Helping Our Employees Stay Motivated and On Point.
Unemployment – close to 8% nationally and one of the highest rates in 25 years. Wage cuts, layoffs, reductions, and yes, the mention of corporate corruption in every issue of every newspaper and magazine we pick up. Company stock prices have fallen, many times detrimentally effecting savings and retirement accounts to say the least of foregone company stock option plans. We have been directed to do more with less – less manpower, less budget, seemingly less everything. And there’s a feeling that somebody needs to be blamed.
It is tough to get centered much less stay there. It’s also difficult, at best, to focus on our objectives and to staying motivated. The result is increased difficulty in accomplishing our organization’s objectives and personal goals; which then feeds the circle of decreased profit and employee morale challenges.
Truth is, in every generation there are both economic booms and times of growth. We have it no worse than perhaps any other generation – only a different set of problems. Yet there exists a tendency to feel cheated or a desire to blame someone – especially for corruption we have seen the past decade.
At risk of shameful promotion which I hope will be forgiven with the novelty of this idea and our success with this approach, I’d like to make a suggestion. In the course of our own business at Strictly Success, I have historically resisted our being referred to as a motivation company with motivational speakers. We really believe we cannot motivate anyone to do anything that they simply do not want to do. However, I have begun to see the motivating effects of our Accountability programs which have had the dual effect of improving employee morale and furthering a culture of accountability. This is not intended as a unabashedly promotion of one of our programs but rather an attempt to suggest that perhaps more of our energy would be better served in promoting self-initiative, personal accountability and becoming more self-managing. In our own little test lab, it has been both fascinating and rewarding to see the motivating effect employees begin experiencing after realizing the extent to which they can positively impact their futures. Many times the motivation stems from the affirmation of a participant’s current habits, while for others, at some point during our discussions, it is the recognition that we can no longer hold our company, our manager, our husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend responsible for creating successes in our lives. That blaming our President or Europe economic crisis, or the Middle East, or whoever and whatever current crisis for all our troubles seems a little like promoting victimization. Certainly, there is enough blame going around for everyone yet it is the happiest and successful of people that continues to direct their energies at improving their situation instead of talking problems with no solutions or complaining about what others have or have not done.
With that, I leave you with this thought, “If you believe breaking is possible, believe fixing is possible” (Rebbe Nachman of Breslov). Or, “If it is to be, it is up to me.” (William H Johnsen).
About the author: Charlie Selcer has provided organizations with employee training and development through Strictly Success Inc. for over 15 years. Strictly Success is a U.S. based employee training company for both the public and private sectors including some of America’s Fortune 1000 companies. Strictly Success specializes in high performance teams and teambuilding, employee motivation, employee accountability and change management.