultancy, which found the percentage of companies offering at least one plan tying pay to performance rose from 51 per cent in 1991 to 77 per cent in 2003.

Jeffrey Pfeffer said organizations can be misguided if they use incentive pay based on the belief "that if employees were just compensated appropriately, virtually every organizational and management problem could be solved."

The report cites the author's own experience buying a car. When the salesman (paid by commission) was told he and his wife were not planning to make a purchase that afternoon he began ignoring them. They ended up buying from another dealership where more attentive salespeople "tried to build a customer-service culture and encourage dealer loyalty."

The author also cited the experience of city officials in Albuquerque who began paying garbage collection crews for eight hours of work irrespective of how long it took them to complete their routes in an attempt to cut overtime costs. Far from encouraging workers to finish the job quickly, some crews cut corners "missing pick-ups; speeding, which caused accidents; or driving to the dump with overloaded trucks, which led to fines".

Jeffrey Pfeffer also challenges the controversial practice of awarding stock option grants to top executives:

"There is evidence that the higher the option grants to senior executives, the more likely it is that their companies will have to subsequently restate their financial statements."

The author questions the common assumption that employees are motivated primarily by money and suggests that too much reliance has been placed on financial rewards. A supportive organizational culture can be just as important.

Jeffrey Pfeffer commented:

"You want rewards to be large enough to be noticed, and you want to use them to provide an occasion for celebration and recognition, to let the group come together and share successes and enjoy each other's companionship. But you certainly don't want to make the incentives so large that they begin to drive, and thereby distort, behavior."

"One can change a pay system or a set of financial rewards fairly quickly and easily. It is much harder to change organizational culture, people's mindsets and beliefs, their knowledge and skills, and how effectively they work and communicate with each other. Thus, financial incentives offer the mirage of a quick fix-and contemporary management seems to be enamored of that idea."

By Jeffrey Pfeffer

Here are 8 Ways to Charm Your Employees

Simple moves that will help you create loyalty and rapport in the workplace

Everyone wants to feel acknowledged and recognized in the workplace. The operative word here is feel. Professional people should attempt to rise above their feelings and work toward accomplishing the tasks related to their job. However, if a manager, supervisor or officer of a company has mastered the leadership skills to become trusted and well-liked by their employees, their employees will go out of their way to exhibit higher levels of productivity and remain loyal to them and the company.
Do you consider it manipulative to practice high levels of rapport skills related to verbal and nonverbal communication for effective leadership? It's a fact that businesses spend billions of dollars each year to equip their employees with the necessary skills and qualities to help them become more productive. For example, just because you tell someone the complete truth doesn't mean they'll believe you, but there are easily learned skills that will help you create immediate and high levels of credibility.
Here are some suggestions for creating good relationships, loyalty and rapport in the workplace.
1. Watch how you're standing. Men enjoy standing side by side when speaking to one another. Women enjoy facing each other while talking to one another. Women: When approaching a man, slowly position your torso at an angle to his torso to make him comfortable. Gentlemen, to make a woman comfortable, slowly move your torso so you're standing face to face with her to make her comfortable.
2. In your mind's eye, picture a spotlight on anyone you're speaking to. Every time you speak, the spotlight turns off of them and on to you. So do your best to keep them, not you, in the spotlight. Don't regale them with your tales of your experiences. Instead, use active-listening skills--stay with them and explore their comments.
3. Avoid touching yourself when speaking to others. Do your best to keep your hands still. Don't play with your hair or jewelry, wring your hands or touch your face. By touching yourself, you're indicating your need to comfort yourself, and unconsciously that makes the other person feel you're not paying attention to them.
4. Smile while you're talking. It's great to smile when you're listening to someone, but it's equally powerful to smile at someone while you're speaking to them.
5. Subtly mirror people's gestures when you're speaking to them. If they sit back in their chair, sit back in yours. If they fold their hands, fold yours. You must be subtle, or you'll get caught. Learn to be very graceful in your mirroring, and move very slowly, as if you're making natural movements and not copying them.
6. Talk 20 percent of the time and listen 80 percent of the time. Let people talk about their favorite subject: themselves. When someone is speaking, ask them questions, nod affirmatively as they speak, and avoid interrupting them until they've finished talking and then ask them another question. When you're listening, you're in control of the conversation because you can guide the conversation anywhere you want it to go without volunteering anything about yourself or your own opinions.
7. Avoid offering unsolicited advice in public or in private. Generally, people will become defensive and stop talking when you offer them advice they didn't ask to hear. Offering advice makes a listener think they're wrong and that they've made a mistake by volunteering their viewpoint. Instead, say, "That's one way of looking at it," or "Let's take the learning experience from that and take it to the next level."
8. Offer sincere flattery every day to work associates, clients and vendors. Most people enjoy being thanked for a job well-done, but only comment on their behavior and not them personally. Be specific with your flattery, or it will fall flat. For example, "Good job on the graphics on the front page," or "You did a nice job of finding that customer's lost baggage from Atlanta." Give flattery in a timely manner--don't wait too long to deliver it. Be sensitive to the fact that some people like public flattery and some prefer to receive theirs privately. Some people need frequent flattery, and some have difficulty with hearing any flattery at all.

 By Deepa

Motivating Your Employees Toward Success

It can be easily deduced that employee encouragement translates into strong health and profits for your organization. This is true whether your business is a profit orientated organization or an organization where the profits are to speak excellent community service and support.

The relevant question for management is how to sustain a high level of employee motivation over the long term. The answer is not simple. It requires that managers not only understand the concept of motivation but also how to practice it in the workplace. Motivation is described as a set of processes or factors that drive and energize an employee towards goals. Goals can be voluntary choices that influence productivity, career direction and job satisfaction.

Developing and encouraging employee motivation requires that management fully understand how to ignite both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for employees and to implement policies and practices that are successful in energizing your team.

First of all create a passion for your company. There is a basic human need to be an essential part of belonging to something bigger than you. The employee can be part of the bigger mission and goals of your organization. Involve employees in developing and revising the mission and vision of your organization. Cultivate and allow members of your team to be proud to work for the team.

Secondly identify personal motivators. Each person is different. However it does not take an Einstein to identify personal motivators. To one employee cash may be a main motivating factor. To another it may be an extra long weekend to spend time with family or hobbies. A good manager remarks transport executive Kirk Stevens must be flexible.

It is most important to demonstrate real and sincere interest in your employees. Show your employees that you care about them as persons and individuals. Your “door should always be open “. Show real concern for them and their families. Perhaps this years Christmas party can be held at your home.

You should out of your way with your management skills to match employee skills to specific jobs. When recruiting you should be sure to identify the key skills required for each job and that your candidates are well matched to the tasks and activities. Employees who enjoy their jobs will of course achieve higher levels of job satisfaction and thus will be highly self motivated.

As well it is more than important that clear direction and priorities be set and expounded. Nothing is worse to the morale and productivity of an organization than a management structure set on ego. In such a situation notes Mr. Stephens direction and priorities are often muddled and even contradictory. Imagine working yourself in such a conflicting, threatening environment. Mr. Stephens notes that events can even digress to the point where management can refuse to admit that they are wrong even when it is obvious to the point of ridiculousness. One might call this the” motorcycle gang” style of management.

Lastly all in all in order to continue to motivate your employees and point your organization towards continued success and profitability is what your grandmother told you “respect for others”. Is not this the way that people should and ought to be treated?

- By: Shaun Stevens

Motivational Change

If you have ever tried to quit smoking or to change some major behavior that you have habitually done for many years, you will know how powerful our habits are. Human habits are a tough nut to crack, but like any tasty nut in a hard shell, it is very rewarding to break through the barrier holding you back.

A powerful way to reach inside and create new habits or behaviors is to learn why we do what we do, and how much better it would be if we didn't do it!. We simply do not change long held beliefs or behaviors unless we are somehow shocked by how bad our behavior is or we are motivated to change by seeing the benefits or rewards for our new actions. Another way of looking at it is that we act like donkeys: We run after the tasty carrot in front of us, or we run from the whipping of our behind.

 Motivational Change with the Whip
Organizations like the animal rights group PETA understand very clearly how the whipping works on our habits and behaviors. On their PETA TV website they have very graphic and shocking videos that show the negatives of wearing fur or eating animals. Their aim is to shock us into changing our way of thinking about animals and the way they are treated in the fur or abattoir industries. In order to get us to stop eating meat and wearing fur they show us the most worst possible images that these behaviors create, urging us to change.

 Motivational Change with the Carrot
With the opposite extreme, advertisers are very good at showing us carrots and changing our buying behaviors by bombarding us with images of pleasure and happiness. Their advertisements tell us that if we buy their products we can also have the carrots they are showing us, whether it is a beautiful woman in a new car, or amazing profits from a financial product, or a naked woman holding a beer. They want us to change our behavior by showing us how much better our life could be if we bought their products or services.

 Motivational Self Change
To make our own personal changes we have to get very clear about what is negative (whip) about the habit and what benefits (carrots) we will gain by changing. List as many whippings and carrots as possible. Negatives can be reinforced with images and life experiences like visiting a cancer ward if you are trying to change your smoking behavior. While positives can be reinforced by images and life experiences like taking your dream car for a test drive or walking through display homes similar to your dream home.

We have to continually reinforce both the whipping (creating intense pain if we DON'T change) and the carrot (creating intense pleasure if we DO change). The more ways of emphasizing the good and bad associated with the behavior we want to change, the more likely we will continue with the new positive habit. Pain and pleasure are powerful driving forces when we learn to focus them and use them properly.

Staff Development – A Practical Guide for Managers & Leaders

Pre-Learning

First, you need to identify what your staff need to learn and how they need to develop.
This can be via a team competency assessment, a one-to-one review meeting, a request
from a staff member, observation, monitoring performance, feedback from others, change
(e.g. a new process or methodology) or career path planning.
Next, you need to have a conversation with the staff member to ensure they understand
and agree with what they need to learn and how they need to develop. It is this
conversation that will gain buy-in and have a motivated learner who is prepared to take
some ownership for their own learning. At this stage you should also develop a plan as to
how the learning and development is best accomplished.
For the purposes of this guide, we will focus on the three main learning tools – training
courses, coaching and practice.

Training Courses

You should select a training course or learning event carefully based on the targeted
learning outcomes, the course content, the learning methodology, the quality of the
provider/trainer, the cost and the duration – preferably, in that order. What you should
avoid doing is selecting a course based solely on the title because you might not get what
you expected or your staff member needed.
Prior to attending the course, you should sit down with the staff member and explore with
them the expectations for the learning experience and what both you and they hope they
will get from it.
When they return from the course, you should sit down with them again and have an indepth
conversation about what they have learned and how they are going to apply it back
in the workplace. This should then conclude with an action plan for practising and
developing the new knowledge and skills.

Practice

It is imperative that staff members are given opportunities to practice what has been
learned, ideally in a safe environment. A safe environment could involve a simulation or
test platform but normally, this simply means that there should be opportunities for their
work to be checked and corrected or improved before going live.
Practice should be timely and initially might require supervision while giving them more
freedom to work independently as their competence improves and confidence grows.
This is the main function of on-the-job coaching.

Coaching

It is your job to ensure that staff receive coaching support to ensure the proper application
of what they have learned and to accelerate learning. You can either coach yourself,
utilise other team members or engage the services of an external professional, depending
on the complexity of the learning and the expertise required.
Coaching in this context primarily involves monitoring or observing how the knowledge
and skills are being applied – what is being done well and what can be improved. On the
back of this monitoring and observation, the coach should then be having feedback
conversations with the staff member that are timely, two-way, constructive and
motivational.

As a result of applied practice supported by coaching the learning and development
should be accomplished expeditiously and the staff member will become competent and
confident in their own ability for the relevant competency area. They should then be
allowed to work independently and your role becomes one of driving performance.

What you should not do

These are the common things that go wrong in relation to the staff development process.
- Send a staff member on a training course without discussing why and gaining
their buy-in.
- Present the staff member with a menu of training courses and ask them which
one(s) they would like to go on.
- Assume that once they have attended the training course they will now be
competent and it is ‘job done’ as far as your involvement is concerned.
- See the pre-course briefing and post-course debriefing documentation that is
produced by your HR department as a form filling exercise. The briefing and
debriefing conversations are the most important part of the process, the forms
merely prompt and support these conversations.
- Get staff members to just learn on-the-job without providing coaching support.
- Select a training course without exploring whether it is the right one for the needs
of your staff. Training courses cost quite a lot of money and you have a
responsibility to ensure this money is well spent.

Summary

The effective development of your staff is not rocket science and yet, it is an area where
many managers and leaders don’t always get it right. Mainly, they get it broadly right and
have good intentions but fall short in one or two critical areas that restricts the learning
and development of their staff.
- Identify learning and development needs
- Gain buy-in and develop a learning plan
- Select the right training courses or learning events
- Have a pre-course conversation to focus on learning expectations
- Have a post-course conversation and develop an action plan
- Allow opportunities to practice, ideally in a safe environment
- Provide coaching support to develop ability and confidence
- Once they are competent, focus on driving performance

Staff Development and Motivation

Staff Development and Motivation Of the top motivational forces in the workplace at least six can be either directly or indirectly attributed to staff development – job satisfaction, recognition, empowerment, personal development, promotional prospects and the relationship with one’s manager. Given this, it would be reasonable to expect that staff development was pretty high on the agenda for most managers – but is it?

On the scale of importance versus urgency, it would be fair to say that staff development normally ranks as highly important but very rarely urgent. This is but one reason perhaps why staff development doesn’t always receive the attention it deserves. As such, the solution for many managers is merely to seek out relevant training courses that fall within their budget and place an appropriate tick in the development box – particularly when it comes to completing the forms for the staff performance and development review meetings. Job done – I think not.

If we consider what is required for people to become competent in a particular discipline, it can be broadly broken down into three areas – knowledge, skills and practical application. Effective knowledge transfer means that the staff member understands what needs to be done, how it should be done and why they are doing it. The relevant skills either need to be developed from scratch or alternatively, can be transferred from an existing discipline in which the staff member is already competent. There are very few opportunities for applying the knowledge and skills in practical situations other than on the job.

At best, a traditional training course will deliver knowledge and skills. More often than not though, a traditional training course will deliver primarily knowledge with perhaps the odd role play or skills practice thrown in for good measure. Given this, how can a member of staff become fully competent by merely attending a training course? The reality is that they will only become fully competent if they return from the training course and practice what they have learned. This assumes that they have absorbed all the relevant knowledge from the training course and moreover, are given opportunities to apply this learning in practical situations. Better still, they will receive some coaching and feedback interventions from their manager or an experienced member of the team to ensure that the learning and development moves them efficiently towards a high level of competence.

The astute manager will not only realize the need for a proactive coaching approach to be combined with sending staff on training courses but rather, there are probably more cost efficient methods of the initial knowledge transfer such as e-learning, books, articles, shadowing others, industry seminars and even internal procedure documentation. I must emphasize though that using some of these alternative methods of knowledge transfer still require proactive coaching if the individual is to become fully competent.

Experience tells me that there are many instances where a training course is used as a substitute to coaching – after all let’s face facts, knowledge transfer and skills development can just as easily come from the coach as it can from an external training provider. Sure, a training course can give the impression that the manager is serious about their staff’s development and it can also make them feel valued but unless it is combined with post course coaching, it is somewhat hit and miss whether the individual will be able to apply what they have learned and become competent. But then of course we come full circle – many managers simply do not have enough time to coach their staff as they would like.

Is there a better alternative?

When I set up the Experiential Learning Center it was just such an alternative that I sought to achieve. Prior to attending one of our experiential events, the initial knowledge component is delivered via e-learning. While we do spend some time at each of our events reinforcing this knowledge transfer, the majority of the time on our courses is spent with delegates actually doing rather than being taught. We have developed a range of high quality simulations and activities for each programme that enable delegates to experience the relevant business skills in an applied situation.

This is supplemented by expert facilitation and timely coaching interventions. And I do not use the word ‘expert’ lightly here. All of our facilitators are experts in the disciplines of the programmes they run. This means that they can provide effective demonstrations, make the right observations, ask key questions and engage in powerful coaching interventions. Moreover, each of our programmes include an analysis of delegates’ strengths and weaknesses and conclude with a detailed action planning sessions so that delegates are fully equipped to transfer their learning upon returning to work.

It would be remiss of me to claim that delegates will not benefit from additional post course coaching and proactive involvement from their manager. However, less time is required as staff members have invariably progressed further along the learning curve than virtually any other method of learning as they have already gained the relevant knowledge, developed many of the required skills and begun to apply what they have learned.

- By: Simon Cooper

Factors That Influence Team Motivation

Motivation. We hear the term often. Generally we associate the word with human behavior, meaning, a state of mind that moves us to action. And even though few of us have had formal training in it, it’s one of those characteristics of life that seems to fit the old adage, “I know it when I see it.”

Factors That Influence Team Motivation

I. Purpose
I have asked people for years to describe the characteristics of their most successful and rewarding team experiences. At the top of almost everyone’s list is a clear purpose, focus, or mission. But further, for long-term motivation, it must be a purpose or mission that they find aligns with their personal wants and needs.

One can be asked to participate on a temporary task force. If the mission is clear, he might be able to sustain motivation for the duration if he feels it is important. However, if it is a topic that is not in line with his wants and needs, his motivation to continue may diminish.

II. Challenge
Another term that I hear frequently when I ask about team motivation is challenge. The human species, as with most animals, has been given a survival mechanism called fight or flight syndrome. When presented with a challenge, our defenses are alerted to move us to action....to run away from danger or address it directly.

Many people will say that their most rewarding team experiences resulted from some sort of challenge. I’ve heard the stories often of mediocre groups that responded to a challenge with heroic success. The challenge itself was the motivator.

In the workplace, these challenges occur infrequently. Teams are not presented with stimulating challenges every day. So the question becomes how to provide challenges to the team at more frequent intervals.

So for ongoing teams, periodic stimulation in the form of a worthy challenge is another method of maintaining motivation.

The challenge for my group was enormous....but achievable. The challenge created high levels of motivation while planning the event; and the sense of accomplishment after the event sustained motivation even longer.

I don’t suggest by this example, that every work group take on such a   formidable task, but simply think about the implications of taking on a new challenge periodically.

III. Camaraderie
Seldom, if ever, in our MBA programs (which purport to be leadership development programs) have we seen courses of study in team development and motivation. That is changing now and will continue to change in the future.

If one studies highly effective groups, one finds that the most successful groups over the long haul tend to address both the technical needs and human needs. These groups are at the same time competent in the work they perform and highly functional in their interpersonal relationships. The group is well balanced in both technical and human skills.
Much of the time we like or dislike someone, it relates more to how well we understand them. And since our formal training has not addressed this, most of us enter adulthood ill-equipped to deal with the myriad of personalities, temperaments, cultures, values, beliefs, ideologies, religions, and idiosyncratic behaviors of those we meet.

IV. Responsibility
In general, people and teams are stimulated by being given responsibility. Having ownership of an identifiable block of work is a long-held tenet of motivation in groups.

Responsibility can be demotivating if the consequences of error or failure are too great. If the organization, for example, has a history of punishing mistakes, then the giving of responsibility is viewed more as a negative. The short-term performance may be good (remember fear is a motivator), but long-term motivation will suffer. It is difficult to sustain high performance when energy is being sapped by fear.

V. Growth
Finally, personal and team growth can provide another basis for sustained motivation. When people feel they are moving forward, learning new concepts, adding to their skill base, and stretching their minds, motivation tends to remain high. Personal growth adds value to the individual, enhancing self-esteem and self-worth.

Accordingly, team members and team leaders should look for opportunities that help add knowledge and skills. A good technique is to simply ask members what they would like to get from their association with the team, then listen for areas of possible growth.

VI. Leadership
A good leader can be a catalyst for motivation in the short term, but the best leaders create the conditions for the team to motivate itself.

by Peter Grazier

Three Factors of Leadership Motivation

Leaders do nothing more important than get results. But you can't get results by yourself. You need others to help you do it. And the best way to have other people get results is not by ordering them but motivating them. Yet many leaders fail to motivate people to achieve results because those leaders misconstrue the concept and applications of motivation. To understand motivation and apply it daily, let's understand its three critical factors. Know these factors and put them into action to greatly enhance your abilities to lead for results.

 1. Motivation is physical action.
"Motivation" has common roots with "motor," "momentum," "motion," "mobile," etc. .. all words that denote movement, physical action. An essential feature of motivation is physical action. Motivation isn't about what people think or feel but what they physically do. When motivating people to get results, challenge them to take those actions that will realize those results.
I counsel leaders who must motivate individuals and teams to get results not to deliver presentations but "leadership talks." Presentations communicate information. But when you want to motivate people, you must do more than simply communicate information. You must have them believe in you and take action to follow you. A key outcome of every leadership talk must be physical action, physical action that leads to results.

For instance, I worked with the newly-appointed director of a large marketing department who wanted the department to achieve sizable increases in the results. However, the employees were a demoralized bunch who had been clocking tons of overtime under her predecessor and were feeling angry that their efforts were not being recognized by senior management.She could have tried to order them to get the increased results. Many leaders do that. But order-leadership founders in today's highly competitive, rapidly changing markets. Organizations are far more competitive when their employees instead of being ordered to go from point A to point B want to go from point A to point B. So I suggested that she take a first step in getting the employees to increase results by motivating those employees to want to increase results.  .

One of her first talks that she planned was to the department employees in the company's auditorium. She told me, "I want them to know that I appreciate the work they are doing and that I believe that they can get the results I'm asking of them. I want them to feel good about themselves.""Believing is not enough," I said. "Feeling good is not enough. Motivation must take place. Physical action must take place. Don't give the talk until you know what precise action you are going to have happen."She got the idea of having the CEO come into the room after the talk, shake each employee's hand, and tell each how much he appreciated their hard work — physical action. She didn't stop there. After the CEO left, she challenged each employee to write down on a piece of paper three specific things that they needed from her to help them get the increases in results and then hand those pieces of paper to her personally — physical action.
Mind you, that leadership talk wasn't magic dust sprinkled on the employees to instantly motivate them. (To turn the department around so that it began achieving sizable increases in results, she had to give many leadership talks in the weeks and months ahead.) But it was a beginning. Most importantly, it was the right beginning.

 2. Motivation is driven by emotion.
Emotion and motion come from the same Latin root meaning "to move". When you want to move people to take action, engage their emotions. An act of motivation is an act of emotion. In any strategic management endeavor, you must make sure that the people have a strong emotional commitment to realizing it.When I explained this to the chief marketing officer of a worldwide services company, he said, "Now I know why we're not growing! We senior leaders developed our marketing strategy in a bunker! He showed me his "strategy" document. It was some 40 pages long, single-spaced. The points it made were logical, consistent, and comprehensive. It made perfect sense. That was the trouble. It made perfect, intellectual sense to the senior leaders. But it did not make experiential sense to middle management who had to carry it out. They had about as much in-put into the strategy as the window washers at corporate headquarters. So they sabotaged it in many innovative ways

 3. Motivation is not what we do to others.
It is what others do to themselves. The English language does not accurately depict the psychological truth of motivation. The truth is that we cannot motivate anybody to do anything. The people we want to motivate can only motivate themselves. The motivator and the motivatee are always the same person. We as leaders communicate, they motivate. So our "motivating" others to get results really entails our creating an environment in which they motivate themselves to get those results.For example: a commercial division leader almost faced a mutiny on his staff when in a planning session, he put next year's goals, numbers much higher than the previous year's, on the overhead. The staff all but had to be scrapped off the ceiling after they went ballistic. "We busted our tails to get these numbers last year. Now you want us to get much higher numbers? No way!" He told me. "We can hit those numbers. I just have to get people motivated!"

I gave him my "motivator-and-motivatee-are-the-same-person!" pitch. I suggested that he create an environment in which they could motivate themselves. So he had them assess what activities got results and what didn't. They discovered that they spent more than 60 percent of their time on work that had nothing to do with getting results. He then had them develop a plan to eliminate the unnecessary work. Put in charge of their own destiny, they got motivated! They developed a great plan and started to get great results.Over the long run, your career success does not depend on what schools you went to and what degrees you have. That success depends instead on your ability to motivate individuals and teams to get results. Motivation is like a high voltage cable lying at your feet. Use it the wrong way, and you'll get a serious shock.  

Article by Brent Filson