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Staff Motivation
Thought for the week: Moods are contagious.
If you don’t believe me, try locking yourself in a room with a load of miserable people for a few hours. See if this prompts a burning desire to skip, whoop with joy and / or turn cartwheels. I’m guessing…no.
If you’re a manager, staff motivation is not hard to achieve, but it starts with you – not them.
Some people radiate natural positive energy; just standing next to them makes you feel warm and sunny. Others seem to exist solely to drain the life out of you (you know who they are).
The majority, however, just float around in the middle – pulled one way or the other, depending on who they’re most influenced by.
As a manager, your mood sets the tone for your team. It’s like a little invisible thermostat. When you’re up – they’re up. And when you’re down – they’re down. (I feel the need to sing the Grand Old Duke of York now but luckily for you, this is not an audio podcast). Now, where was I?
Oh yes…Most managers we meet have no idea how much their moods impact on those they manage. But, take it from me – you have so much POWER!
Still don’t believe me? Try this:
Storm into your office tomorrow morning without speaking to anyone. (Don’t forget to slam your door). Then peak out and you’ll see the worried glances passing between your staff, you’ll hear the chatter subside and an uneasy silence descend.
Warning – If this is your normal way of entering the office you may not notice any difference. The team will have already begun cowering, when you pulled into the car-park.
Why am I telling you this? Because you want to know how to increase your team’s output, right?
I guarantee that if you walk into any business, you’ll get a very good idea of how effective the manager is …by how happy the staff are.
Leadership is about getting people to do what you want them to do, because they want to do it. People will only consistently ‘go the extra mile’ for you if they want to – and who wants to do that for someone who will just moan that they didn’t do it in under 4 minutes?
So..if you want to improve your staff motivation – get happy. No, not fixed grin fake happy (they’ll see through that); genuinely happy.
Need some help? Then put the mirror down. You can practice your winning smile later. Instead, book a Staff Motivation session with us – and we’ll have you and your team doing cartwheels in no time. Metaphorically speaking of course.
