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Why do we do what we do? This question has boggled psychologists for decades. Up until now, there is no clear-cut answer to this million-dollar question. Theories are the best bet we have at the moment, from B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
The Nature of Motivation
But although this field is still up for debate and research, one thing is clear: motivation is the reason we do what we do. Its literal meaning, after all, is the desire to do something. Be it waking up early in the morning to jog or working overtime on a weekly basis, it is what keeps us going. Without motivation, we will have neither the desire nor the energy to do something we deem productive.
At its core, motivation has three key components. The first element is activation, in which the person decides to initiate the action. After activation comes persistence, which signifies the effort the person exerts to overcome obstacles and fulfill the goal. The last component is intensity – the amount of vigor spent to achieve the goal.
Where the motivation comes from is a different discussion. Psychologists say that motivation can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. The former comes from within, meaning you actually want to do the action. Personal gratification is the keyword here. The latter is all about the external factors that drive us to complete an action, from tangible rewards (e.g. money, awards) to social recognition.
Psychology, Productivity, and Your Workforce
So how does the psychology of motivation relate to business? It’s fairly simple. Without motivation, any company would stagnate and eventually go bust. A business depends on the people under its employ, which means that the performance of the staff members dictates how well the company competes with the rest of the market. Without its staff fulfilling basic and crucial tasks, there would be no running enterprise to begin with.
Now, think of a situation where the workers have no motivation whatsoever to finish their job. The company won’t meet its goals, and there would be no way for the business grow. Should this trend continue, the business will crash.
For this reason, it is important to ensure that your workforce has the proper motivation to do well in their respective jobs. This is where Brad Montgomery and his team steps in. As one of the top motivational speakers in the country, Brad has the skill to bring out the best in your employees and make sure that they continue to perform excellently in their roles.
Contact us today for more information about Brad’s services.
You have a great team of employees that constantly exceeds your expectations. They seem to be enthusiastic and motivated, as well as passionate about the work they are doing. The only problem is, they are leaving one by one. They are sending you resignation letters, and you do not have an idea how to stop it.
It’s sad. When employees seem to have one too many bad days, they may be thinking of leaving their job behind. Employee retention these days is more than just about making employees happy in the present. It is also important to consider their happiness and satisfaction for the long term.
Here are a few reasons why employees are packing their bags, and insight on what you can do to keep this from happening:
No Career Growth
It is extremely important for employees to have the ability to grow in their career path. This is why employers need to ask team members about their own goals and expectations. It is always important to find out the skills they want to sharpen or acquire. It is also advisable to offer leadership training and mentorship programs.
When you give employees the tools they need, they will be motivated to achieve their professional goals. They will also be motivated to come to work and contribute to the company’s success.
No Success Contribution
Employees want to know that their work affects the company. The bad news is, team members are just compensated for their performance, and not how they contribute to the organization’s overall success. It can be disappointing to know that they are just part of the process and not the result.
It always makes sense to give employees a share of the profit or reward them for their contribution. This will help make them feel like they are truly an important part of the organization, rather than just replaceable staff members. Profit shares, if feasible, will strengthen relationship with employees.
No Promotion Within
When employers do not promote from within, employees may feel the need to leave their jobs to advance at another company. If you have a new management position, you don’t always have to hire outside. It is always better to promote a top performer to save on time and resources spent on training someone new and unfamiliar with internal processes.
There are plenty of ways to inspire staff members. Brad Montgomery knows that employees need the right motivation to be happy and satisfied. As a trusted motivational speaker, he can inspire employees and help strengthen bonds within an organization. Contact Brad today and find out how he can inspire and motivate your employees.
A company rises and falls depending on the state of their employees. The more productive they are, the better the company will perform as a whole. But if it is the opposite, it is also the business that bears the brunt.
Employee productivity is essential towards a company’s success. But how do you cultivate it in your office? Master the art of giving and receiving feedback. Here are some reasons feedback is essential towards improving employee productivity.
It signifies appreciation and interest
Employees tend to become more motivated and productive when they know that their efforts in the company are getting somewhere. They need to know how they are performing and whether it will matter to them. Providing feedback from time to time gives the impression that you are interested in their work and you appreciate their efforts.
It solves the employees’ areas of improvement
Just as employees have their strengths, they also have areas where they need to work on to become more productive. Through feedback, you give them the opportunity to address those areas. This means you help them improve their performance and eligibility for career growth, which is something that will motivate them to work harder.
It helps you address company needs
Sometimes, a company will have problems that require collaboration between company leaders and employees. Since the latter are the ones who know most of the work, getting their feedback will help you address such challenges to improve your company’s performance. Receiving and applying employee feedback will help improve operations for them, which will eventually improve their productivity.
It takes the right feedback
These are just some of the reasons companies should pay more attention to feedback to and from employees. However, it also take the right kind and delivery of feedback to help make employees more productive.
Company leaders should focus on giving constructive feedback and the rationale instead of just positive or negative statements. These will make employees feel that they are doing a good job, but they can still improve their performance.
Instead of just criticisms, company leaders should also provide suggestions to help make them more productive. This allows people to stop dwelling on their shortcomings and act on the solutions.
It takes motivation through feedback to make employees more productive. Fortunately, Brad Montgomery can help you on that. He provides motivational speeches about productivity and other essential sides of the business. Companies will cause a positive change in their environments with his assistance.
Click here for more information on Brad Montgomery.
Here is one thing about employees in mediocre companies: most do not feel a sense of responsibility towards work. They go through their tasks like automatons, working without a care as to how their performance will affect others. The lackluster attitude affects the whole company as a result.
The truth is this: the lack of responsible employees leads to costly consequences. Cultivating responsibility will help improve overall performance of a company. The more responsible employees are, the harder they strive to meet and exceed expectations at work.
Whether you manage or lead a company, it is your role to help employees become accountable and responsible at work. Here are some things to keep in mind:
Clearly Defined Roles and Organizational Structure
Some employees do not do their jobs well because they are unsure of their roles. Others do not feel the need to perform if nobody is monitoring their work.
Employees will have a hard time being responsible for their work if they are not sure of their job description and the organizational structure. Clearly define their tasks, colleagues and immediate supervisors and set their expectations about where they stand in the company.
Set Employee-Specific Goals
A company that consists of people with different skills and personalities makes individual goal setting a challenge. Employees who feel that their targets are too high or inapplicable tend to perform less responsibly at work.
Positioning your employees’ goals and priorities effectively will help them become more effective and responsible employees. Assess each employee’s performance and set goals depending on their capabilities.
Involvement in company decisions
Employees with low morale and productivity think their efforts will not make a difference to the company. They tend to be reckless at work as a result.
On the other hand, employees tend to be more responsible if they can see their contributions to the company. Create opportunities for employee involvement by letting them exercise their judgment in their tasks. Get their ideas on business process improvements.
Responsible employees contribute significantly to the company’s success. Start cultivating a culture of accountability and responsibility in the office. One way to achieve that is through motivational talks.
Brad Montgomery is the right man for the job when it comes to helping people achieve their potential. He has extensive experience in moving employers and employees to action with his motivational talks. Get in touch for more information.
Motivational speakers have one job—that’s to deliver a rousing speech that will energize the workforce into becoming more productive for the company—or do they? Many companies are foregoing hiring motivational speakers because speakers “don’t represent an effective return on investment (ROI)”.
This may be the case for many businesses and motivational speakers, but this is probably because businesses don’t know how to use their speakers correctly. Managers need to realize that while motivational speakers can arguably only do one thing – talking – there are so many ways they can take advantage of it.
More Ways Than One
Here’s a fact: motivational speakers thrive on energy, and the more things companies give them to do, the happier and more important they feel. A manager can book a speaker to discuss a specific topic for an hour out of a weekend event, but that’s hardly a smart use of the speaker’s time, and the company’s money.
Ask motivational speakers to take on jobs such as joining a panel, emceeing a Q&A session, or even hosting a debate. This strategy allows the company to get more bang for their buck upon hiring the speaker, and it allows the latter more opportunities to improve their image to the audience of the various events. It’s a win-win strategy for both parties, but there will of course be questions about whether the speaker would agree to such terms.
Lazy Speakers are Dead Speakers
We can’t think of a good reason why any motivational speaker would turn down more opportunities to make them shine. Speakers depend on invitations and audiences willing to listen to what they have to say on a specific topic. The only way to ensure that is to make as many people as possible aware of what they have to offer, and speaking for one hour out of a weekend event simply won’t cut it.
Motivational speakers are human Swiss army knives that companies can use in a variety of different ways to get a better ROI, as well as elevating their profile as an authority in the field. If you want more tips on how motivational speakers can help your business, explore the rest of our website, or contact us today. Brad Montgomery has over twenty-five years of experience, speaking at different events, and knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the speaking business.
Advances in technology are helping businesses get the job done faster and easier. The pace is so fast that not every employee can follow, though. As your business needs to transition to new technologies now, it’s best to prepare everybody for what’s coming.
Change is constant, even in the workplace. If you have employees who beg to differ, however, then you shouldn’t force them. Let them know how important this is for your operations by doing the following:
Influence Them with a Motivational Speaker
As one of the leaders in your business, you can ask for help to double your convincing powers. An effective motivational speaker doesn’t only inspire and motivate their audience. They need to have the natural skills to bring passion and positivity to your employees, so you can help improve job satisfaction. In addition, they understand the type of audience they’re talking with. They use a language that’s easy to understand, while including humor to make their speeches interesting.
Let Them Attend Trainings According to Needs
The workforce – not the new technologies – is the most important asset of your business. It’s best to let them understand that their cooperation is necessary to keep the operations going. Forcing them to a decision isn’t advisable because there’s a possibility that they might not give their 100% to the job.
A person’s familiarity with technology differs. Find out why your employees can’t or don’t want to adapt to the new technology. Don’t let them say no without trying, though. Let them attend preview sessions and trainings, so they’ll have an idea about the work they’ll soon perform.
At Brad Montgomery, we understand how you want your employees to advance further. Contact us for more information about our corporate leadership, marketing, motivational, and productivity presentations. We don’t only reach to your employees, we find ways to keep them driven at work.
In my career of over 25 years, I have heard dozens of managers cry about how their employees don’t perform well and don’t feel driven. In most cases, the lack of productivity comes from low morale. And there are many things that contribute to this. Off the top of my head, I can think of three factors:
Lack of Contribution
It’s easy to tell others what to do, but this can be too much in some cases. When your employees have no say whatsoever in every company decision, they feel like they have no input at all. This would leave them no opportunity to voice out what they think should change. Over time, this will take its toll on your employees and they will have a terribly low morale.
Micromanagement
Another factor to avoid is micromanagement. Won’t you feel annoyed if your boss keeps nagging you about the tiniest details? Of course you would! Nobody likes being micromanaged, because it ruins your own pace. Once the task is finished, the result is the effort of the boss who micromanaged the whole thing instead of the employee hired to do that particular job. This is definitely a bummer for employee morale because they don’t feel they accomplished something.
Zero Appreciation
Some people don’t realize how important appreciation is. Your employees work hard and they don’t get some sort of appreciation? Come on, that will surely annoy them.
Sometimes, employees feel demotivated because they don’t get rewarded for all the good things they do. If this happens 8 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week, of course your staff wouldn’t like it and will see no sense in excelling at what they do.
But you know, low employee morale isn’t the end of the world. It’s possible to turn this around with some help – my help. It’s easy to see when your employees feel down, and that’s the right time for me to do my thing. I’ll hype up your staff and make them feel awesome. I have a million ways of motivating your workforce. Trust me, whatever I come up with will be great.
The name is Brad Montgomery, and you can learn more about me by browsing my website, BradMontgomery.com. If your workforce feels down and needs some motivating, I’m the man to call. Bookmark or browse through my blog for more posts like this or contact me for more information about my services.
Each person has some kind of goal in life. Everyone aspires to become successful in a specific field for different reasons. Some who are fortunate and were able to achieve higher education wish to climb the corporate ladder or establish their own business to give justice to the hard work they had to go through in the academe. Others strive to improve their financial stature and get past poverty and live more comfortably.
Throughout the whole process, people who wish to make a difference in their life would generally start out strong. The sense of urgency, along with the enthusiasm to transform, is high during the first few steps. They eventually become tasked to lead others and even the whole business. As time goes by, these leaders become fatigued and they start to doubt themselves. This is where the “quit” in a person usually presents itself.
So, what causes people to suddenly stumble and prevent them from reaching their goals?
Burning themselves out
People fail to sustain the high level of energy they show in the early stages of the process because they burn themselves out. They do more than they can possibly accomplish, which takes away a lot of their energy. Once people tire themselves, they grow impatient and think that their efforts are wasted.
Lack of plan
When people get ahead of themselves, they usually crash and burn. It is important to plan prior to engaging into various activities to reach your goal. This will prevent any unnecessary utilization of important resources. Having a plan will help you focus all your energy on things that are relevant, which will make it easier to be where you and your business should be.
Losing motivation
The lack of desire to finish something you have started is deadly. People who don’t see the purpose of continuing their journey is a product of lack of proper motivation. Even the most regarded of leaders fall to this conundrum. One of the best ways to counter this is to find a person who will motivate you to be the best leader that you can be.
Brad Montgomery believes that better leaders inspire loyalty, reap higher performance from their teams, and develop closer bonds with their employees. As a leading corporate speaker, he can motivate managers and other business leaders to inspire the whole team. Get in touch with us now for a consultation.
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!
