Motivation - Applying Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

The psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a theory that suggests we, humans, are motivated to satisfy five basic needs. These needs are arranged in a hierarchy. Maslow suggests that we seek first to satisfy the lowest level of needs. Once this is done, we seek to satisfy each higher level of need until we have satisfied all five needs. While modern research shows some shortcomings with this theory, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory remains an important and simple motivation tool for managers to understand and apply. The Hierarchy of Needs is as follows:

1. Physiological Needs (basic issues of survival such as salary and stable employment)

2. Security Needs (stable physical and emotional environment issues such as benefits, pension, safe work environment, and fair work practices)

Motivation - Applying Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

3. "Belongingness" Needs (social acceptance issues such as friendship or cooperation on the job)

4. Esteem Needs (positive self-image and respect and recognition issues such as job titles, nice work spaces, and prestigious job assignments.)

5. Self-Actualization Needs (achievement issues such as workplace autonomy, challenging work, and subject matter expert status on the job)

With Maslow's theory, an employee's beginning emphasis on the lower order needs of physiology and security makes sense. Generally, a person beginning their career will be very concerned with physiological needs such as adequate wages and stable income and security needs such as benefits and a safe work environment. We all want a good salary to meet the needs of our family and we want to work in a stable environment. Employees whose lowest level needs have not been met will make job decisions based on compensation, safety, or stability concerns. Also, employees will revert to satisfying their lowest level needs when these needs are no longer met or are threatened (such as during an economic downturn). This places an extra obligation on managers to act humanely when difficult organizational decisions such as staff reductions have to be implemented. Callous implementation of difficult decisions will cause the remaining employees in the organization to feel threatened about the ability or desire of the organization to continue to meet their physiological and security needs.

Once these basic needs are met, the employee will want his "belongingness" (or social) needs met. The level of social interaction an employee desires will vary based on whether the employee is an introvert or extrovert. The key point is that employees desire to work in an environment where they are accepted in the organization and have some interaction with others. This means effective interpersonal relations are necessary. Managers can create an environment where staff cooperation is rewarded. This will encourage interpersonal effectiveness. Ongoing managerial communication about operational matters is also an important component of meeting employee's social needs. Employees who are "kept in the dark" about operational matters and the future plans of the organization often feel like they are an organizational outsider. (This last point is especially important for virtual employees whose absence from the office puts an extra obligation on managers to keep these employees engaged in organizational communications.)

With these needs satisfied, an employee will want his higher level needs of esteem and self-actualization met. Esteem needs are tied to an employee's image of himself and his desire for the respect and recognition of others. Even if an individual does not want to move into management, he probably does not want to do the same exact work for 20 years. He may want to be on a project team, complete a special task, learn other tasks or duties, or expand his duties in some manner. Cross-training, job enrichment, and special assignments are popular methods for making work more rewarding. Further, allowing employees to participate in decision making on operational matters is a powerful method for meeting an employee's esteem needs. Finally, symbols of accomplishment such as a meaningful job title, job perks, awards, a nice office, business cards, work space, etc. are also important to an employee's esteem. The important consideration for managers is that they must provide rewards to their employees that both come from the organization and from doing the work itself. Rewards need to be balanced to have a maximum effect.

With self-actualization, the employee will be interested in growth and individual development. He will also need to be skilled at what he does. He may want a challenging job, an opportunity to complete further education, increased freedom from supervision, or autonomy to define his own processes for meeting organizational objectives. At this highest level, managers focus on promoting an environment where an employee can meet his own self-actualization needs.

The basic idea of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is that our needs are constantly changing. As one need is met, we desire other needs. This makes sense. Will the raise we received 3 years ago motivate us for the next 10 years? Will the challenging job we began 5 years ago have the same effect on us today? Will the performance award we received last year completely satisfy our need for recognition for the rest of our lives? The answers to all of these questions is clearly, no. This is the beauty of Maslow's theory of motivation. Employee needs change with time. This means that managers must continually adapt to employees' changing needs if they want to keep their workforce motivated. Maslow understood these truths!

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Motivation - Applying Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory
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Robert Tanner is President of Business Consulting Solutions LLC, the author of Why Smart People Fail at Management (available at GetToThePointBooks.com), and an Adjunct Professor of Management. He provides training and development, managerial and organizational assessments, and management coaching services. With over 20 years of management experience, Robert is a seasoned business practitioner. His clients include Fortune 100 firms, start-up firms, and public agencies. He is a frequent seminar trainer on management and leadership and was featured in Smart Business Magazine. Robert is professionally certified to administer a variety of behavioral and psychological type assessments including Myers Briggs Type Indicator™ (MBTI®) and Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior™ (FIRO-B®).

If you enjoyed this article, visit the Management is a Journey blog and join the management discussion. To learn more about his professional services, visit Business Consulting Solutions LLC.

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Harnessing Ambivalence to Unleash Motivation - Motivational Interviewing With Substance Abusers

Caught in the ambivalence trap of making a tough personal change? Do the contradictory feelings of: I want to... I don't want to... sound familiar? Don't feel bad-you're not alone. Feeling 100% about something important is the exception, not the norm.

Sometimes the ambivalence is never resolved, but when it is, the results are magic. Like flipping a switch, what seemed nearly impossible just falls into place. The pounds start dropping off, the cravings for nicotine seem manageable, the recovery program for alcohol and drug addiction starts to make sense.

Is it possible to resolve ambivalence in just one interview? William R. Miller, Ph.D. says it is. Motivational Interviewing is the process he developed to prepare people for making challenging behavior changes. Used extensively with alcoholics and drug addicts, the results are dramatic: People who have had one Motivational Interview at their intake of treatment were rated by staff as more motivated. Not only that, they also have double the abstinence rate of those who did not have a Motivational Interview. "Two interviews are even better than one," Miller concedes.

Harnessing Ambivalence to Unleash Motivation - Motivational Interviewing With Substance Abusers

"It's astonishing--I would not have believed it, had I not seen it in my own data--that you could talk to someone who had a self destructive behavior pattern going on for a decade or more, and in the course of a conversation, see the person turn a corner." These outcomes defy the belief system of psychology, his own profession--that more therapy is almost always better.

Teeter-Totter of Change

Struggling with ambivalence is like being on a teeter-totter. One minute one argument makes sense and the next minute the opposite argument tips the balance. People argue with themselves because there are costs and benefits to both sides. Alcoholics and drug addicts typically recognize that there are valid reasons for changing their behavior, but there are also reasons not to. In Motivational Interviewing, this conflict is embraced, not challenged. Instead of trying to convince the alcoholic or drug addict of the benefits of a particular course of action, social workers using Motivational Interviewing techniques help them to weigh the plusses against the minuses.

Margo Hendrickson, LCSW, encounters ambivalence all the time in her work as the Manager of Clinical Services at the University of Pennsylvania Treatment Research Center. Using Motivational Interviewing, she helps drug addicts and alcoholics weigh it out: "Gee, it seems that you really, really like what alcohol does for you. You like the feeling that it gives you. I wonder if we could get this down on paper? Then I would like to have you weigh it out for yourself, here today, what you want to do. What are the good things about continuing to drink and what are the not so good things?"

In her experience, an alcoholic may have two or three things on his list that he likes about drinking, such as: I like the high; I like being with my friends; I am more social. There usually is a longer list of more serious reasons to give it up, such as: My wife is always mad at me; I have a DUI hanging over my head; My kids don't respect me anymore; My boss is on my case. Hendrickson claims, "It is that simple."

Activating Motivation

Miller explains that once the person has weighed out the costs and benefits of making the change, the Motivational Interviewer then asks him or her to make the argument for change. It doesn't matter what stage of change he is in. In fact, Motivational Interviewing is particularly effective for people in the early stages of change, when they tend to be sensitive to being lectured and resent feeling forced to make a change.

A typical way to have them make their argument for change using Motivational Interviewing is to pose the question: On a scale of 0 to 10, how important is it for you to change your drinking behavior? In response to the answer--say it is a 5-a follow-up question is asked: Why are you at a 5 and not 0? The answer to that question is their reasons for change.

Miller cautions not to ask the obvious question: Why are you at a 5 and not a 10? The answer to that question is the reasons against change. "Fundamentally, I want the arguments for change coming in the client's voice and not from me. The natural expected outcome of my making the argument for change is for the client to argue against change. Not because they are so sick and pathological, but because that is human nature. If you are ambivalent about something and someone takes up one side of the argument, you take up the other side. That might be OK, except we tend to believe ourselves. You hear yourself talk and you get committed to what you hear yourself saying. And so, if you cause people to argue against the need for change, you are actually moving them away from change. Confrontational approaches are counter therapeutic. They move people in the wrong direction."

G. Alan Marlatt, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington has seen this work effectively in the program he developed for students who are binge drinkers. After two Motivational Interviews students in his program not only alter their binge drinking behavior, but four years later they still behave significantly differently from students who did not receive Motivational Interviews.

Debunking Denial

The treatment of substance abuse is fraught with beliefs about denial. Miller says that when he first started studying treatment approaches for alcoholics, he read that alcoholics are liars, in denial, pathologically defensive and impossible to work with. But that view didn't square with his experience. Trained in the client-centered approach of Carl Rogers, Miller did his best to listen and understand what the alcoholics he was working with were telling him. He asked how they had gotten where they were, where they saw themselves going in the future, and what they thought about their situations. "By virtue of ignorance, I fell into reflective listening as a way of understanding the stories of these people with alcoholism.

"And it dawned on me eventually that the way you treat people had a large effect on the way they behaved." Denial, Miller believes, is a reflection of the person they are talking to. "It takes two to deny. Nobody stands on the beach alone and denies. If you approach someone by saying, 'You're an alcoholic and you had better stop drinking,' the natural human response is to deny. If you come to them in a respectful manner that assumes that they make choices about their lives and it is in their hands, that they're smart people who have reasons for what they are doing and also have within them the motivation for change, you get a very different response."

Dance of Discrepancy

Miller describes how change is motivated by the discrepancy between where you are and where you want to be. A bigger discrepancy leads to stronger motivation for change. Hendrickson finds herself reflecting back discrepancies to her clients all the time. "They come in and tell me how drugs are ruining their life and then in the next breath they are telling me that they don't think that they can quit. I reflect that back to them: I am not sure that you are going to do this. What do you think?" In Motivational Interviewing that is described as "rolling with resistance." Hendrickson says that when discrepancies are reflected back to them, people turn around. A typical response is: "What are you talking about? That is why I am here!"

Miller explains that there is an interdependency between discrepancy and ambivalence. Without some discrepancy there is no ambivalence. For some people, the first step toward change is to become ambivalent. Ambivalence may look like an obstacle, but actually it is ambivalence that makes change possible. "Motivational interviewing is like dancing. Rather than struggle against each other, the partners move together smoothly. The fact that one of them is leading is subtle and is not necessarily apparent to the other. Good leading is gentle, responsive, and imaginative."

We're in This Together

Michael Chenkin, MSW, LCSW, LCADC is a licensed clinical social worker and a licensed clinical drug and alcohol counselor in private practice in New Jersey. He was among the first group of people trained as a trainer for Motivational Interviewing in 1993 by Miller and his colleague and coauthor Stephen Rollnick. Since that time Chenkin has been using Motivational Interviewing in private practice and in psychiatric facilities with people with co-occurring disorders. Sold on the value of the Motivational Interviewing approach, he says, "What surprised me was how simple, how elegant it was."

"When I use the methods of Motivational Interviewing people respond as if they have never been listened to before. People say, 'I really appreciate this. You are really hearing what it is that I have to say.' For many people that experience is rare or maybe not existent in their lifetime. It also stands in contrast to how substance abuse treatment tends to be done, which is: 'You don't know anything; listen to me.' Or in another words, 'Do as I say or you are going to fail.' It seems so common sense, but very often that is not the treatment experience of clients-to be listened to and treated the way that you would want to be treated."

Usually we think of motivation as an internal process. If someone doesn't follow through in making a change, we tend to think that it is the result of a personal failing. Miller sees it differently. He believes that motivation is an interpersonal process-something that arises from the interaction of two people.

Hendrickson says that a metaphor that has helped her understand this distinction is to think of sitting next to a client, pulling your chair along side them and looking at an imaginary album of their life, rather than sitting across from a client. You explore their album. As you page through it together, you are collaborating with them on what the client wants to do next in their life.

"I think that our clients feel more respected. They will say to me, that I am not trying to get them to do something. It is all about really listening to the client and then helping them to make the change that they want to make, not that I want to make. I don't put forward my agenda-it has to be their agenda. We meet the client where they are at and move from there."

Marlatt echoes Hendrickson's view: "The students like it and they recommend it to their friends, and if they are mandated into it, at the end they say, 'You know, this was helpful, I liked it.' It is not what they expected, which was for someone to say, 'That's it!"

The key from Miller's perspective is to be genuinely interested in and curious about the person's own motivations for change. Questions that are likely to be asked in a Motivational Interview include: What do you want in your life? Where would you like to be 5 years from now? Why would you want to change your drinking? If you decide to stop drinking or stop using cocaine, how would you do it? What reasons do you have?

"Rather than telling the person how to make a change, I'm curious to know what they would do. And you know what? People are pretty smart about these things. Often they have a good sense about what would be the most successful way for them if they decide to do it."

Resonance with Social Work

When Chenkin started using Motivational Interviewing with his clients he was struck by how consistent it is with social work. "I said to myself, 'Boy, if this isn't social work, I don't know what is!" The client-centered approach that is the hallmark of social work is reflected in Motivational Interviewing, as are the social work values of starting where the client is and the right to self-determination. "It is right out of our book," comments Hendrickson. Marlatt sees Motivational Interviewing as compatible with social work because it is not a top-down, authoritarian approach.

Motivational Interviewing seems to integrate well with other treatment interventions. It has been particularly useful in managed care settings, where treatment sessions are limited and with clients where early dropout rates tend to be high. Motivational Interviewing increases the likelihood that a person will return for additional treatment.

Miller says that Motivational Interviewing has proved to be useful in thorny social work problems, including child protective services cases. "The more adversarial the situation, the bigger the advantage. With court mandated clients, for example, we find that this is so much better than trying to make anyone do something. It is not a way of tricking people. It is a way of engaging their own interest and motivation in what they want in life and putting that side by side with their current situation and saying, 'What do you want to do?"

"I want to change...I am not sure I want to." It all starts there and a creative listener can tip the balance.

Harnessing Ambivalence to Unleash Motivation - Motivational Interviewing With Substance Abusers
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Dr. Lynn K. Jones--Certified Personal and Executive Coach
http://www.lynnkjones.com

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The Five Levels of Employee Motivation

Employee motivation can be quite a challenge. The decision on how committed an employee will be towards the organization, division or team, depends entirely on the individual. Therefore, the first step to employee motivation is to engage with each individual. Find out what makes him/her tick. The purpose of this article is to know what to look for when you engage with the individual.

Many leaders make the mistake of applying a single motivational strategy to all their employees. The fact of the matter is that different things might motivate different employees. So how do you find the right formula for each employee?

The Loyalty Institute at Aon Consulting did extensive research on employee commitment. They came up with the five drivers of employee motivation, also known as the performance pyramid.

The Five Levels of Employee Motivation

It works a lot like Marslow's Hierarchy of Needs where the first level of motivational needs first need be satisfied, before a need arise in the next level. It wasn't intended that way. It just happened to work out like that.

The performance pyramid can provide some wonderful guidance to know what to look for when you engage with your employees. Let's have a look at the five levels and see how it can help you to find ways to motivate employees.

Level 1: Safety and Security

Along with a physical sense of well-being, there must be a psychological belief that the environment is free of fear, intimidation or harassment.

Level 2: Rewards

Yes, you knew it. Most people won't come to work tomorrow if they win a big lottery today. This is the perception that the organization attempts to satisfy the employee's compensation and benefits needs.

Level 3: Affiliation

This is a sense of belonging. It includes being "in the know" and being part of the team. This is also where a difference in personal and organizational values can have a big impact on motivation.

Level 4: Growth

Employees want to have the belief that achievement is taking place. I might feel safe, get all the money I want and feel part of the team. But if there are no growth opportunities, I might think about leaving the company.

Level 5: Work/Life Harmony

This term speaks for itself. Someone might have all the rewards that he/she wants, but he/she will burn out sooner or later if they don't have the time to spend it on the other things they want.

What Should You Do With These Drivers Of Employee Motivation?

While all five levels are important, the key is to pinpoint where the individuals and the workforce are not having their needs met. Start by offering a safe, secure work environment and equitable compensation and benefits packages. This is the foundation. However, before you launch those new and trendy benefits, engage with each individual and take a good, hard look at the basics. The young smart upstart employee might not be as exited about that benefits program. His needs might be to use that money to buy a new sport scar. The opposite might be true for the 40 something baby boomer.

Some other pointers to keep in mind:

Be aware of the five levels of employee motivation when you engage with your employees. Make your own assessment of what the needs of each individual are. Engage with each individual. Explain the different levels and ask them where they find themselves on the pyramid. What are his/her biggest needs? Engage with bigger teams and eventually with the whole organization about these levels of employee motivation. Do something about it. If someone wants growth, give it to him or her. If they want work/life harmony, make a plan. And Ditto for the rest of the drivers.

The Five Levels of Employee Motivation
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Derik Mocke (B.Sc) is an energetic, purpose driven, educated, present moment, emotionally aware, fun loving professional life coach, group coach, motivator, father, husband and marathon runner. His life purpose is to help people, groups and companies to find their energy and zest for life. He helped companies with employee motivation for the past 15 years and is also the editor of [http://www.sustainable-employee-motivation.com/]

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Employee Motivation, Engagement & Retention - Use Corporate Culture to Overcome Negativity

When the fish in a stream are dying, biologists don't attempt to solve the problem by yanking the fish out of the stream, throwing them into a clean fish tank for an hour a day, and then pitching them back into their original ecosystem for the rest of the day.

Instead, they search to discover the cause of the problem and identify real solutions. This includes cleaning up pollution, educating people who use the stream, and securing resources to respond to the challenge. True problem solvers use both common sense and good science.

Because they recognize that the well-being of each fish relates to the health of the total community, they do whatever is necessary to restore the condition of the creek so the fish can thrive.

Employee Motivation, Engagement & Retention - Use Corporate Culture to Overcome Negativity

Regarding workplace negativity, a "no sense, no science" approach is often used. It's similar to a captain swerving a massive ship just a wee bit after he sights the tip of a giant iceberg straight ahead. A humorous speaker is hired to "lighten up" or motivate jaded and anxious employees. Workers who are openly hostile or disruptive are disciplined or referred to anger management and conflict resolution programs.

Today's epidemic of negativity at work proves that workplace anger and anxiety are often justifiable responses to unjust workplace conditions. Negativity soars when the surface symptoms of a toxic work environment are attacked but the underlying causes of employee dissatisfaction (e.g., unfair policies and procedures, pay inequities, overwork, and inadequate staffing) continue to fester.

Successful managers are aware that the health, happiness, and prosperity of the entire company is inextricably linked to the well-being of each employee. Because they recognize that success is more likely to result when managers demonstrate high concern for employees as well as productivity, they treat every person with dignity and respect while challenging them to reach their full potential.

The following examples portray the effects of two dramatically different approaches.

AN EXAMPLE THAT MADE EMPLOYEES VOTE "NO" WITH THEIR FEET

Ronald Allen, CEO of Delta Airlines, reacted to financial disaster with a brutal downsizing campaign that chopped about one-third of the airline's workforce. The deep cuts resulted in a startling decline in customer service ratings that had once been the envy of the industry. Allen was also known for humiliating employees, and a survey revealed that his workers were skeptical, frightened, and hostile. Even though Allen's actions placed the airline in the black again, a massive exodus of talent occurred as employees resigned, and the board chose not to renew Allen's contract.

WHAT YOU WANT TO DO NOW

On the other hand, when Gerald Grinstein took the helm of an ailing company (Western Airlines), he spent hundreds of hours in cockpits, behind check-in counters, and in the baggage-handling pits. He got to know his employees and genuinely listened to their concerns. His impressive ability to establish rapport became invaluable. He convinced employees to agree to concessions on work rules and to take pay cuts with the promise that they would eventually have a larger stake in a healthy company. His actions catapulted the airlines into a solvent position after only two years. In fact, Grinstein sold Western Airlines to Delta for 0 million.

Grinstein's successes were repeated when he became CEO of another ailing transportation company. Burlington Northern was saddled with billion of debt. To gain employee approval of cost-cutting plans, Grinstein flew a selected group of maintenance workers, administrative professionals, and train crews from all over the country to dine with him at the company's headquarters. He also rode the railroad's routes, working and talking with crews. Because he asked for and genuinely listened to the advice of employees, they felt respected and empowered, and both the company and individuals reached peak performance.

PREVENTION IS THE BEST CURE

Most of the causes and costs of workplace frustration, anger, and anxiety can be prevented. In an ideal workplace, employees are internally motivated and self-regulating because they are hired with care, placed in jobs that serve them as well as the company, and supported with the resources required to accomplish their jobs.

When companies treat employees with dignity and make efforts to empower them, employee self-confidence and performance grow.

The best employee motivation strategy is to correct dysfunctional aspects of corporate culture while simultaneously working with individual employees who are angry or anxious.

Successful companies understand Employee Motivation 101. They nurture their workers while achieving their missions.

Below are the key components of a training plan I use when I work with managers and organizations.

KEY FACTORS FOR OVERCOMING WORKPLACE NEGATIVITY

__ Understand that negativity is a symptom of the unmet needs of employees.

__ Identify the root causes of problems.

__ Create a respectful environment in which each individual is valued.

__ Recognize employee accomplishments and facilitate healthy social interactions.

__ Encourage the constructive expression of negative emotions.

__ Provide a safe work environment.

__ Shed one-size-fits-all routines and work hours.

__ Empower employees with change and stress reduction skills.

__ Create a workplace filled with humor, joy, and fun.

Employee Motivation, Engagement & Retention - Use Corporate Culture to Overcome Negativity
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Visit http://www.FreeJoyOnTheJobEbooks.com and GET YOUR FREE EBOOKS: "Secrets of Happiness at Work," "Employee Engagement Made Easy," and "Get the Respect & Appreciation You Deserve Now." Doris Helge, Ph.D., is an executive coach & a corporate trainer for companies as large as Microsoft.

© 2008 This article was excerpted with permission from "Joy on the Job" by Doris Helge, Ph.D. Permission to reprint this article is granted if the article is in tact, with proper credit given. All reprints must state, "Reprinted with permission by Doris Helge, Ph.D. Originally published in "Joy on the Job," http://www.MoreJoyOnTheJob.com

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Employee Motivation: Understanding Employees' Needs

Motivating employees can be a challenging task. In order to drive your employees to be motivated it helps to understand what motivates people. This article discusses some of the key factors that motivates people. Understanding these motivating factors can help in finding the right solutions in motivating employees.

One of the keys to being a successful manager is the ability to motivate employees to perform at their best. When employees aren't interested in their work or they're bored, employee motivation is low and productivity drops. Generally, employees are willing and able to work if they feel their job is important and they are appreciated. When motivating employees there are two main types of rewards, intrinsic reward and extrinsic reward.

People are motivated in different ways, one of which is by intrinsic reward. Intrinsic rewards or intrinsic motivation primarily deals with the feelings an employee has when they have done a good job.

Employee Motivation: Understanding Employees' Needs

They do it because they enjoy it. This can be seen more in hobbies or in the feeling of obligation to do well at ones job. The second type of reward is extrinsic. Extrinsic rewards or extrinsic motivation refers to a tangible or intangible reward given to you by someone else. Praise, pay increases, bonuses, and promotions are a few examples of extrinsic rewards. The traditional method of motivating employees has been used extrinsic motivation. In order to better understand how to motivate employees you must first understand how motivation works. According to Abraham Maslow, people are motivated by unmet needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs:

1. Psychological needs - these are your basic survival needs, like food, water, and shelter.

2. Safety needs - employees want to feel secure at work.

3. Social needs - the need to feel accepted and part of the group.

4. Esteem needs - the need for acknowledgement and recognition from others.

5. Self-actualization needs - the need to develop to your fullest potential.

In theory, when one of these needs is met a person will start to satisfy the next need. As a manager it is important to understand the types of needs you are dealing with. Your needs and the needs of your employees, for the most part, are the same. When motivating your employees it is important to have a good understanding of what your needs are to better understand your employees. There are many methods that are used in motivating employees. This article was written to help give you insight on the types of needs you may encounter while implementing techniques that are key to motivating employees.

Employee Motivation: Understanding Employees' Needs
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Jason D. writes for the informational website http://www.myinfosource.biz and has a BA degree in Operations Management.

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Team Building Activities - Increase Employee Motivation

In the corporate world, the most pressing problem is employee attrition. People are switching their jobs very rapidly. From a company's point of view, this is rather detrimental to progress. This is because over a period of time, you tend to invest a lot in terms of training and tacit knowledge in an employee. Thus, when he leaves your company, you lose a valuable resource. Also the problem arrives when you need to hire new employees to replace the older ones. They will have to be hired, selected, trained and then assigned to various responsibilities. All these things have a cost attached to them. This is the reason why companies these days are trying very hard to increase the motivation levels among employees, and to inculcate in them a sense of loyalty and belongingness towards the company.

Corporate events for team building

Corporate events are all about this these days. If your company is planning to organise some, you must ensure that they are conducted extremely smoothly, without any glitches. This is the reason why you must consider hiring the services of a good event management company. These companies are professionals in organising various corporate team building events. These events give your employees a break from the hard work they have to do routinely. They also teach employees the value of working as a team, and inculcate in them a sense of loyalty and trust for the company.

Team Building Activities - Increase Employee Motivation

Team building activities

Team building exercises organised by these companies aim at inculcating among the teams a sense of commitment and understanding. These exercises help members of a team break the ice between them, and understand each other better. They also help employees understand the value of working as a team, and what can happen if people give their individual egos and needs more importance. This is accomplished with some amazingly creative team building challenges, like obstacle courses which teams have to accomplish together. Only when they work together and synergise, they will be able to win. It is a lot of fun, and your employees will enjoy every minute while they learn a lot.

Fun team building games and parties

Team building games, which mainly aim towards ice breaking and try to teach employees the importance of effective communication, are very well loved by all kinds of employees. Your employees will be asked to play simple games and perform group activities which will require them to work together. Some examples for this include developing a collage. A corporate team building exercise like this is extremely effective, because of its innovative and non-pressurising, non-boring style.

The most loved are themed parties. Simple themes may be given to employees, which are hilarious and fun. These parties help employees become more comfortable with their superiors, and enjoy some light moments. These activity days will be extremely well loved by your employees, and they will look forward to it each year. With such innovative team building ideas, you can improve the productivity of your employees very greatly.

Team Building Activities - Increase Employee Motivation
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For more information on teambuilding activities, check out the info available online; these will help you learn to find the team building!

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Motivation - The Two Key Ingredients

How do you get yourself motivated to do the things you should do?

How do you motivate yourself to do the things you want to do?

Motivation is one of the most popular areas in the self-improvement field.
Inspirational speakers are celebrated for their ability to make you feel wonderful. But if you are like me, that high wears off after a while. Then what do you do?

Motivation - The Two Key Ingredients

Many of the motivational programs are "ten step formulas" or other recipe-like structures that make success sound simple and easy.

The problem is that they are based on what worked for somebody else, but they don't work for you! Otherwise, why are you reading this article? If motivational formulas were effective, there wouldn't be so many books, seminars, and articles written about the subject.

Motivational programs are effective only when they align you with an inner desire that is aligned to what you want. The problem is, there is no formula for that!

Take Biff Bifferson, for example. Biff made several million dollars in his widget marketing business. He has written down every step he took, right down to the last detail. He's really excited to teach you how to do it too, so he creates a seminar and explains everything you need to do to duplicate his success. But Biff is genuinely puzzled when only a few can do it, while the rest fail.

Biff thinks that there is some magic in his action steps, not understanding that only when your personal creative process is aligned to those actions can you succeed.

Biff doesn't understand that he can't teach you the personal alignment of thought and intent that lead to his success. He can only teach you the actions he took based on that personal alignment.

This is the reason you have not yet had success.

There are probably a few in the audience at Biff's marketing seminar who think just like Biff; for them, his program will be easy because they are already aligned to it. But what about the others? They will fail, it's as simple as that.

It's just common sense! No matter how good the program, if what you are trying to do doesn't feel right to you, then you won't do it. Either that, or you will attempt to bull your way through and try to force it. But that's like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

I'm talking from experience. I used to think I was just stupid: why can't I get the results these other guys get? Until I realized that I was approaching the problem backwards.

The same applies to self-improvement books and seminars. Eckhart Tolle found enlightenment, but how many people who have read his book have done so? How many who have read "Think and Grow Rich" have gotten rich? I have never read that book myself, but I know some mighty poor people who have.
Like me, you have probably already tried many self-improvement or success programs, but they haven't worked as well as you thought.

They haven't worked because there is a crucial element missing from all of them.

That missing element is your personal alignment to it. And no one can teach you that! However, you can learn to teach yourself! That's the exciting news.
The fact is that no one can know what is going on in your head except you. Nobody knows your likes and dislikes better than you. So the solution is to yourself establish the state of being necessary for your personal success. Guess what? That's what all personal coaches, mentors, motivational programs and inspirations speakers are doing! That's the BIG SECRET to success!

What good does it do to study Biff's successful formula (or anyone else's) if you are not aligned to it? The answer is, it doesn't do you any good at all.
That's why people spend tons of money and time looking for that special program, book, or seminar that will connect with them.

Here are the keys to success:

Key #1: Find a desire that lights you up.

Key #2: Align your thoughts and actions toward that desire.

Number One is the most important key. Folks, if you don't have that desire, that passion, forget it! You won't be motivated enough to create something that people will want! Or have the interest to see your project through to completion with the drive, eagerness and energy it takes to launch it out into the world.

The key to success in anything is doing it with passion and joy, for these emotions link you at the most fundamental level with every being on earth. Passion, joy, excitement and well being are who you are!

When you are excited about your project, others will be as well. It doesn't matter what you are doing. It's infectious, in a good way.

I remember seeing a jazz and blues concert in 1972. An old guy with a croaking voice and an out of tune guitar came on the stage and began to sing. This guy sounded terrible at first -- he missed every note, didn't play well, and his voice trembled. But the crowd of several thousand almost immediately shut up and began to listen.
Know why?
Because that cat put his heart and soul into that performance. And why was he able to do that? Because he had connected with his passion and brought it out for everyone to see.
And it was awesome!
You could have heard a pin drop during the 5 minutes the old guy was up on stage. That's what passion and desire will do for you. It's why successful people always say, "I love what I do!"

Summary:

Key #1: Find a desire within you that lights you up.

Key #2: Align your thoughts and actions toward that desire.

That's it.

Too simple for you?

Do you need it more complicated than that?

If you do, your road to success will be a longer and bumpier one.

The first ingredient is the key. You have to find that desire within you that lights you up.

Not someone else's desire.

If you look at successful people, even those like Mother Theresa who have dedicated their lives to others, you will find that their motivation comes from within. Even the most selfless person helps others because it feels good inside.

This isn't selfishness; quite the contrary. All motivation comes from uncovering the desire that unlocks, for you, the creative energy of the universe. This is the energy that keeps the earth in orbit and the sun shining. It is the most powerful stuff in the universe. And it is who you are!
All successful people have found that inner desire and have aligned their thoughts and actions toward it.

That's your job. Your job is to perform these two simple steps. There isn't any formula or recipe that can tell you how to do it. Bit now you at least have a plan. Now, when you talk to your mentor, you can direct him or her to lead you in the right direction. Now, when you read those self-help books or take those seminars, you'll know where you are going.

Motivation - The Two Key Ingredients
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Kenneth James Michael MacLean has written 8 books, dozens of articles, and produced two movies. Read more free articles, see free movies, and get the Spiritual Wisdom newsletter at http://www.kjmaclean.com/ For free eBooks, go to http://www.kjmaclean.com/Products/Freeebooks.html To find out more about The Keys to Deliberate Creation Course, go to http://www.kjmaclean.com/EMailCourse/KTDC.html

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