Develop the Motivation of your Staff to succeed

Duncan Bannatyne tells an Interesting story that makes you think about people’s motivation.

Apparently when beginning his business adventure he bought an Ice Cream Van and employed someone to sell from the Van.

Later he found that this employee was “creaming” off money from the profits for himself!

In spite of this the profits were still excellent.

Heres the interesting overview he made later.

He clearly replaced this man with another he could trust and the profits stopped.

The Irony was that one who was motivated by money made profits whilst the other, seemingly happy just to get paid, produced little value.

He regretted sacking the first.

Of course he was right to but it shows people have different mindsets.

It might be simplistic to say the man who failed may have been lazy or lacking motivation but it conflicts with another example.

Many successful business people have revealed a “lazy” nature so how have they succeeded?

Is it possible that their genius is that they don’t spark often but when they do, they make it count.

Here is a key lesson.

The quality of what we do, using time well is often the key to good outcomes.

Think of a famous footballer who scored at high levels and was held as a hero, who may for huge parts of a game seemed lazy.

There have been many.

It’s simply that they know the right time to act and they draw on skill.

What it says is that we need to know the strengths and weaknesses of our Staff to make the blend work.

Knowing temperament, ambitions and motivation of people helps us to place them where they are best suited.

How many times have you seen a Manager appointed who never had the motivation to manage.

I agree with a Managing Director who recently told me that “when things are not balanced blame the people at the top, not the bottom”.

If there is no record of personal development appraisal for Staff, none of us can claim any ability to use them to best effect.

There’s also a risk you have the wrong people if no assessment exists.

EVERY member of Staff should get encouragement to work on areas of weakness and be congratulated when making progress.

Give them chance to take some ownership of what they do and let them know you notice and value their contribution.

Professionals ALWAYS look to get better at what they do – so produce a professional environment and success will follow.