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Motivation

Motivation

Motivation

I grew up in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and during that time Montreal got a baseball franchise called the Montreal Expos. The Manager of the team was a man named Gene Mauch. He had a storied career and was instrumental in selling baseball to the Montreal community. Montreal has a bit of baseball history as Jackie Robinson started his professional baseball career playing for the Montreal Royals. In the early years the Expo’s made a trade with the New York Mets and obtained a shortstop named Tim Foley. He was a real talent but he was also very aggressive. He fought with his teammates at practice. A reporter asked Mauch about this “why do you keep him; he is such a disruptive force?” In his response he said “I would rather tone down his attitude than try to create the right attitude in someone who doesn’t have it.”

I couldn’t agree with that comment more. I have always said “I can’t motivate anyone. If you don’t come to the job self-motivated, I can’t give it to you. But…I can easily demotivate everyone.” So, my approach to most everything is to ask, “what stands in the way from you being able to do a better job?” or, “what is the part of the job you like the least?” And then we get to work to get rid of the obstacles.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams.

So how do we get every employee driven to dream more, learn more, do more and become more? I believe it is helping each individual person to become more than they thought they could be. Creating expectations. I have been involved in this aspect of life since I was a teenager. My sport was swimming growing up. I swam a lot, some five hours a day for many years. But swimming is an interesting athletic pursuit. You are not competing with the other swimmers in the race with you. You are competing against yourself. The clock is your competitor. The only way you win that race, against the clock, is by changing your strokes, by adapting how your body sits in the water. In other words, you make changes. I grew up understanding that to progress you had to embrace change.

Within Learning Without Scars using our job function assessments and integrating them within an annual performance review as a standard within your company you start too can this process of embracing change.  You can talk with each individual employee about their assessment scores. That allows you to discuss where the employees think they can do better. What do they need to do or have happen in the systems or procedures to get better results? You can arrive at a specific learning plan to fill in the skills and competency gaps. What we call a “Learning Path.” When you look at the classes in our Learning Without Scars business you will see four skill levels for each job function; Basic (0-25), Intermediate (26-50), Advanced (51-75) and Expert (76–100). Please Note: we have recently adjusted these skill levels to more accurately reflect the latest results of the employees taking our assessments.

Through this process each employee has the opportunity to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more. Shouldn’t that be the goal for all of us?

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-27

Many of you know that I often say that I don’t really believe one person can motivate another person. BUT. I do believe that any person can demotivate any other person. I really resent when on person demotivates another person. We need to respect each other and have respect for the dignity of work. Do you best at whatever it is that you do. Our elder in our church when I was growing up took an interest in me. He said to me “Be happy in your work OR work and be happy. You don’t have a choice – the HAVE to work.” It was and continues to be great advice.

 Here are some quotes on motivation to give you a lift in this Friday Filosophy #2016-27.

 

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until you good is better and your better is best.

St Jerome.

 

It always seems impossible until it is done.

Nelson Mandela

 

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

PLEASE REMEMBER: No one has to lose for you to win.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

Arthur Ashe

 

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Confucius

 

Never forget:

Good is the enemy of doing things better.

Better is the enemy of what is possible.

Never settle for what is – strive for what is possible.

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-7

Motivation is an interesting concept. Can one individual motivate another? Do we demotivate people and absence of demotivation is viewed as motivation? In Friday Filosophy #2016-7, we present some thoughts on motivation.

 

Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal –a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.

Mario Andretti

 

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you will do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

Lou Holtz

 

Once something is a passion, the motivation is there.

Michael Schumacher

 

Motivation will almost always beat mere talent.

Norman Ralph Augustine

 

That’s the motivation of an artist – to seek attention of some kind.

James Taylor

 

How do you motivate yourself? What drives your behavior? 

Remember you can’t change who you are but you can change your behavior.

 

The time is now.