But don’t just take MY word for it—know that science also tells us that investing in others is really an investment in ourselves.
/0 Comments/in Happiness, Motivational Speakers /by admin
Qualities of Employees in Successful Companies
The highs and lows of companies rely on their people. A business thrives if its workforce has a positive outlook. It suffers when they have low morale or a negative attitude towards their work.
Your employees are a determining factor to the success of your company. It is important to foster positivity in the workplace.
Leaders
A good company makes a leader out of all their employees. They know how to initiate and finish tasks without as much as a push from their superiors. Teach your employees to become leaders. Let them develop the necessary skills, experience and attitude to go beyond their self-imposed limits.
Selected Posts from Brad’s Past
We found a few posts, videos and stories from Brad’s past, and thought it would be fun to re-publish them here. So pour yourself a cup of coffee, put on some classic rock, and check out this classic blog post from a decade (ish) ago.
Happy
Cheerful employees tend to be more productive. They are also the ones who will most likely stay in your company for a long time. Keep them happy by conducting activities that promote employee engagement. Let them share their feedback and suggestions regarding the improvement of your company. Recognize their achievements by rewarding them from time to time. Give them opportunities to advance their career in your company, which will encourage them to stay longer.
Committed
Successful companies stay that way because their people remain committed to the growth of the business. Their employees help the company achieve its goals. Share your company’s vision and mission to your people. Emphasize how they are important in reaching your goals. Give them challenges and rewards to encourage them to participate. Be open to your employees; transparency will help them know the company’s direction and their role within the organization.
Quality employees will help businesses go where they want to be. One way of fostering quality employees is through motivational speeches. Brad Montgomery is a renowned speaker who understands that people are your greatest asset. Hewill help you motivate your employees to drive your company towards greater heights.Get in touch with him to know more about transforming your company through motivational speaking.
It’s no secret that not all people who go to work arrive with a smile and chipper attitude. It could simply be a case of the Monday blues or they’re probably still reeling from the weekend. Whatever the case may be, when their motivation drops, you can be certain that it will compromise their productivity.
So how do you prevent the Monday blues and weekend hangover from getting to your employees? The solution is actually quite simple, and all you really need to do is make work a bit more fun. Here are some fun ways to motivate employees in the workplace.
Operation Fun: It’s More than Just Games
When we say ‘fun’, we don’t just mean hosting a bunch of games in the workplace. Of course, that’s an option, but we don’t want to distract them from work too much. They’re still coming in to their job, after all, but the work itself should be something that they’re looking forward to.
It may be simple and almost trivial, but one simple way to make working in the office a bit more fun is to give your employees freedom to customize their workspace. Their cubicles and tables are their own personal spaces, and allowing them to add a touch of their personality goes a long way to improving their overall mood.
Bring the Holidays to Work
Not everyone can go home during the holidays, and for some, this can be a big demotivator as everyone would want to spend time with their families and loved ones during the holidays. A simple solution: bring the holiday celebration to the workplace. Whether it’s Halloween, Mardi Gras, or Christmas, a little celebration and holiday cheer in the workplace goes a long way to make work a bit more fun.
Celebration Goes a Long Way
Employees can get seriously demotivated if they don’t feel they get the proper recognition that they know they deserve. Even if it’s a simple recommendation from the client, don’t be sparse in recognizing and celebrating the achievements of your employees.
Try and set a time, perhaps after work hours during the end of the week to do a roll call of all the achievements and successes your employees have made for the week. Apart from giving your employees the recognition they deserve, it’s a fun way to celebrate each person’s successes and motivate them to do better.
My name is Brad Montgomery and I know how difficult it is to interject a bit of fun and excitement in the workplace. Apart from these suggestions, a motivational talk from yours truly is tried and tested way to motivate and add a bit of fun to your employees’ daily work lives. Contact us today to learn more about my motivational talks.
Happiness at work matters, but not just because it creates a stable corporate culture. For the most part, this positive attitude makes demanding work less stressful, contributing to better profitability. It is the ultimate productivity enhancer, as happy people are more optimistic, creative, and healthy, and tend to make better decisions.
The sad thing, however, is that most Americans are unhappy at work. According to a research from Gallup, only 13 percent of employees feel engaged by their jobs. The vast majority, about 63 percent, are unhappy and not engaged. These employees put little energy into their tasks, with some just working for the weekend ride. The remaining 24 percent are actively disengaged, or pretty much hate their jobs.
Not Just Unhappy
The problem with disengaged employees is that they are not just unhappy at work. The worst part is, they are also busy acting out their unhappiness and negative attitude. Most days, these employees undermine what their happy colleagues accomplish. A report from Good.Co notes that disengaged workers cost the country between $450 and $550 billion each year in lost productivity.
The High Cost
When your business is full of dissatisfied and disengaged employees, the cost can be really high. This can lead to resignation, with major repercussions on productivity and sales. Those who choose to stay, on the other hand, will just continue working with mediocre performance. The consequences are also alarming, as workers may not meet quotas and deliver only poor output quality.
Create the Right Atmosphere
The negative effects are interconnected. As disengaged and unhappy workers lack creativity and innovation, productivity suffers, with high rates of product defects and rejects. It is important to create team-centered atmosphere to motivate and retain top employees. Workers need to feel connected to other team members to increase collaborative efforts, boost enthusiasm, and reduce conflicts.
There are different ways to engage employees and win their hearts and minds. Brad Montgomery believes that workers need the right motivation to be inspired and happy. As a reliable keynote speaker, he can inspire the whole team and help you develop close bonds with your staff members. Contact him today and find out how he can inspire your workers through motivational speaking.
Behind the success of every company are people who are not just talented and experienced, but also happy.
Have you ever wondered why your employees are no longer performing as well as they did? You feel they have the technical skills and years of background to excel in your field, but why do they still fall short?
Happiness is the key, and the problem is most companies underrate it.
Science tells you that smiling is highly connected to producing. Tons of research have shed light on the connection between happiness and success—improves productivity by 31%, task accuracy by 19%, and sales by 37.
If you don’t pay enough attention to the level of engagement or contentment your employees have at work, chances are your top talents would exit the door and take with them the endless possibilities they could bring to your organization.
Don’t let negativity hurt your business; bring out their full potential through proper motivation. These few tips will get you started and eventually turn the tide for your best interests:
Workout for the Mind
Rewire the brain to be optimistic at work. Good things and bad things happen to everyone every day, but they can develop a positive attitude if they focus on the upside.
Ask them to write down the things they love about what they do. Discuss the positive things your team has accomplished in the past 24 hours every morning. Feel free to tailor these exercises according to the nature of your business. The point is, you have to train them to look at the bright side. And it takes about 21 days to develop these constructive habits.
Sense of Ownership
Most people don’t want to fail if they know the work is theirs, right?
Make your employees own their work. Tell them they’re responsible with what they do, as if their name is tagged on to the product. The logic is they earn the reward when the customer is satisfied and are accountable otherwise.
Giving, Not Receiving
Peer support is paramount, but the real question is who’s giving and who’s receiving. A CNN article explains that those employees high on provision of support are more engaged at work tenfold and have a 40% greater chance of getting promoted in four years.
Happiness is a decision. Your employees can choose to be happy if they want to, but they might not like the status quo that’s why they choose not to.
Let Brad Montgomery plant the seed and help you grow the culture of positivity in your office. Contact us today and have one of the best motivational speakers on board.
Motivational speakers make a living out of encouraging people to do the things they have always wanted to do to become successful. Even with all the confidence and energy in the world, motivational speakers are still human and need a pick-me-up once in a while. What do motivational speakers do when they need motivation?
One of the most important keys to becoming successful is to keep a reminder of your goals. People often lose the will to pursue their dreams when they forget what they are working for in the first place. The ones who give up on their goals do not really lose the passion they once had; they are just not looking in the right direction.
Better than Cat Posters
Goal reminders can come in different forms; it depends on what speaks to the person the most. Some try a motivation board, where people cut out pictures representing their goals and stick it on an attention grabbing section of a wall. These boards are different from generic posters, because there are specific items there that people can latch onto.
The Happy Bucket List
A similar technique is the motivation list. This strategy is a bit more specific, as it needs to outline observable results before anything can get crossed off the list. The list works best for people who like itemizing their priorities and accomplishing tasks one at a time.
A person needs to include how they plan to achieve that goal with sub-points; the more specific the better.
Motivate Yourself, Literally
One tactic that is growing in popularity because of its powerful effect is the video reminder. People record themselves before they begin their foray into the world, stating the reasons they want to do what they want to do, and then keep it safe. Every time they feel discouraged, they can look at the video and feel the optimism they once had surge through them again.
There are many ways for people to motivate themselves and keep doing what they’re doing; they just need a little re-focusing. That is not an easy task to do alone, however, so contact us today if you want to know more about how you can recapture the passion that helped you get this far.
As we spend more time in our workstations, we work even harder to achieve that mythical “work-life balance.” We take lunchtime walks, adjust our time commuting to avoid traffic, switch jobs to ones we actually like, and make changes (big and small) just for the sake of being happy.
Many do not realize, however, that the biggest mood booster could be sitting in the workstation right next to you.
For the Love of Work
A recent study by Virgin Pulse identified what employees love most about their jobs. Respondents said it’s not the office or the work, but the company we keep that makes the 9-to-5 gig enjoyable. Nearly 60% of the respondents said their positive relationship with employer boosts their focus and productivity at work, and 44% say it lowers their stress levels.
The results of the study reinforces something many have long been following—that showing some love to employees and making it clear the company cares for them is a great way to boost engagement and win them over for the long haul.
This is what our presentations always emphasize. We give talks during meetings and events to help organizations improve in terms of leadership, marketing, motivation, and productivity. We do this because we understand that a happy workplace is a productive one; that the secret to having a competitive edge relies on how well your team performs; and that a little motivation can go a long way.
Time Spent Well
The average American worker spends about 47.5 hours a week in the office, with some spending more time with co-workers than with friends or family. This just shows the importance of keeping everyone happy and motivated in the workplace.
Social connections are essential to our health and well-being, especially at the office. Employers are starting to see the importance of these connections, with many taking steps to reinvent the workplace and make it more productive.
Camaraderie and motivation at work have been found to not just make for happy employees, it also makes for a more effective business. Employees that share closer bonds have an easier time dissolving dissatisfaction, which then makes them more likely to work productively and stay in their current position longer. This is one of the things our services can help you with.
We may log more hours in the office than we do at home, but at least we have colleagues who make it worth our while. Giving them a morale boost through our presentations could definitely make it worth their while.
Get in touch with us today and find out how we can help in making your organization a happier one.
In 1905, a huge factory complex called Hawthorne Works was built along the outskirts of Chicago for more than 40,000 workers. Motivating employees then was a big challenge, so in 1924, the company commissioned a study to see whether changing the light levels inside the factory would affect worker productivity.
When they increased the level of light, productivity skyrocketed.
They also found, however, that worker productivity increased when the level of light was decreased. What’s going on?
The Hawthorne Effect
It turns out that it’s not the amount of light that motivates employees to work — it’s the awareness that they are being watched and that the management is interested in their welfare that motivates them.
Start paying attention to your people today, because the mere act of showing them that you’re concerned about them, their job, and their welfare will most likely spur them to display better job performance. Workers are more motivated by emotional than economic factors — or by being involved and feeling important, rather than by improving their workplace conditions.
That’s the Hawthorne Effect.
Applying the Hawthorne Effect
Let’s say you’ve taken a group of employees and gave them specialized training and seminars. Without saying a word, you just gave these employees the feeling that they are so valuable to the company that you’re willing to spend time and money to develop their skills. They feel that they are on the ladder to the top, and that motivates them to work harder and better. That’s the Hawthorne Effect at work.
Employees Become Happier, More Confident
The researchers of the Hawthorne Studies reinforced the power of the social setting and peer group dynamics later in the research.
The employees formed a social group that also included an observer. They talked and shared jokes, and started meeting socially outside of work. When the group was singled out from the rest of the employees, it raised their self-esteem. They felt happier at work and felt like part of the team, and the employer secured their cooperation and loyalty.
Put the Hawthorne effect to use by providing your team with a series of training and seminars. While you’re at it, look for a speaker that’s doesn’t present a canned program, but rather a custom one that keeps everyone on the edge of their seats.
I’m Brad Montgomery — an author, a blogger, a business owner — and I have a message that you and your employees would all love to hear. I hope to hear from you soon!
Often, minimal expectations result in maximum happiness.
I almost ruined my family vacation; but it ended up being one of the best experiences we’ve had as a family. And I think I know why.
Let’s start at the beginning: I suck at advance planning. Ok, maybe I don’t suck at planning. I suck at putting time aside to plan for vacations.
Leading up to summer vacation things had been hectic and chaotic … even the day before the vacation we had no idea what we were going to do. No tickets. No plans. No nothing. The day before we were to leave we were clueless.
Let me be clear: At about 11 PM the night before we were to leave — theoretically — we had exactly zero concrete plans for our vacation. What we did have is a couple of stressed out parents. “I’ve ruined the vacation before it started,” I thought.
My wife was hacked off at me, as she’d been trying to pin me down on vacation plans for several months. But I was really busy with work, and on the road, and kept putting her off. I’m sure I had a couple of dozen excuses, though they escape me just now. ”I’m an idiot” I thought.
To my credit, I didn’t start planning at 11…don’t be silly. I started in earnest about 5pm.
Ok, let’s think this out. Clearly, without airline tickets it was going to be a driving vacation. But where? Yellowstone is cool — let’s go there!
After just a dozen calls and a few web searches, it was becoming clear that we were never going to find a hotel anywhere near Yellowstone — or any other popular destination — because we were so late in planning. Everything was booked. It’s summer vacation. Normal people plan ahead. Check that: everybody plans ahead. Except for me.
To make things worse, this was the week before July 4th… Vacation spots were booked up months ago. On the bright side, only a couple of hotel people I talked to that evening laughed at me. Only one of them was downright mean.
Oh! I have an idea! Around midnight, I decided to check out renting a motorhome: if we’re gonna drive, let’s make it fun! If we are driving a hotel, we don’t need to book one. Right?
At about 2am, unbelievably, I was able to reserve our very own motorhome for the next morning. (I didn’t learn until the next day just how lucky we were. Apparently getting a motor home literally last minute for the week before July 4 is a little bit like winning the lottery, except that it requires a large down payment and a valid drivers license. I was told the next day by the rental agent that many of the other customers had booked their motor homes over 1 year in advance. I got ours about 7 hours in advance.)
Sometime after securing the motor home rental, I started looking into where to drive it. Again, the really cool spots like Yellowstone were clearly going to be an issue. Camping spaces and camping areas in the popular places like National Parks were totally gone. Apparently the camping people are as organized as that hotel people.
So yet again, we had no plans for the vacation that we had already begun. Yeah, we had a motor home. But unless we were willing to park it in WalMart parking lots around the nation, I still had a pretty huge problem.
Ok, we can’t go where everybody else wants to go. Where are people NOT going? So instead of looking west (Rocky Mountains, National Parks, Yellowstone), we looked east. And almost directly east was a giant state we knew little about. So we decided to drive to Nebraska. Yeah, Nebraska. (I’m not knocking any of you who live in Nebraska but come on! Even Nebraskans don’t vacation in Nebraska.)
Yes. A Motorhome.
But here’s were things started to get good. Knowing little-to-nothing about Nebraska made it easy to have zero expectations for the trip. What is there to see or do in Nebraska? Are there awesome state parks or camp sites or….what is in Nebraska anyway besides corn and cows?
We didn’t realize it at the time, but having no idea about where we were headed, what it would be like, what we would do, and even why we were going to Nebraska, was either a disaster waiting to happen, or was a darn good recipe for a great vacation.
By noon the next day, we had packed our clothes into the motorhome, we were headed east towards Nebraska … we still had no plans:
- Where are we going to stay?
- What’s it like to camp in a motorhome? Can we do this?
- Is Nebraska boring?
You may be surprised to find out that we had an incredible family vacation after all:
- We tubed down a river … An insect-ridden, snake-filled river criss-crossed with barbed wire and lined
by dead trees with jagged branches waiting to impale the unwary. The Dismal River (that’s its real name). It was horrible… And we all loved every minute of it. (Well, almost every minute of it. Did I mention the snakes?) - My daughter lost the keys to the motorhome in the Dismal River (see above) which caused a little bit of excitement. But it turns out that we got to spend some time in a teensy little town we liked, we learned a little bit about breaking into motorhomes, and found out that locksmiths in Nebraska are ridiculously kind and generous. (Without the keys, we couldn’t drive anywhere, but hey! We had our house with us!)
- We went to a tractor pull—I never would’ve searched to a tractor pull, but we sorta found one by accident. It was crazy. It was loud. Really loud. We didn’t understand it. I have no idea why it was fun. We loved that too. (Ok, so my wife and daughters didn’t love it so much. But my son and I thought it was really cool.)
- We swam in a cool swimming hole lined with cottonwoods and wildflowers.
- We saw Carhenge. Google it. Somebody made a model Stonehenge with old cars. Very bizarre and very cool.
- We drove through the Sand Hills of Nebraska, a beautiful area of rolling hills and cows, which was unusually bright green with grasses from all the recent rains.
- We ran the side of the motor home into a tree in Scotts Bluff and met some really nice motor home
repair guys who worked on it for at least an hour without charging us. (We bought them beers.) - We shopped at the original Cabelas outdoors store in Sydney, NE. It was huge with an even huger parking lot for all the motorhomes, campers and trailers.
- We camped in the Nebraska National Forest, which is an actual forest, hand planted one hundred years ago in the Nebraska prairie and which is now home to numerous different species of trees and plant life, used for both research and recreation. Who knew?
- We saw Chimney Rock, a noted landmark for pioneers crossing the prairie in wagons along the Oregon, California and Mormon trails.
I think the reason our trip to Nebraska was such a good experience was because we were able to be in the now, because we had no expectations. We had nothing riding on the vacation; we had no hopes or anxieties, no fears, and no anticipations. And to be honest, we were at least a teensy bit grateful that we were able to get out of town at all.
Unlike the The Holidays, which are filled with expectations and hopes, memories from the past, and an unending stream of images in popular culture of how it’s supposed to be, we knew absolutely nothing about Nebraska. Knowing nothing helped us really focus on just experiencing what was happening.
We were ready for a good time, so we found one!
One of the most overused clichés we hear all the time is “Live in the present.” Yeah, it sounds nice. 
But what does it really mean and how do you do it? Here’s my take: living in the past is distracting and unhelpful. It’s filled with regrets and remorse, and it sometimes sets unreasonable expectations. Living in the future is also a recipe for failure, and tends to fill us with anxiety and sometimes fear. The only reasonable answer is living in the current moment.. And what our trip to Nebraska taught me was that living in the moment is easier when you have as few expectations as possible.
What does this mean for you? All of us want to be happier. We want to be more satisfied and content. One way to do this is just to try to open ourselves up for whatever happens. If we can just allow ourselves to go with it and abandon any expectations – good or bad – our chances of successfully enjoying ourselves go up exponentially. So let it go.
How is this day gonna go? That meeting you are geared up for? The interaction you are a little nervous about? Who knows? Let it go…. Enjoy the fact that you don’t know; it makes you better.
Putting pennies on the train tracks in Nebraska.
—
Looking for a Nebraska motivational speaker? Or just a speaker who really likes tractor pulls and small-town-diner-pie? Brad Montgomery is a funny motivational speaker — who only sometimes is found driving around rural America. Contact us here.
