The Key To Staff Motivation & How To Capitalize On It

Developing and maintaining the motivation of members of your team is perhaps one of the most important skills of leaders and managers.

After all, leaders and managers only achieve through the efforts of others. And (we) know from our own experiences that the level of performance we achieve depends on our inner drive each day to overcome the obstacles that get between us and our goals. This is as true for the new starter in the mailroom as it is for the CEO of a global corporation.

We may have personal experience of both great motivational leadership and not-so-great leadership – or worse. So, what is it that great motivators do? While a lot has been written on the subject and there are many acclaimed gurus, here are a few simple ideas that can help any leader unlock the power of motivation.

2 Key starting points to staff motivation and how to capitalize on it

 These ideas flow from two starting points:

Firstly, there are a range of different factors that determine how someone is motivated. They can be grouped broadly into three areas: rational factors, emotional factors and fundamental work related needs

Secondly, every person is unique. So the specific factor or group of factors that determine how an individual is motivated have to be understood – and these can change over time.

Rational factors in employee motivation

The main group of motivating factors are rational. Essentially these are the individual’s needs and preferences. They are often considered more tangible and objective than emotional factors.

Rational factors include:

Money – the individual considers that they are well-paid. Money may simply be the hourly or weekly wage, the availability of regular over-time, or the total remuneration including bonus, superannuation and other benefits.

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32 Public Speaking Tips From Some Of The World’s Best Speakers and Coaches

I am incredibly excited to share this post with you!! It took a couple of weeks to pull all the material together and now you get a chance to pick through public speaking tips from some of world’s most sought after experts and speakers like Carmine Gallo, Garr Reynolds and Nick Morgan amongst more then 20 other contributors from a SpeakerMatch group.

When reaching out to these professionals, I asked two questions:

   1. If you were to start as a speaker all over again, what one thing   would you do differently?

   2. What one tip would you have for someone just starting on their journey as a professional speaker?

The goal was to give you real world, actionable advice you could take and implement in your speaking practice immediately. Below is a selection of those answers:

Professionally Speaking

    1. Have something to say worth sharing and be very clear what your differentiator is.

    Garr Reynolds, author of Presentation Zen

    2. My one tip for someone just starting on their journey as a professional speaker: Practice your craft! Take every opportunity to speak – and it will be mostly for free at the beginning. Get your 10,000 hours in!

    Nick Morgan, author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma

    3. Fall in love with the real you. Identify your quirks and insecurities, then embrace those unique and special qualities that make you different from every other person and every other speaker. Never be ashamed of who you are or where you are in your life. When you love yourself and are comfortable in your own skin, the audience will feel it, appreciate it and want to connect with you.

    Lisa Braithwaite, Public speaking coach and trainer

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Presentation Tips for Public Speaking

Know the needs of your audience and match your contents to their needs. Know your material thoroughly. Put what you have to say in a logical sequence. Ensure your speech will be captivating to your audience as well as worth their time and attention. Practice and rehearse your speech at home or where you can be at ease and comfortable, in front of a mirror, your family, friends or colleagues. Use a tape-recorder and listen to yourself. Videotape your presentation and analyze it. Know what your strong and weak points are. Emphasize your strong points during your presentation.

When you are presenting in front of an audience, you are performing as an actor is on stage. How you are being perceived is very important. Dress appropriately for the occasion. Be solemn if your topic is serious. Present the desired image to your audience. Look pleasant, enthusiastic, confident, proud, but not arrogant. Remain calm. Appear relaxed, even if you feel nervous. Speak slowly, enunciate clearly, and show appropriate emotion and feeling relating to your topic. Establish rapport with your audience. Speak to the person farthest away from you to ensure your voice is loud enough to project to the back of the room. Vary the tone of your voice and dramatize if necessary. If a microphone is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.

Body language is important. Standing, walking or moving about with appropriate hand gesture or facial expression is preferred to sitting down or standing still with head down and reading from a prepared speech. Use audio-visual aids or props for enhancement if appropriate and necessary. Master the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint well before your presentation. Do not over-dazzle your audience with excessive use of animation, sound clips, or gaudy colors which are inappropriate for your topic. 

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Tips on Public Speaking: Eliminating the Dreaded "Um"

Steven D. Cohen is an award-winning speaker who teaches Oral Communication in the Workplace at Harvard Extension School. An expert on public speaking, Cohen researches and writes about the techniques that professional speakers use to design and deliver powerful messages. For more information, visit www.stevendcohen.net. In this blog post, Cohen explores how filler words can make you, and even the most powerful speakers, look unprofessional.

It is difficult for me to watch political speeches. After all, I know that I am going to hear one alarming word over and over again. It’s not “debt,” “deficit,” or “downturn.” It’s “um.”

Filler words like “um” may seem natural in everyday speech, but they do not belong in formal presentations or speeches. Powerful public speakers work hard to eliminate words such as “um,” “uh,” “well,” “so,” “you know,” “er,” and “like” from their vocabulary so that their listeners can focus solely on their message. Through practice and persistence, you can too.

So, like, why am I saying “um”?

Why do we use filler words? The simplest answer is that we have been conditioned to answer questions immediately from an early age. When our mother or father asked us a question, we were sure to answer right away—either because we wanted to show respect or because we were afraid of what would happen if we didn’t answer. Consequently, we feel the urge to speak when spoken to.

Some people argue that filler words serve an important purpose such as making a speaker sound more “natural” or “real.” In fact, Michael Erard wrote a book on this very subject. But just because filler words are fairly common in everyday speech does not mean that they are useful. In fact, they often detract from the listener’s ability to understand a particular message. 

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5 Motivational Tips to Get You Through the Day

Your motivation is what pushed you to succeed and determines to a large degree if you are going to succeed or fail. But even the most motivated person needs a little extra help sometimes.

When the going gets tough these 5 tips can help you turn the day around and get you back on track.

Getting out of a cold streak
 I recall using these techniques with one of my salesmen; he was having a really bad week and was on the verge of just giving up, working just meant another rejection anyway.

At the beginning of the month we had set the goal that he was going to make two sales a week and agreed upon a very nice reward if he made it.

He was still motivated, as he really wanted the reward, but just couldn’t focus and get hungry about his work.

We went through these 5 tips (I will share the results with you below):

•    Focus on Your Goals

Your motivation stands in direct relationship to how clear your goals are, they are the source of your motivation. When you feel down, focus on them, visualize them and think about how great it will be once you have completed them.

•    Reward Yourself for Finishing Tasks

This is a great technique. Whenever you finish a task or complete a goal, give yourself a reward.

It can be a cup of coffee, a 10 minute break, a weekend away…. Anything that gets you motivated.

By doing this you train yourself to want to complete the goals and tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible, you will work hard to complete your goals, get the reward and move on the next. Always remember though, make sure you do the job well, you don’t want to have to go back and redo the task you already thought was finished.

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