Situation
Motivation matters. Why? Because there is ample proof that people who are happy in their work will perform better than those who are not. In terms of both productivity and quality of action, maximizing positive motivational feeling will assist performance. Conversely, where motivation is lacking, this will result in reduced performance and output, unhappy workers, increased absences due to stress or illness and frequent staff changes.
In situations where there are multiple effects (lots of staff) whether positive or negative motivation occurs, the result can impact hugely on any organization. If you are in charge of a depart- ment, running a business or working with teams or on projects, using NLP skills to increase positive motivation will bring great rewards.
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Good motivation ensures that staff are as self-sufficient as possible. They feel empowered to take decisions and to work on their own, without recourse to line managers. The essential difference between motivated staff and demotivated staff is easily recognizable. People may be able to do something and do it satisfactorily if directed. Those who are willing to do it, able to do it and do it well are positively motivated, and their performance will be optimized.
Managers need to be able to motivate people, not leave them to work things out for themselves. Quite often in the workplace there are more examples of bad management than good. This is probably because positive motivation rarely just happens. It is an active process that needs to be worked at on a continuing basis. NLP believes that with experience comes understanding; only then can you explain something well. If you can explain something well, you will be able to motivate people to achieve great results. You will in effect being ‘making it real’ for those you are seeking to motivate.
Motivation is the opposite of management by fear. Only if people want to do things, and are encouraged to do things well, can they be relied on actually to do them really well. Motivation provides reasons for people to want to deliver good performance.
Behaviour
The first of the classic motivational theories that is worthy of note was documented by Douglas McGregor. He defined human behaviour relevant to organizational life as:
Theory X: assumes that people are lazy, uninterested in work or responsibility and must be pushed or bribed to get any- thing done in a disciplined way, with a reward assisting the process.
Good motivation ensures that staff are as self- sufficient as possible
Theory Y: assumes the opposite view: people want to work, they enjoy a sense of achievement, gaining satisfaction from a job well done and assuming responsibility for it. They natur- ally seek ways of making work a positive experience.
These are of course extreme positions but there is truth in both pictures. If you have a job that is boring and mundane, it is not difficult to understand why it is hard to stay motivated. However, if your work is more interesting it is much easier to be motivated. In the former case, if you are a member of staff with a mundane repetitive job, your manager will need strong motivational skills to encourage you to work well.
Where motivation is concerned, NLP beliefs and assumptions can be applied in a number of ways. People respond according to their internal maps of reality and two people will see the same thing in entirely different ways. There is an apocryphal story about a despondent group of convicts breaking rocks being asked to express their feelings about the work. All of them expressed negative feelings, except one. He said: ‘It makes it bearable if I keep the end result in mind – I’m helping to build a cathedral.’ Whether you believe that people fall mainly into the X or Y category, it is undeniable that motivation creates a process that draws the best from any situation. Good motivation can help people move from a Theory X position to a Theory Y one (even if they have a boring task to do). Motivation can reinforce a Theory Y position so that even better performance can be achieved, and so on.
NLP observation
Employees who lack motivation do not perform as well as their more motivated colleagues. Dissatisfiers (factors that lead people to switch off) can include: company policy and administrative processes; supervision (micro-management); working conditions; salary; relationship with co-workers; status and security. All of
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these factors (demotivators) contain considerable potential for diluting any positive motivational feeling.
The satisfiers (motivators) that create positive motivation include: achievement; recognition; work itself; responsibility; advancement and growth. These factors, when used by managers, will ensure that people want to perform well. Communication is a vital part of this. Every piece of communication has motivational repercussions. Consider another appropriate NLP belief: it is impossible not to communicate. The important thing where motivation is concerned is to communicate effectively so as to produce an enhanced result.
In terms of NLP beliefs and assumptions, the meaning of your communication is the response that you get. Say a system at your workplace has been upgraded. Instead of the old method, it is now essential that staff fill in a new form after completing a certain process on a regular basis. If it is not made clear why this is necessary, people will be demotivated. They may even go so far as to forget to complete the required documentation, or fill it in inaccurately after the event.
If you are to be a good motivator, it is essential that as supervisor, you explain exactly why the new form needs to be completed. Once employees understand the significance and purpose of the new process, they are far more likely to take ‘ownership’ of it and carry out the instructions willingly, responsibly and accurately. NLP believes that with experience comes understanding; only then can you explain something well. When attempting to influence the motivational climate, it is important to include understanding as well as instruction in your dealings with staff. Should you be new to management, or tasked with leading a project team for the first time, the following motivation techniques should prove helpful:
Job descriptions, clear guidelines and adequate training – all these give staff a feeling of security. Without these motivation suffers.
Incentives – these work less effectively if their details are not clearly communicated. If an incentive payment scheme is so complicated that no one understands it, staff will not be able to work out how they are doing. Motivation will decrease as a result despite the terms of the deal being generous. Management will then be resentful and a vicious circle will arise.
Routine jobs – these can be made much more bearable by communicating to people what an important contribution they are making to the organization as a whole. This is a common problem. If you can work on this, your department will be much more productive and staff morale will improve.
Job titles – what’s in a name? If job titles are sensibly chosen with a view to how they affect people’s feelings of status, as well as acting as a description of function, this is positively motivating. Your job may be described as ‘sales executive’ but this could mean many things. An enlightened manager would understand your request for a change of description to an ‘account service manager’.
Recognition – perhaps the simplest and least expensive posi- tive motivational act someone can perform is to say ‘Well done’ to a member of staff. If it can be done in public, or in print, the effect is multiplied many times over. In NLP terms, modifying your own behaviour can make others change. If you don’t take the time to say thank you to staff for a job well done, try doing so in future. The result could be far greater than you imagined.