I've posted reminders from the sessions and other bits and pieces that might be useful here.
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Use these questions after every meeting and with your team.
Remember, meetings are poor places to have a discussion unless you convene a meeting for that purpose!
3 basic principles for all commmunication...
1. Always have a goal or an outcome for every email, conversation, meeting, sign, memo etc.
The more specific you can be about your outcome the more likely it is that your communication will succeed.
2. Notice what is happening, particularly if you are not getting the response you want.
Many of us concentrate so hard on our communication that we neglect to notice what is really happening on the other side of the communication.
3. Respond flexibly
If you do what you have always done then you will get the result you always get. To get a different result, do something different.
The meaning of our communication is the response we get. This is good news because it means that all we have to do is keep varying our communication until we see the response we want to see.
If you are "stuck" and they don't appear to be getting it, then you are simply not being flexible enough.
You can communicate anything to anybody (and get the result you want) if you are prepared to be flexible enough.
Despite it's meaningless name, this law is very important to us as managers. It simply states that in any given system (like a family or team or department) the part of the system with the most flexibility of behaviour will control the outcome.
If you're a manager it really helps if you are the one with the greatest flexibility of behaviour in your team. If you're not then someone else will end up controlling the outcome.
The original tip has a lot more detail on these suggestions. Read it here.
For more detail, follow this link.
You may like to look at this book list for my recommendations on books that can provide inspiration and ideas for busy managers.
How do you reward people when your budget says that there is no more cash available?
We tend to believe, don't we, that there is a clear connection between someone's motivation on the job and the amount that we pay them. In fact, whenever managers discuss motivation there is a tendency to point to the lack of cold hard cash as a reason for lacklustre enthusiasm or performance.
Managers will often say that they struggle with motivating people because pay rates are not high enough...
Of course, we don't pay them enough to do a really good job. They're asked to do a whole lot more than someone on a similar job in a different company.
Let's clear up a myth first of all. Most people are not motivated solely by money. They are motivated by a mix of factors, in which money is just a part. The joy and challenge for us as managers is that every individual has a different mix!
This does mean though that there is huge scope for paying attention to non-cash rewards to help our people motivate themselves.
According to classic motivational theory, we are motivated by basic needs that change as our circumstances change. Our first concerns are to eat and keep warm. As those needs are met we turn to wanting social contact and ultimately growth, fulfilment and meaning.
Let's face it, most of those who work for us are warm and well fed AND very few of us pay starvation wages. So, offering them a bag of coal or some firewood as a motivator will have a limited impact. If they want more money then they want it for something aspirational, like a better car rather than to stay alive. That's why money is not a prime motivator - if it was then they would leave (as people do from time to time).
The physical conditions along with compensation and benefits are EXTRINSIC rewards - external payoffs for doing the job. Once these are in place though, more INTRINSIC things matter like this list...
Here are some suggestions:
thank you
team member of the monthetc.
I'm sure you can think of others...
| If the job has this dimension... | They are more likely to experience... | And the outcome for you will be... |
|---|---|---|
| They have the chance to use a variety of skills | Their work as having meaning | A higher probability of motivation & good work quality |
| The task is clearly identified | ditto | ditto |
| The task is clearly significant | ditto | ditto |
| They are given ownership of a whole job | A sense of responsibility for work outcomes | High probability of satisfaction with the work |
| They get good feedback | An understanding of what results from their efforts | Lower absenteeism and staff turnover |
Read LCT 75: Your 10 Keys To Motivating Others
These are the notes from our session on 18th May 2011 - Motivation
We looked at the main things that motivate us:
We then looked at what motivates our teams and decided that it was more or less the same list and also:
We noticed that:
We then looked at situations where motivation had worked and where it hadn't worked:
| Worked | Not Worked |
|---|---|
| Alcohol | Appraisals/shit sandwich |
| Praise/recognition | Redundancy |
| Learning/investment | Not having the big picture |
| Social/colleagues | Being fobbed off or left out |
| Praise/wanting to please | When the conversation goes quiet |
| Learning=new religion | Jealousy between sites |
| Being empowered or noticed | Unpleasant workload |
| The MD giving the big picture | |
| Being involved | |
| Having new tools |
Lastly we created a list of actions we could take to support or improve motivation:
Briefly, the first thing that motivates people are their needs for survival (food, warmth, shelter). If they have those then they focus on their need to be part of a social group or belong to something. Once they satisfy that need, they become concerned with their self-esteem (the need to feel good about yourself) and if that becomes satisfied they then start working on their need for meaning - they start to look for work that means something, that fits in to something or connects with something outside of themselves.
That's why money won't motivate someone who's basic needs are taken care of. As managers we have to provide meaning and a reason for working...
Read LCT 72: About Bob in the Tips Archive
Read LCT 74 Do You Know The Motivation Twins? in the Tips Archive
These are the notes from our session on 23rd March 2011 - Time Management
3 basic principles for managing time...
1. Acknowledge the absolute truth that you will always have too much to do
...and you will never, ever catch up. So don't bother trying to do everything.
2. Understand what your top 3 most important tasks are
...and focus all your effort and energy on completing them first. Always concentrate your effort on the 20% of activities that will return 80% of results.
Get agreement from your boss and peers about what the most important things are. Then aggressively defend the time you put aside to do them. Turn your phone off. Work at home. Do what you need to do to get them done.
At first this is tough but over a few weeks, as you focus on the important things, the urgent stuff will become less and less urgent.
3. Coach your people.
Invest in growing the knowledge, skill and experience of your team. Help your people to build a strong sense of capability and in this way you will multiply your own results.
This little book is practical, focused and very readable. It has 21 practical methods, techniques and strategies for getting more done.
Just one of these tips saved me two days earlier this year.
Eat That Frog! - View the book on Amazon| Have To Do.. | Make time for these or you will never manage your time. | This is where most of us focus, most of the time. |
|---|---|---|
| Don't Have To Do.. | You're probably not doing these things. But if you are. STOP! | This is often the stuff we do second. Where we waste the most time. Sound familiar? |
| Don't Want To Do.. | Want To Do.. |
Or to put it another way...
| Have To Do | Do these first | Do these next |
|---|---|---|
| Don't Have To Do | Forget these | Forget these |
| Don't Want To Do | Want To Do |
This book changed my working life. It's a witty and readable review of how to use your time for the biggest result. If you only ever read one management book, read this one
The universe is wonky. Effort does not lead neatly to reward. Some efforts pay off with much better and quicker results than others. In almost every situation, some activity has a better and bigger pay off than the rest.
This is known as the 80:20 rule - 80% of your results come from just 20% of your activities. E.g. 80% of sales from 20% of customers.
1-2% of movies generate around 80% of box office returns.
Sir Issac Pitman (inventor of shorthand) found that 700 common words make up 80% of our conversation. Fewer than 1% of words are used 80% of the time.
Another name for this is leverage. If you consistently concentrate on the biggest levers then you will be able to achieve more with less effort using less time.
The 80:20 Principle - View this book on Amazon
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