Ever try sprinting when exhausted? Doing your best when you don’t care? Going the extra mile when brimming with resentment?
Then you know the importance of staying motivated and inspired in your efforts.
This week Claudia and I discuss the value of motivation to our ability to show up and perform on a consistent basis.
These are stressful times. How do you keep your spirits up at work?
Listen in.
I love it when data emerges that validates my hunches.
People who surf the internet while at work are more productive. Gotta love it.
“People who do surf the Internet for fun at work – within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office – are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t.”
The productivity arises from our need to zone out (take a break) every once in a while in order to restore our concentration. It’s simply not possible to focus all of the time.
Seems obvious, but some employers are (now irrationally) concerned that they’re not getting their money’s worth out of employees who are not fully focused on work every moment they’re “on the clock.” I’ve long counseled that this attitude foments an adversarial posture with the very people on whom you depend for maximum engagement.
With one set of policies (e.g. no personal internet use) you communicate that you don’t trust them. Then you turn around and ask them to give 110%, go the extra mile for a client or contribute to brainstorming restructuring ideas, and you wonder why they hold back.
No matter how you feel about personal internet usage at work, the facts about its impact are emerging. Can you turn this information into a learning opportunity?
Okay, maybe donuts aren’t the healthiest treat someone could bring into the office this morning. But talk about easy wins!
If you’re looking for a low cost , low energy idea to give the team a simple morale boost, then donuts are the management secret you’ve been waiting for.
It’s hard to explain why this one treat’s impact is so out of proportion with either the effort required to provide it or its nutritional value. But it’s hard to argue with the stampede to the lunch room when word gets out.
Maybe the lesson donuts offer us is that showing appreciation, being kind, and/or changing things up at work is much simpler than we think. If you’re waiting until it’s time to award Christmas bonuses or until you can afford a knock-out company retreat, then you might be missing the myriad of simple, everyday expressions of acknowledgment, validation, attentiveness, interest, humor, sensitivity, and camaraderie that win hearts, build trust and renew spirits.
While you’re at it, get a few extra glazed. They’re my favorite.
My head spins with all the different definitions of success out there. Even if I can think myself through their various fallacies, the measures of success in this culture still haunt and lure and accuse.
What I need, though, is not another critique of the culture’s twists and perversions of the truth. Nor, on the other hand, do I need another vague, conceptual affirmation of the eternal biblical principles by which my work should find its purpose, motivations and methods.
So I especially enjoyed Heatley using four work-based categories, (success, competition, loyalty and service) to think through the shortcomings in most workplaces and the alternatives a faith-based perspective would contribute.
While I agree that “love” holds the key to unlocking the creative juices that will eventually result in a plethora of practical alternatives emerging in workplaces around the world, I’m anxious to get on to brainstorming what these practical alternatives might be.
For example, let’s take a variety of workplace processes: hiring, training, firing, planning, meetings, compensation, performance reviews, approval processes, budgeting, adopting new technologies, etc., and having teams work through what those need to look like if we’re to achieve, “market strength, employee focus and customer value.” In other words, put some feet on love in the context of work.
How do you find ways to give practical form to your faith-based values at work, in the context of work’s issues, processes and structures, and within a culture where work is a daily reality on which our survival depends?
Sometimes the best way to get started is simply to jump in and get started.
Getting back into work after a weekend away can be a motivational challenge… especially if you had a great weekend and are returning to significant challenges! There’s a natural inertia that makes it hard to get moving again. Like getting up from your favorite spot on the sofa after watching a good movie in order to wash the dishes.
While planning has its place, it might be more helpful to simply jump into a project or task for your first hour this Monday. Pick up where you left off. Dive into something real, tangible and engaging. Get back into the ebb and flow of pulling needed files, picking up the phone, finishing an important letter or reworking a spreadsheet.
When the hour is up, take a step back and look at the bigger picture of the week ahead. Your head will be in a different place. You’re next decision will be easier to act upon, because you are already in motion.
Getting started by jumping right in, doesn’t pit your entire working life against your entire personal life in an epic Monday morning transition battle. Jump in by getting your feet wet as soon as you arrive, instead of spending the first half of the day talking yourself into the total body plunge!
On your side,
– Karl
Somewhere along the line, “duty” became a four-letter word. A “bad” word. A negative word.
Somewhere along the line we associated duty with responsibilities that no one would take on unless forced.
I‘d like to suggest that “duty” and “privilege” are two sides of the same coin. I’d go so far as to promise that an attitude revolution is waiting for you if you can see your obligations as gifts. Gifts for which the most appropriate response is dedicated engagement.
To commit to a duty is a promise to complete something out of dedicated engagement.
Somewhere along the line, though, we lose the “dedicated engagement” part of the equation and end up with only the dry “promise.”
“I get to” gets reduced to “I have to.” And so our experience is diminished into something no better than a coerced chore.
In fact, though, we commit to tasks of value. We need a way to remind ourselves of the gift, the privilege, and the value underlying our promise to fulfill a particular duty.
We need a way to engage with complicated, difficult or nasty components of our commitments that draws on our original rationale for making the commitment in the first place.
An attitude revolution is waiting for you. Duty may be a four-letter word after all. G – I – F – T.
Surviving a boring job (when leaving isn’t an option) is a creativity and a motivational challenge.
It’s a creativity challenge, because nothing in the job itself is stimulating, challenging or engaging you. You need a way to see what is currently not visible. You need a way to think outside the box.
How can you look in unexpected places and to unexpected people for venues, connections and opportunities that aren’t currently making themselves known?
It’s a motivational challenge, because once bored, energy levels plummet and inertia sets in. It can feel like trying to jump over a hurdle without the benefit of a running start. What you need are reasons and ways to get a running start.
What in your life is important enough to you to rouse yourself for? Are other relationships starting to suffer? Energy not there for favorite hobbies or activities?
Sparking creativity and mustering motivation when bored to death can seem impossible. But what is your alternative? Give into the boredom and let what little life is left in you get seep out?
What works for you? What do you do to jump start either your creative juices or your motivation?
How might a distasteful or intense team task be combined with something fun to keep spirits up and minds focused and hearts invested?
Toughing out a tough job is no one’s preference. In our current podcast discussions, though, we’re acknowledging that there do exist situations and seasons when staying put is the wisest course of action.
Vital is to affirm your own value along the way. Articulating your attributes, skills and experience serves as a reminder that you have options, even if they are limited. A reminder that your choice to stay in your current job is a choice of power, not powerlessness.
One of the best tools for articulating one’s value is the resumé.
In what shape is your resumé?
Rewriting your resumé will do a couple different things for you:
In the process your confidence will feel more grounded and your energy for toughing out the current tough job will multiply.
There is nothing like the mirror of a good resumé to get excited about yourself.
As always, I’m here to help. If you’d like a partner in recasting your resumé, let’s talk.
On your side,
– Karl
For my fellow entrepreneurs who also swing between self-worship and self-accusation, I came across this helpful diagram over on Tim Ferris’ blog.
It comes from the work of Cameron Herold. In this post he describes four stages of an entrepreneur’s “rollercoaster.”
It’s a valuable read. Check it out and let me know where you currently fall in your rollercoaster experience. What might be a practical next step for you?