Coffee is for fucking closers and I'm not joking

Motivation is a really difficult task and I believe as a leader you have to gauge what your staff needs. Certain types of motivation are beneficial in the right situation, like Glengary Glen Ross. A lot of people think this is dramatized, but sales organizations have used fear tactics in the past and have had great results, so why not "put the fear of God" in your employees on a day to day basis? Burnout.

Some times people do need a little kick to get them going, but the popular images of being chained to a desk or slaving a way for no purpose come from managers who either under-motivate or use too many scare tactics. So, how do you know what to do? Well, I think everything we have learned so far in this class leads up to this. To name a few examples, EQ helps you understand what is going on with your staff, good communication will allow you to understand what your staff needs and then the proper delivery comes from the image your staff has of you which comes from rapport building, your "power" and connections to the team. If you do all of this, then you can tell if your staff needs a kick, needs to be nurtured or left alone.

The key thing is nothing is perfect and if you are unsure, a softer approach may be the best one to start with so as to not scare anyone off and create a hostile environment. However if you know your staff, and the situation is bad... it may be time to bring out the brass balls and scare the hell out of them.

The one thing missing from the Glengary segment we watched is what to do as follow-up. From working in various sales type organizations, I have found that if you use the "hard" tactics, you need to follow up with some form of nurturing tactic to really make it work. I don't think you can truly scare some one into working these days, all though the economy is bad, and situations are tough, people can still walk away, and that is the last thing you want to do. So, what do you do? Well, if I were in a situation where I felt that the only thing that would help my staff was a strong dose of reality, I would not end the meeting with that. I would help present a plan of action and what I would do to help the staff meet their goals because at the end of the day, the manager is a team leader, and if the team fails, it is the manager's fault. You sign up for that when you step into one of those rolls and you cannot pin it on your team.

So, scaring the living heck out of your team, nurturing them or leaving them alone are always to help team motivation, and the core is knowing the team, but how does one self-motivate? I feel like this is the bigger, harder question because it is all on yourself. I cannot tell myself to really do something if I have set my mind against it, unless it is going towards a cause I believe in. So, I would say that I can only motivate myself when I am working towards my goals. I guess the trick here is to set challenging goals, but stack the cards in such a way that you know what you are working for. An example would be my current job. If you look at the basic task, calling and emailing prospects to engage them in a sales cycle and then pass the lead to the field team, it is not glamorous. Looking at my job that way makes me not want to get out of bed, let alone make 50 phonecalls a day. However, when I step back and look at the bigger picture, and realize this is a good path in which I can learn how to motivate others, and myself, I get excited about the challenge. I look at my job as a learning experience and say hey, what I do today will help me manage a team tomorrow, then it doesn't seem mindless at all.

I guess this goes back to our core values and learning is one of my top priorities. If i can make something into a learning experience, it is almost always worth it!