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A fat paycheck and regular performance bonuses are never worth it if you’re getting it by being treated like dirt at the workplace, anyway. Chances are you’ll want out if stuck in such a scenario.

Just a Little Bit

A recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that more than money, employees want one thing from the management and co-workers: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.IMG_3453

72% of the respondents said “respectful treatment of all employees at all levels” is the top contributor to their job satisfaction, with “trust between employees and senior management” ranking second at 64%. Benefits (63%), compensation/pay (61%), and job security (59%) round out the top 5 factors in job satisfaction.

Happiness at Work

So, what about the actual work? It came in at no. 11 on the list. This just goes to show it’s not just the money that motivates us to get up in the morning and drag ourselves to the office. You might not notice it, but it’s more of the people you work with. While pay is important, at the end of the day, workplace culture is regarded with higher esteem. Good rapport leads to great reports.

I know from the many workplaces I’ve visited and talked at that an office where employees treat one another with respect and civility is far more likely to be productive. Respect begets respect, as they say, and this often starts at the top, so it’s only logical you should take a look at your leadership first.

Respect in Team

Are you respectful as an officer of your company? Do employees trust you? Because if they do, you’re giving them a perception of safety, which then encourages organizational potential. Following the “Do as you are told” leadership style comes across as threatening or intimidating, which diminishes your team’s productivity. Even if people say they thrive under pressure, you bearing down on them will affect their work.

Conversely, when you create a work environment that value, appreciate, and nurture employees, you’re fostering collaboration and resilience. In their minds, individual success becomes intertwined with company success. This is the secret of effective organizations.

To paraphrase the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, most employees are just asking for a little respect. Trust me, it goes a long way.

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Imagine this; Paula is a talented employee, but she has little patience for others in the organization. Whenever someone makes a mistake that affects her work, she immediately gets intensely frustrated, and fires accusations – which border on insulting – at the offending party. On the other hand, she rarely ever admits her own shortcomings, or acknowledges the contributions of others.

She is always intensely negative and has a habit of “keeping score”; why should she help out a different group when they haven’t done anything in return? She might even go as far as to badmouth the other departments to her own people, widening the rift and creating more unnecessary enmity within the company. Talk about not being a team player.motivational speaker

This attitude has started to demoralize everyone that comes into regular contact with her, and more people are coming to you to complain about it. Is it time to let her go, despite her valuable skill set? While most managers would agree, you might want to hold off on that decision for a while longer.

Dealing with Frustrated and Negative Employees

Paula might be a fictional person, but I’ve met plenty of managers who talked to me about similar problem employees. Dealing with a person who has an uncooperative and belligerent attitude is always difficult, since they don’t really think that they are doing anything wrong. Sure, they might admit that they are a bit “blunt”, but they believe that they are simply saying what needs to be said.

You have to keep in mind that these people are not always intentionally malicious. They might simply struggle to find common ground with people from other teams or departments, and feel like they are carrying an unfairly large burden on their own. A common sentiment among the chronically angry is that they think that they are the only ones who care about getting things done right and on time.

This is not an excuse for their poor behavior, but seeing things from their perspective may help you get through to them. Sit them down for a one-on-one meeting, and ask what’s really bugging them. Talk about their biggest frustrations, and what they wish would change. Before tackling their problematic behavior, making them feel like you are hearing them out first can go a long way.

Sometimes, letting people go really is the only option, but you would be surprised at how much good the right words can do. Do you need further help in making your staff happier and more motivated? Give me a call, and I would gladly help.

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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.motivational-speaker-1

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.

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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.IMG_3355

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!

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I was cruising through the blog-o-sphere the other day. (Doesn’t that word (blog-o-sphere) put you in mind of a hamster in one of those clear plastic rolley things that they run around in? Maybe that’s what we really are: a bunch of hamsters in rolley plastic things cruising from blog post to blog post, bouncing off them and then heading the other way. Or maybe not.) Anyway, as I was cruising, I ran across this article on Forbes.com.

Hey, I said to myself, this article is called “10 Steps to Happiness at Work.” I speak about Happiness at Work. I know how to read. I need to totally read this article.

Then I saw the picture of Beyonce Knowles advertising face cream, clicked on that, and off I went in my hamster-like rolley thing . . . . No, really, I did read the article, and after thinking about it, decided to write about it. Isn’t that what we all took English class for way back in the day?

So this guy, Srikumar Rao, wrote a book called Happiness at Work, and Forbes took some of the ideas from it and condensed it down to “10 Steps to Happiness at Work.” As if you can find happiness at work or in life or anywhere by simply following steps. Actually, isn’t that what we all want out of a self-help book: the magic answer. Follow my 10 Steps, 7 Habits, 50 Shades, 3 Stooges (okay, those were for me), and life will be simple.

Well, guess what folks? Life ain’t simple. And neither is happiness. But sometimes, it could be well, maybe a little, eensie, weensie bit simpler. That’s not to say I didn’t like what Mr. Rao had to say (I know, I know, he’s my competition, I shouldn’t say nice things—but you know, I’m just following some of his advice: Don’t waste time being jealous. I think that was number 5, or maybe 6.). Anyway, without having read his book, and going off of what Forbes.com wrote, which who knows, if the writer isn’t very good at writing book reports, could be way off the mark, and I think I’m digressing into a run-on sentence…. Mrs. Nelson, my fifth grade English teacher, would be very upset right now. STOP READING MRS. NELSON.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say, is that Mr. Rao has some pretty complicated and profound things to say about happiness in the workplace. Deep stuff. In fact, I would guess that his ideas are drawn from thousands of years of human philosophy and religion and wisdom, which Forbes.com condensed into 10 Steps, so they can sell more magazines and raise advertising dollars. (Thousands of years into 10 Steps—Imagine! And with pretty pictures!) Here are some of the steps to a happier life:

  • Stop labeling yourself
  • Don’t be jealous
  • Let go of grudges
  • Invest in the process, not the outcome
  • Think about other people
  • Find passion in you and not your job
  • Stop wanting so much
  • Be mindful

This is all great stuff, and I heartily subscribe to it. But although Forbes.com has the 10 Steps, along with the pretty pictures, it certainly doesn’t have the “How in the heck am I supposed to Let Go of Grudges,” part of the 10 Steps. Or the “How do I Invest in the Process, Not the Outcome, and by the way, what the heck does that mean exactly?”

Of course, we could all read Mr. Rao’s book and find out. But even if we did, we might be back where we started. My point simply is that people from Sufi mystics to Native American shamans, to Buddhist monks and Christian saints have been looking for ways to achieve all of these things, to practice all of these things, ever since cave man days, and holy cow (that’s a Hindu reference, BTW), it ain’t easy to do. (Did you like the way I tried to get in all of the different major religions in there? I’m sure I missed several, but I tried.). Of course I know I should be more mindful, but what can I do now, this minute, to raise my happiness quotient at work? It’s a mystery. One of the great mysteries of life really, along with, Why are we Here? What is Our Purpose? And Where Did I Put my Car Keys?

So how does one achieve Happiness at Work? Short of, that is, abandoning all your worldly goods and heading off to live in a cave somewhere to practice yoga and smoke peyote? Although if you do that, you wouldn’t have work to go to anymore, which might raise your happiness. (Certainly the peyote would.)

But seriously, I think a good start to finding some happiness and satisfaction in work and in life would be to read Mr. Rao’s book and really take the time to ingest, understand, and then practice what he has to say. I tell my audiences all the time that it takes time and effort to really achieve happiness, that it’s something worth working for, but that it doesn’t come automatically. Wow. What I think I’m saying is a lot like what Mr. Rao is saying: that you have to be mindful of happiness. That you have to recognize it when it comes and celebrate it when it comes.

However if you don’t have three weeks or even the desire to read a book (you didn’t read that Mrs. Nelson!!!!), another idea for boosting your happiness at work would be to hire me to come motivate you and your work-mates. You don’t always need a 1000 page book to put you on the road to job satisfaction. You need a motivational speaker on How to Be Happy at Work. That’s me!!

There are some concrete ideas and actions all of us can do to increase our

Humorist

Happiness Speaker Brad Montgomery

happiness at work, without having to engage in deep philosophical thinking. I can help you. I can tell you what they are. But you have to call me. If you call me, I’ll tell you ONE concrete action step that you can use to increase your job satisfaction. To get the rest, you’ll have to hire me. Who knows? There might even be 10. But you won’t know unless you call.

So call Brad Montgomery today, and learn about my 10 Real-Life Ways to Help You Find Happiness at Work. Actually, I have 11 ways. Who wants to just have a lousy 10. I might even have 14. Call Brad Montgomery, Motivational Speaker, Humorist and Expert on Job Satisfaction, Happiness at Work, and Finding Your Car Keys.

Looking for a motivational speaker for your event? Contact me here.

 

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