10 Tips For Motivating Your Employees

1. You can’t actually motivate the employees. Motivation is internal, not external. You are able to motivate individuals with carrots and sticks for some time, but it can’t last. Long-term, people need to motivate themselves. Motivation originates from inspiration. So offer your people inspirational goals and they’re going to take on the task of motivating themselves.

2. Create a motivating environment. Do people hit the floor running on Monday mornings, or will they live for the weekends. Your working environment includes a greater effect on your productivity than it may seem. From your office décor for your meeting schedules will effect your environment, so assess the impact of each and every move you are making on your culture watching your productivity soar.

3. Involve the employees in decisions affecting them. The employees don’t simply want a job; they would like to be part of some thing. So allow them to. It’s a win-win scenario for everyone. Your employees win as their work becomes fulfilling, and also the company wins, since it benefits from the contributions in excess of just those towards the top of the organizational chart.

4. Share your plans for future years with your employees and obtain them active in the process. If inspiration is paramount to employee motivation, then keeping the employees in the dark about your plans for future years is a sure-fire method to kill your company’s potential.

5. Hire motivated people. "We don’t motivate our people, we hire motivated people”. Screen candidates carefully, to check out a history of productivity. Technical skills alone will never be a good enough reason to provide someone employment.

6. Encourage independent thought, creativity and initiative. At Wardell, you will find there’s weekly meeting to go over our progress like a company. Most people are expected to participate and contribute. For instance, one of our agenda items asks each consultant to show something of worth to the remaining group. Its not all idea will probably be as helpful because the next one, but by encouraging this kind of “teaching environment”, we keep everyone growing within the right direction.

7. Profit share. Generally, money is an undesirable motivator if you have nothing else opting for you, however it can be a great supporting tool once you have your people aboard. Profit sharing, obviously, is only one of numerous ways you may do this, but used properly it may be extremely effective. Whether you are offering your employees company shares, options, an added bonus based on clearly defined goals, a portion of your margin, or perhaps a percentage of your profit, what matters most is they don’t feel powerless to affect its outcome. The aim of a bonus would be to support the employees feeling of ownership for his or her work.

8. Offer varied and interesting benefits. Benefits, unlike bonuses, form a part of an employee’s compensation package. And therefore, represent a chance to impact your working environment. Certainly, standard benefits for example medical and insurance can be area of the package, but think away from box too. For example, you could negotiate a price reduction for your employees in a local health club or restaurant. Our clients has negotiated a price reduction for his employees in a local course.

9. Fire unmotivated people. It’s as vital to get the right people about the bus because it is to get the wrong people from the bus. It might sound harsh, but when you have anyone on your side that you would not re-hire because of the opportunity, make them go away as quickly as possible. It is the right move to make. If you’re unhappy with them, odds are they’re not happy either.

10. Thank the employees for a nice job. For a diligent, dedicated employee little is much more important than genuine appreciation. Demonstrate to them that you notice how hard they work and they’re going to go to the mat for you personally each and every time. Never underestimate the need for a “thank you”. In case your employees don’t feel appreciated, they’ll leave the moment someone offers them more income, but if they love their job, it will require more than a few dollars to lure them.

reference link: http://www.linkedin.com/share?viewLink=&sid=s612279155&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbuild-business%2Einfo%2F10-tips-for-motivating-your-employees%2F&urlhash=ezxH&pk=member-home&pp=2&poster=126489499&uid=5525134851792973824&trk=NUS_UNIU_SHARE-title

Attitude is Everything!

Growing a business is a Team effort

Growing a business is a team effort! There should be no secrets in office. All employees should encourage to speak up if they see a better way to accomplish company's goals.

courtesy by http://www.bnet.com/videos/its-ok-to-tell-your-boss-hes-wrong-secrets-of-successful-startups/6302906?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

How to Deal with Difficult People at Work

Talent & Luck Concept

Why Failure is the Secret of Your Success

What does it take to succeed? Apparently a whole lot of failure. Paul Tough, in the New York Times, reports educational leaders who believe that knowing how to fail is the secret to success.

When things get outside their comfort zone, or they first encounter people more capable than they are, they have no skills for dealing with it. We talk a lot about hard work, but school grading generally ends up being based on how well you did on the test, not about how much effort it took to get there or how persistent someone was.

But wait, don’t we want to hire those people who are naturally brilliant and don’t need a lot of hard work to be successful? Well, sure, except that if they don’t know how to fail they are going to be awfully difficult to work with. 

The ability to bounce back from failure is a key point. But, what if you’ve never failed? What if your parents fix every problem you ever have? What if you never gain this valuable skills? Then you’re far less likely to have true success.  If you’ve never had to try again and again, are you going to assume that the problem is unsolvable if you fail the first time?

Lots of people live charmed lives as long as their parents are pulling the strings or they put themselves in places where success is almost guaranteed. Except that anyone in the working world today knows that failure is not only a possibility it’s a high probability. Businesses fail. Entire divisions get laid off, regardless of how brilliant any individual employee was.  Sometimes it’s just a matter of trying to figure out what the problem in the darn code is.  If you’re a one try and you’re finished type of person, it doesn’t matter how smart you are, you won’t succeed.

And what happens if you’re one of those people who has never failed? Never had to face disappointment and pick yourself up by your own bootstraps? It can be disasterous. But, to succeed you must be able to fail and recover from failure.

That means you must be willing to take risks, listen to others, and admit where you could improve. Arguing over a performance appraisal instead of listening to what your boss is trying to tell you are key indicators of someone who is unwilling to learn. (Not that all bosses’ assessments are accurate, but those appraisals tell you what your boss is looking for. Disregard that at your own peril.)

Perhaps even those of us who are long finished with school can learn something from people who are trying to educate our children.

reference link: http://www.bnet.com/blog/evil-hr-lady/why-failure-is-the-secret-of-your-success/2843?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

How to Deliver Criticism to a Sensitive Employee

Takeaway: Employees who are prone to get emotional in the face of criticism are often hard to deal with. Here are some tips for making this easier for you and for them.

If you’ve managed teams long enough, you’re bound to come across an employee who doesn’t take kindly to constructive criticism. Whether that person is prone to tears or angry outbursts, it’s a behavior that makes it more difficult for a manager to do his or her job.

I once knew of an employee on another team who would consistently make things difficult for folks on my team because of her lack of attention to detail. When I asked her manager if she was aware of this, she said she was but every time she tried to talk to her about this, the employee would cry. So, like a bad Pavlovian experiment, the manager began to avoid the discussions altogether, allowing the problematic behavior to continue.

Here are some of my tips for delivering criticism to an employee who is never in the mood to receive it.

Meet face-to-face and prepare a written doc

It’s very easy to misinterpret what someone says when you’re in the throes of some emotion like sadness or anger. Be sure to write down exactly what you say to the employee so there is no question or “That’s not what I thought you meant”s to deal with later. And on this point, it’s important to:

Have the employee repeat what he or she is hearing

Having the employee say back to you what it is he or she thinks you’re saying helps to clarify matters and also enforces the behavior you want to see. I once had to tell a tech writer that he missed so many deadlines that I was considering putting him on probation. To soften the blow, I said that he was a very good writer just not very timely. When he repeated back what he heard me say, he said, “You said I’m a good writer.” He had some kind of turbo-charged defense mechanism going that allowed him to glean only the good stuff I’d said.

Criticize the behavior, not the personality

There are going to be some employees who are more emotional than others. You will never be able to change a personality but you can affect the outside behaviors that result from it.  You may have a support pro whose outgoing personality serves him well in his job. It’s when that quality causes him to extend individual jobs longer than preferred that it becomes an issue. Then you simply make him aware that jobs have to be dealt with in a shorter span of time.

Give smaller burst of feedback (both good and bad) more frequently

You don’t want to drop a major criticism on any employee at one time-whatever the temperament. It’s much easier to deal with small examples of undesired behavior. And giving positive feedback helps an employee feel like it’s not just about the errors. Also, employees won’t dread coming to your office as much.

Don’t enable the emotions

If the employee starts to cry or gets angry, stop the conversation and ask if she needs a moment. Don’t end the conversation and schedule it for a later date. If you do that, you’re only allowing the employee to think that the outbursts “work” to deflate criticism. Allow the employee to get it together and then resume the conversation.

reference link: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/career/how-to-deliver-criticism-to-a-sensitive-employee/3480?tag=nl.e106

Human Attitude 'which category do you belong'

Three types of human attitude

It's believed that there are three categories of human attitude/nature. The first category comprises those who have ''You're right, I'm wrong'' attitude, the second category has this ''I'm right, you're wrong'' attitude, and the third sect believes in ''You're right, so am I'' attitude.

Those under "You're right, I'm wrong" category are the ones, who're generally subservient and who easily concur with views/opinions of all people. Since they don't nurture individual perceptions and perspectives about any matter, they instantly conform to others' thinking pattern. As they are always part of a herd, they never antagonize anyone, nor do they get alienated from any group. Due to lack of spunk in them, they can never stand up for themselves, leave alone standing up for others. Those folks belonging to "I'm right, you're wrong" category, always vociferate their views with vehemence. They keep finding ways of advertising their potential and prowess in everything. They often embark on 'sparring sessions' with everyone, just to prove what they think/believe is the universal truth. They make sure none surpasses them in any arena, since they simply can't accept defeat of any sort. They feel it's some stupendous achievement, when they have the last word in all their squabbles/arguments. The human-folks of "You're right and so am I" category are the most prudent and pragmatic lot, with oodles of sagacity in them. They are never credulous  or pushovers, and are impervious to any influences. Though they are prepared to assimilate good points from other people (and even acknowledge others' good qualities), they live life on self-dictated terms. Being good listeners, they respect others' standpoints, but finally do what they deem it right. Being always phlegmatic and complacent, they enjoy life to the hilt. They never take dubious/devious routes to attain success, nor do they pull someone down to climb the success ladder. They seldom inflict pain on others, nor do they get flustered by others' bad demeanour. They are so confident of themselves that they don't bother proving their skills/intelligence before others. To encapsulate, they are the unpretentious lot, who always emerge victors in life's all spheres. So, to which category do you belong? reference link: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/93209/banner-300x250.swf

How to Be Like a Perfect Product

Breakfast with orange juice. Every day of your life. Sweet, tangy orange juice. Perfection in a glass. It works. It delivers. It does the job.

What’s that got to do with anything like business, management, leadership, or your career? Everything.

You want to be like orange juice. You want your product to be like orange juice. You want your company to be like orange juice. It delivers on a promise, day in, day out, every time. You want to be like that.

Think about it. In a hypercompetitive world where everybody has a voice and every product has a level playing field called the Internet, in a business environment where differentiation is priceless, if you can deliver the way orange juice does, you can make a dent in the world.

Not convinced? Okay. How about this? There’s something called too much of a good thing. You can max out, play out, overdo pretty much anything. Can you imagine watching Real Housewives every day for your entire life? How about listening to Green Day? Or eating pizza?

You might love it that much, but you’re the exception. There are very few things that so perfectly do the job that, day in, day out, most people can eat, drink, watch, or listen to it, know it will always deliver on its promise, and never get sick of it. That’s orange juice.

You can say that’s a matter of personal preference, but it’s not. Not good old OJ. It’s so widely accepted as the morning breakfast drink that every hotel in every city in every country serves it with its morning buffet. It’s in just about every refrigerator. It’s perfect.

If you - as a manager, executive, business owner, marketer, leader, whatever - can deliver the goods the way orange juice does, then you’ll go far in this world. Here are some recent and noteworthy examples:

President Obama. Talk about failing to deliver on a promise. He promised change, that things will be different, that Washington won’t be politics as usual. He promised to bridge both sides of the aisle. He promised us OJ, told us it was OJ, put it in an OJ container, but to me, it tastes like Kool Aid.

Say what you want about Bill Clinton, but he delivered the OJ. Not right away. It took a while for him to get the process right, but he listened to his constituents and ultimately, he delivered the goods. And he’ll always be remembered as a president who ultimately delivered, even if he did have his … issues.

That’s the first important point about OJ. You can have some glitches or make some mistakes along the way - we all do - as long as you deliver the goods, in the end. Nobody’s perfect.

Carol Bartz. She definitely made OJ as long-time CEO of engineering software-maker Autodesk. And she seemed to be making all the right moves out of the gate at Yahoo, but in the end, she couldn’t deliver. Guess she didn’t have the chops for the brave new world dominated by the likes of Facebook, Apple, and Google.

Which brings us to the second important point. A CEO, a leader, pretty much anyone, can make OJ at one company or in one situation, but not necessarily at another. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Some have managed to pull it off - Lou Gerstner at American Express and IBM, Steve Jobs at Pixar and Apple, Mark Hurd atNCR and HP - but they’re few and far between.

Sony. Back in the day, Sony made damn good OJ. Trinitron TVs. The Walkman. The Betamax. The Compact Disc player (with Philips). Today, Sony says it makes OJ, but if so, it’s not the good stuff, like fresh squeezed or anything. It’s like reconstituted frozen OJ, the kind anyone can make. It’s sad, really.

That’s the third important point. Not only is it not good enough to have made it in the past, you can’t just say you make it, either. You’ve got to deliver and keep delivering the goods if you want your customers to keep coming back. The same goes for keeping your job, getting hired, or even getting reelected.

Now, don’t make the mistake of thinking this juicy little analogy is simplistic or trite. It’s not. It’s entirely accurate in describing what it takes for a company, a business, a manager, a CEO, a leader, pretty much anybody, to consistently deliver the goods and maintain a strong brand in a competitive market.

If you look back through history, every great company has had its glitches: Coca Cola, IBM, Toyota, Cisco, there are no exceptions because, in time, stuff happens. The same goes for every great leader or executive. Nobody’s perfect.

Still, we’ve all got to strive for something. So we set our sights, lock in our trajectory, and try our best to deliver the goods. If you can do that - make a promise and deliver on it on a consistent basis - then you’re a rare commodity in this world, that’s for sure.

reference link: http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/how-to-be-like-a-perfect-product/8449?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

The Power of Progress

Five Leadership Secrets Marc Benioff's

I’ll admit it. The first time I saw Marc Benioffspeak, I wasn’t that impressed. The chief executive of Salesforce.com wasn’t a typical suave, clean-cut CEO. He didn’t have the black turtleneck cool of Steve Jobs. He came off as a little cheesy.

Yet a couple of weeks ago at Dreamforce 2011, Salesforce.com’s annual user conference, I was honestly in awe. And it wasn’t just because Benioff put together the largest technology conference in the industry or because his company is worth billions and is taking over the IT world. Okay, maybe it was a little because of that.

A lot of people wrote a few weeks ago about what they learned from Steve Jobs. Indeed, even Benioff talked about it. Yet as someone who has spent most of his career selling technology to businesses, I think we can all learn a lot from Benioff, and not just from his business model and technology. Here are a few lessons we can all learn in terms of vision and leadership:

1. Be inclusive. At Dreamforce, I think I heard the term “you” (spoken to the audience) at least a hundred times. “You created the social enterprise.” “You told us you need mobility.” Every presentation involved customer case studies. Salesforce even featured a video from KLM, the airline, that wasn’t related to Salesforce.com at all, but just illustrated a creative use of social media. Benioff clearly wants Salesforce.com to be a community, not just a company. And a community is much harder to stop.

Video: Salesforce Explains The 'Social Enterprise'

Video: Marc Benioff on Battling Microsoft

2. Be confrontational. Benioff is not afraid to pick a fight. In fact, he seems to enjoy it. You can’t listen to him give a presentation without hearing a swipe atOracle and a jab at Bill Gates. He wants to create a narrative about the Salesforce.com community being a revolution against the old guard. Indeed, he even referred to the Arab Spring and a revolution happening in corporate America, in which old guard CEOs, who don’t get the social enterprise, are falling like Qaddafi. He’s calling out his own customers. Many of us in the CEO role are afraid to be provocative. We want to make friends and avoid enemies. And this is good. But playing nice to a fault doesn’t make headlines. And, more important, it doesn’t inspire people—whether they are employees or customers.

3. Be evolving. The term pivot has become almost cliché in the startup world. But while changing directions is impressive and imperative, it’s relatively easy for five people in a garage and much harder forbig enterprises. Although Salesforce isn’t Hewlett-Packard yet, it’s not easy to get 5,000 employees to do a 180. Salesforce.com had a good thing going, crushing Siebel with software-as-a-service for CRM (customer relation management). But Benioff saw the arrival of cloud computing, and software-as-a-service was suddenly a thing of the past. Then, just as cloud computing became hot, he perceived the next trend in social media, and shifted his focus to redefining the “social enterprise.” Each time he pivots, he makes the previous phase (for instance, cloud computing) seem obvious and de facto, further cementing his company’s position. And none of his competitors can keep up.

4. Be imitating. For all the flak Benioff gives Microsoft for copying innovations from Apple and others, he’s absolutely willing to imitate where appropriate. Check out Chatter. Benioff openly admits that it’s designed to look like a Facebook inside Salesforce.com. He realized that people understood Facebook, and that enterprises needed a corporate equivalent. He didn’t try to reinvent the wheel and devise a user interface to be more “enterprise-friendly” than Facebook. He almost literally copied the look and feel we all know, down to the latest Chatter Now instant messaging feature, which is a doppelganger of Facebook Chat. The UI may not be innovative, but for corporate users who’ve gone blind after years of looking at 1980s-designed SAP user interfaces, Facebook at work is refreshing and exciting.

5. Be infectious. If you’ve ever been to an IT conference, you realize that if there is a hell it probably includes the typical IT trade show. Bored customers race past booths seeking out free T-shirts, watered down drinks, and scantily clad booth babes. If customers do stop at your booth, they are most likely just eyeing your giveaways, your staff, or both. Yet my company exhibited at Dreamforce this year and we were mobbed. And, no, it wasn’t because our cheesy giveaways were any better than our neighbor’s. Every booth was mobbed. Customers actually wanted to talk and learn. They were excited. In many ways, Salesforce.com has done the unthinkable and made customers feel that they aren’t fighting with vendors, that they and vendors are shoulder-to-shoulder together on the right side of history in an epic battle.

What I first saw as cheesy in Benioff, I now respect as genuine passion. He really believes there is a revolution. Or at least that’s what it feels like. And then you start believing it too.

Reference link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2011/09/14/marc-benioffs-five-leadership-secrets/?partner=contextstory

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