Tony Robbins has identified six basic human needs and believes everyone is—or can be—motivated by their desire to fulfill these needs.

You may want to consider these needs when thinking about developing your team members The question to ask is, “What need or needs do my team have that will enable them to fulfill their job roles effectively?”

1. Certainty/Comfort. We all want comfort. And much of this comfort comes from certainty. Of course there is no ABSOLUTE certainty, but we want certainty our computer will start up, the canteen will be open when we want it to be and our job will still be there when we wake up tomorrow morning .

2. Variety. At the same time as we want certainty, we also crave variety. Paradoxically, there needs to be enough UNcertainty to provide spice and adventure in our lives.

3. Significance. Deep down, we all want to be important. We want our life to have meaning and significance. Can you imagine looking back on your life and wondering whether you made a difference and coming to the conclusion that you didn’t? There’s not many things worse than that.

4. Connection/Love. It would be hard to argue against the need for connection with other people. We want to feel part of a community. We want to be cared for and cared about. Abraham Maslow called it our need to ‘belong’. It’s the essence of teamwork. It’s what we crave for when we work with others.

5. Growth. There could be some people who say they don’t want to grow, but that’s probably because they have goals that don’t inspire them (or no goals at all). To become better, to improve our skills, to stretch and excel may be more evident in some than others, but it’s there. Try creating goals for the team that will provide rewards other than money, and see which team members go for it. Those who don’t may have died mentally, but not told you!

6. Contribution. The desire to contribute something of value—to help others, to make the world a better place than we found it is in all of us. Take that need away, and you lose all motivation.

Action Point
Evaluate this list to better understand your personal motivations and examine which ones seem the most significant to you. Then, look at what you do to fulfill the needs of other team members. It will likely make a difference in what and how you do what you do. It also should make a difference in the way you describe and explain what you and your products can do.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Manager Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

Appreciative Inquiry is a newer term not many of you may be familiar with. It is, in short, the act of learning about and appreciating the values that those around us have to offer.

You’ve heard the phrase “find the best in others.” That’s exactly what appreciateive inquiry is about. In business, and as a manager, it’s your responsibility to work with people until you uncover their positive traits – the traits you and your team can use and appreciate.

According to Carol Wilson, there are four main stages when it comes to appreciative inquiry. They are:

1. Discovery
2. Dream
3. Design
4. Destiny

You start by discovering what you have – learning about what is working for your team right now and what could potentially change based on the traits and skills you have uncovered. You then take the time to think about (or dream up) the best possible outcome possible. After you have an idea, you have to design a plan that will bring those dreams to fruition. You then determine the destiny by figuring out exactly how your design can most naturally exist, combining both new and existing resources without upsetting the old systems.

You must evolve and emerge.

Appreciative inquiry isn’t about forcing change. It’s about learning about the traits, skills, and characteristics of your team members you didn’t realize existed and allowing them to evolve naturally into your processes – with a little encouragement, of course!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Courses

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

A very respected business theoriest known as Dr. Ichak Adizes outlined a very interesting theory regarding the life cycle corporations go through. Formally known as the Corporate Life Cycle Model, the theory contains 10 distinct stages each business must pass through as it moves from a simple idea, through realization, and to its ultimate end.

Let’s first look at the 10 stages of the Corporate Life Cycle Model. They are as follows:

1. Courtship is the period during which you have an idea you are toying with in your head. You alk about development, create business plans, look for funding, etc.
2. Infancy describes the very first stages of a business, immediately after the official public launch.
3. The go-go stage occurs when a business is still relatively new. This stage tends to be very busy and in some cases is very chaotic.
4. A business is in its adolescent stages when it begins to define itself but still experiences growth.
5. The prime stage of any business model occurs when it is at it’s most profitable and competitive point.
6. A business is in the stability stage when it is starting to lose its edge but is still considered popular and profitable.
7. Aristrocracy occurs as a business begins to lose more of its edge and market share but still has a strong presence; it can’t keep up with new technologies.
8. Recrimination occurs when people begin to have doubts about the future success of a business and begin to feel threatened. They lose sight of their original goals.
9. A business will turn into a bureaucracy when the administration begins thinking only of themselves. At this point, you’ll notice many of the investors looking elsewhere and key players in the organization leaving for other opportunities.
10. Finally, a business will just die off. It will be sold to another company for the sake of a client base, file for bankruptcy, or simply close.

The trick, in any business, is to keep a business in the early and middle stages for as long as possible. This means using innovative marketing strategies to come up with new products and new marketing techniques in order to stay as competitive as possible for as long as possible. You and your team should always be looking forward, wondering what you can do next to make things better. If you fall into a rut, you’ll only push yourselves further towards the end of your careers.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Development

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

The Equity Theory on job motivation, created by a psychologist known as John Stacey Adams, has been circulating since 1963. They theory talks about how employees who feel they are being treated fairly are likely to do more or better work than those who do not.

Treat me like an equal, I’ll work like an equal; treat me in an inferior manner, I will work in an inferior manner.

In short, the theory focuses on input versus output. It’s a a game of give and take and your employees will alway be trying to figure out if their efforts are worth the rewards they’ve been given (if you’re giving a reward at all).

You may think that the salary and benefits you agree to give a person should be enough to encourage him to do his job. The truth is that many people get to work and feel as though they’re constantly being asked to go above and beyond the call of duty and, at a very minimum, complete tasks that are not part of their job descriptions. Therefore, the average person does not feel his salary matches the work that he does.

Employees look to be treated fairly and equitably at all times. There are dozens of things you can do to make your employees feel valuable, from rewarding them with bonuses to buying them lunch or giving them extra incentives for extra work or a job well done.

First, however, you need to take a look around you. Are your employees happy? Do they feel as though they’re being treated fairly? Find out now – before they all resign and you’re looking for a string of replacements.

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Leadership Training

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

David McClelland was an American professor at Wesleyan University and Harvard in the United States before he died in 1998. While at Harvard, he spent more than 20 years studying the way people are motivated and how they address their achievements and needs.

After years of research he published a book called The Achieving Society in which he discussed the three types of motivational need he discovered: affiliation motivation, authority or power motivation, and achievement motivation. He found that everyone, regardless of their level in the workplace, experiences all three of these needs on some level – whether they need to motivate others or be motivated themselves.

The need for affiliation covers the idea that everyone needs to have positive relationships and, as a result, everyone is motivated towards developing some sort of interaction with others. Those who fall into this category, also labeled n-affil, want to be liked and work well in teams.

A person with a need for authority and power, also referred to as an n-pow person, wants to make a huge impact on the world. They want their ideas to be heard and also focus on making sure others see them as prestigious or with high status.

Those who feel a need to achieve, or the n-ach people, are highly motivated. They set a lot of challenging goals but remain realistic at the same time. Those who need to feel as though they’ve achieved their goals constantly seek to hear feedback from others.

Most people possess all three of these characteristics but spend most of the time leaning more towards one than the others. The one a person leans towards most will determine what type of worker or manager he will become – objective, determined, flexible, etc. Achievement motivated individuals, however, always seem to get the best results in the end!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Development

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”