How to Motivate Others Toward Peak Performance

The Psychology Factor—What is going on in the minds of people determines success and productivity. The application of mind (not technology) and thus management is the key. The fundamental basis for successful thinking is the Self-Concept.

The Self-Concept—people have them, companies have them, countries have them. Three parts to it.

A. The Self-Ideal: who you want to be most like. The characteristics and qualities that make up your ideal. How you, as a leader, act, think, behave will determine, to a large extent, how people around you act, think, behave. We do not have the luxury to be moody, depressed, negative.

B. The Self-Image: how you see yourself. You perform consistent with it. It comes, in large part, from our parents. You have one for many areas of your life (as a student, worker, parent, child, athlete, driver, organizer). How you treat people around you, will impact their self-image and thus their performance and productivity. Boost their self-image by smiling at them, listening, giving praise, etc.

C. The Self-Esteem: how you feel about yourself and whether you like yourself. It develops early in life. Two experiences have had big impacts on our self-esteem. One is the negative criticism we received as a child. We received, on average, eight criticisms to every praising we received. The child develops two negative habit patterns:

• The Fear of Failure--"I can't" is conditioned into the psyche. We are afraid we will be told no or punished if we try.
• The Compulsive negative habit pattern, The Fear of Disapproval--"You better or else". Parents using performance of the child to decide if the child should get love. The child feels "I have to" in order to get love. This is the inhibitive negative habit pattern. These two determine the boundaries of our Comfort Zone.

People around you are afraid of making mistakes and of being disapproved of by you. This explains 90 to 95% of all the problems you have as a leader or manager. Added to these two sensitivities (fear of failure and fear of disapproval) are two needs:

• Autonomy needs, to stand out, to be an individual and be recognized as unique and
• Dependency needs, to belong and be part of the team. The human psyche is complex. Great leaders take more of these factors into account when working with people. They are more sensitive. Woman are better at this than man, generally.

People don't like to be taught, told, or talked down to, because we are a free people and believe in equality. We don't want to be told what to do. To get more than average performance from people, leaders must treat people with the utmost respect and be sensitive to their psychology needs.

The vast majority of stress comes from a bad relationship with our boss. The way you ask an employee to do something, the way you look at them, will communicate how you feel about them. They will sense how you feel about them, no matter how you try to hide your true feelings.

Dr. David McCellan, from Harvard, says that our children will largely turnout the way we expect them to. We set expectations of our children.

Here are 21 ideas to build morale in the office,
but first, four key factors in motivation:

• Organization Climate—is it a high performance environment or a chicken outfit? Sometimes we feel we can't make a difference. Remember the star fish story.
• The Nature of the Work—interesting, challenging work is what people want first at work.
• The Reward System—reward for results. Reward commensurate with performance.
• Leadership Style—it's the easiest to change and get results with.

21 ideas to build morale are:

1. Careful selection of employees. Go after people who select themselves and want to work for you and the company. Give them an excellent understanding of what is required and the climate and culture of the team and organization. Once they come on board, give them the resources and tools to be successful immediately. Hire people who want training and want support to advance. Hire people who are nice, who you would want to socialize with, who have your values and who would be in harmony with the work place and others. If you mis-hired, then de-hire immediately.
   
2. Hands on, initial training, i.e., task relevant maturity. When a person starts, they have low task relevant maturity--they need a lot of help and support. Use the buddy system, to team the new hire with a veteran who can show them the ropes. Do this until they are competent and confident to do the job.
   
3. Clear expectations of the results they are responsible for. Change them as the job changes (which it does weekly and monthly). The number one problem for most employees is not being clear of what is expected of them. Constantly review and remind people why they are on the payroll. This way people can be promoted and given raises and be praised.
   
4. Participative Management--the most powerful tool for increasing performance, output, productivity, and profits. How much people participate in the decisions that affect their work and how involved and committed they are in caring out those decisions. Participative means discussions (not democratic decisions) about decisions. There are three levels of participation in management:
   I. Consensus decision--everybody decides. Democracy rules.
   II. Consultative decision. I want your input and I will decide.
   III. Command decision--you make them by yourself.
   
5. Three R's: Recognition, Reinforcement, and Rewards. Lack of recognition is the number two de-motivator in the workplace. Catch people doing something right. Use one minute praises. Continuous reinforcement will start the new behavior. Once it is established, then intermittent reinforcement will maintain the behavior. Rewards based on performance. Thomas J. Watson, Sr., of IBM, gave bonuses, rather than raising salaries.
   
6. Management by Values--the reasons why. By being a standard bearer of values, you lead. Fairness is a key value.
   
7. Management by Objectives--set the objective and let them determine how to do it, if that person or team has demonstrated the right level of competence.
   
8. Management by Exception--give the person the job and tell them to come back if they need help, otherwise your expect it is getting done as expected. This avoids time to check. It's 100% delegation.
   
9. The Pareto Principle--make sure they are working on the 20% of the tasks that will produce 80% of the results you need.
   
10. Self-Concept Building Behaviors on the part of managers:
    1. Give people challenging work that causes them to work full blast. Stretch them.
    2. Freedom--give them room to be autonomous to work.
    3. Check on the work on a regular basis. Just checking says you care. Always inspect what you expect.
    4. Respect for their opinions. Always delay, and think before deciding, when you can. Just being able to talk to the boss is a big motivator.
    5. Warmth--just a little personal interest in them.
    6. Success experiences--give them little jobs first, so they can be successful to start.
    7. Positive expectations--tell them you believe in them and know they will do well.
    
11. Zero-Defects Approach--set as standard, zero-defects. People are motivated to be excellent, not average. Give praise publicly and counsel privately. Set an example in your own work. Be on time. Do excellent work.
    
12. Quality Circles--get groups together one hour per week to discuss how to improve things. This is a great motivator. Use peers, with no management. Give them a specific objective and come up with ideas and suggestions.
    
13. Brainstorming--conduct regular brainstorming sessions with your people. Use a specific question to be answered. Example: how can we deliver on our shipping deadline promises? Go for quantity of ideas at first.
    
14. The Winning Edge Concept--winning companies are 1 or 2% better than most, not 100% better. There are critical areas that make the difference. Find those and be better by just a few percent than the competition and you will win.
    
15. Training and Education--continuous training and education is a big motivator because it gives people growth. Encourage people to not only get technical training but personal development training.
    
16. Mentoring--be a guide and counselor to one or two people. We grow to the degree to which we help others up the ladder. As they take advise, keep helping them.
    
17. Regular Feedback on Performance--tell people how it worked out. Focus on the results, not who they are. Be extremely specific, not vague.
    
18. Encourage Innovation and Ideas on How to Improve--when they come to you with ideas, give them a chance to implement them. Encourage experimentation.
    
19. Be a Good Listener--be patient. Listening builds trust and self-esteem.
    
20. Appreciate People--thank people for their performance and contributions. You can’t thank people too often.
    
21. Consideration, Caring, Courtesy--treat your employees like partners and family members. They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Everything you do to increase others self-esteem, increases your own.

Extracted from Milestones Inc.