Last month, I was asked to give a keynote presentation to the sales force of iHeart Radio, Cleveland OH. They were interested in motivation and how it’s connected to the success of the individual and the organization.
Having studied this exact topic for more than 30 years, this was right up my alley. So of course I said, “Yes! I’d love to.”
Here is what I said. I pass it along to you in the hope that it will be a springboard for your own motivation, both personally and organizationally.
I have always been curious about the conditions under which individuals and organizations pull together. And under what conditions do they pull apart and fail in their pursuit of greatness.
I can trace my interest in this back to a question I asked my parents right after I started my first job. “Why does my manager _________ “? I don’t recall exactly what my manager did, but I do know I perceived it as being negative. Extremely. But I can recall exactly what my parents’ replies were.
My dad said, “Don’t expect to like your boss. Or even your job. You work to live. Suck it up.”
My mother, always the counter to my dad, said, “Each of us is given great gifts and talents. You will have to discover yours, develop them, and find a place to work that you love and where you can make a contribution. Follow your bliss.”
My dad’s comment didn’t sit very well with me. And while I didn’t really understand back then what my mother was saying, I knew her vision fit me better than a lifetime of “suck it up.”
Today, I know that you and I spen
d more time at work and with our co-workers than with our family. So I believe that investment of time should be a labor of love and return great satisfaction. What do you believe?
I know that when we love our work, co-workers, and clients that our performance is better. Do you have personal experience that confirms this? Or denies it?
My belief is that the foundation of motivation is a combination of four factors, working in concert to achieve success. The formula I use is this:
Passion + Competence + Values + Commitment = High Performance and Success.
Motivation is the ability to keep each of these elements growing and strong. Everything in the external environment works to help, hinder, or deplete these elements.
There is a way to supercharge this formula that I use with my clients. Here it is.
Clarify your vision
Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, puts vision as the first of his “12 Natural Laws of Building a Great Business.” If you aren’t clear on where you want to go and what you want to be, you will have an extremely difficult time of getting there. As the Cheshire Cat told Alice when she asked which path to take but she didn’t know where she wanted to go, “Then, my dear, it doesn’t matter.” Clearly, to reach your goals you have to know where they are and what they look like. Take a moment to write down your vision, but do it in a present tense narrative: “I am Cleveland’s leading provider of chronico-widgets. I have . . .” and so on. And then share your vision with at least one person, keeping in mind, the more you share it, the more real it becomes.
Be positive but aware keenly of the negative
Walter Mischel, author of, “The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control,” has tested and verified that children who are able to resist taking a marshmallow when they are left alone with one have a better level of success 20 and 30 years later. Each child who was able to resist taking the marshmallow developed a strategy to help. These children were also able to create strategies for overcoming roadblocks in later life. They were goal-oriented and had the ability to delay immediate gratification in exchange for reaching their goals. Their abilities also included talking through the downside, planning around the struggle, and outperforming expectations.
Maintain Optimism
You aren’t just lucky. You make your own luck. What is your definition of luck? Don’t expect luck to happen to you, expect luck to be the result of what you do in preparation for its arrival. Reframing negatives into positives creates the energy that improves luck. As we say in the motivation field, “Synchronicity Happens!”
Have Fun
Work is life. And both should be fun. Work hard but have fun along the way. Fun is not a reward, it is a part of the process of creation. Fun determines success. It happens when you love what you do; and when you love what you do, you do what you love better. In business, apply the hard science – do the right things – along with the soft science – with emotional intelligence. When you bring the best of yourself to what you, you will be able to work serious and have fun, too.
The strength, power, and reach of your motivation is a result of these four supercharging elements. How you apply them will impact directly your results and your success.
Here are a few things to consider if you would like to supercharge your motivation.
1. Clarify your vision by writing it down in a present tense narrative and then share it.
2. Develop strategies to delay gratification and overcome roadblocks. Consider a time when you created a strategy to overcome a roadblock. Have you replicated that in other scenarios?
3. Believe you can and expect the results you desire. Preparing for luck makes it happen. When was the last time your set a table for luck to dine with you? What happened?
4. Enjoy what you do and do what you enjoy. Write down as many times as you can when you have enjoyed your way to success. How could you have modified those times when joyless effort did not produce the results you wanted?
May you find and share your motivation every day, making 2015 your best year yet!
Leslie
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