The ABC’s of Self-Motivation

A – Avoid negative people, things and places. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
B - Believe in yourself and what you can accomplish.
C – Consider things from every angle. Motivation comes from determination.
D – Don’t give up or give in. When Thomas Edison was working on the light bulb, he didn’t get it right the first time. Edison saw every failure as a success, because it channelled his thinking in more fruitful directions.
E – Enjoy your life.
F – Family and friends who support and encourage you.
G – Give more than enough. Don’t settle by doing just enough to get by. Always give more than is expected.
H – Hang on to your dreams. You may not think you are making progress, but dreams motivate you to meet your step-by-step goals.
I – Ignore those who try and pull you down. Don’t let other people to get the best of you.
J – Just be yourself. The key to success is to be yourself; the key to failure is to try and please everyone.
K – Keep trying no matter how difficult things may seem. When you are motivated you can eventually work past the difficulties, moving toward self improvement.
L – Love yourself.
M – Make things happen. Success will not fall into your lap. You need hard work to reach your dreams.
N – Never lie, cheat or steal.
O – Open your eyes. Opportunities for success are all around you. Look for things that will move your life in the direction you want.
P – Practice makes perfect. The more you do, the more you improve.
Q – Quitters never win. Don’t give up at the first hint of difficulty. However, it’s important to learn the law of diminishing returns and move in a different direction when you can go no further.
R – Ready yourself. Motivation is also about preparation. It wasn’t raining when Noah started building the ark.
S – Stop procrastinating.
T – Take control of your life. Discipline or self-control is essential for personal motivation and development.
U – Understand others. Learn to understand first and then to be understood.
V – Visualize it. Motivation without vision is like a boat without a rudder.
W – Want you dreams more than anything.
X – “X-tras” will make you stand out from others. When you are motivated, you tend to add to your life: extra time for family, extra help at work, extra care for friends and so on.
Y – You are unique. Value your life.
Z – Zero in on your dreams and reach for them

by: ismckenzie.com

Dealing with unpopular employees

Here’s a recent question from CNN Money:

One of my employees is pretty capable, but she lacks people skills. No one in the office likes dealing with her. Recently she called me at home at 9 P.M. on a Friday, crying and saying she was typing up her résumé because the entire staff was against her.

I listened, and then hinted that it wasn’t the time or place to discuss this. Now office tension is high. Can I tell this woman that, because she said she was updating her résumé, I assume she’s given notice?
(source)

That’s a good question but here’s an even better one: if that employee’s behavior is so bad and her social skills so atrocious, why hasn’t the manager reacted a long time ago? This is one of the most important things we have managers for - to make sure that counter-productive behavior in the workplaces is stopped.

I read an interesting quote the other day (though I’ve forgotten where) that said that any behavior by employees that is not stopped by management becomes de facto legal.

Bad behavior includes gossiping, badmouthing co-workers, constant negativity, unconstructive criticisms, bullying, not helping co-workers and not sharing information. If managers see this and do nothing - it’s now OK.

And it shouldn’t be!

One manager from a company I’ve worked with, took this responsibility seriously. One of his employees, a lady in her 50s who’s been with the company for many years, had become habitually negative.

She’d end most phone calls by slamming down the receiver and blurting “Idiot!” whether she’d been talking to a customer or a co-worker. She would criticize all suggestions and plans she was consulted on. Co-workers respected her knowledge and competence but didn’t dare ask her any questions because of her demeanor.

Finally the manager had a meeting with her. He explained exactly how he viewed her behavior and why it was making him and her co-workers unhappy at work. He then gave her the rest of the day off.

When she called in sick the next day, he was pretty sure he was going to lose that employee. She returned to work the day after and asked for a meeting with him. And this is when she amazed him.

She’d spent some time thinking about this and talking to her husband - and she’d come to agree that her behavior had become much too negative. The scary thing is that she hadn’t done any of this consciously - it had become a habit. One she now wanted to break.

She’s been working on it since and both the manager and her co-worker have noticed a marked shift in her behavior. So, by the way, has her husband.

This is exactly how managers should handle this type of situation. Employees who exhibit this type of bad behavior need attention and help to break out of it. If their behavior improves - excellent. Then it’s time to follow up and make sure the change is lasting. If it doesn’t help, then it’s time to fire that person.

Letting people stay in jobs where they don’t fit in, where they’re not happy and where they’re not pulling their weight is a mistake. Managers may think they’re doing them a favor… they’re not!

Remember, just one unhappy, unproductive employee can pull down the whole department. And what’s worse - this attitude is contagious. It spreads and infects others and if you’re not careful, you’ll end up with a hard-core little clique of dissatisfied, cynical employees who make everyone around them unhappy.

Your take

What do you think? Have you seen a manager take responsibility and address bad behavior in employees? Have you seen this behavior ignored and be allowed to spread?

by: positivesharing.com

Google - the best place to work for

Top 10 Reasons to Work at Google

1.Lend a helping hand. With millions of visitors every month, Google has become an essential part of everyday life - like a good friend - connecting people with the information they need to live great lives.

2.Life is beautiful. Being a part of something that matters and working on products in which you can believe is remarkably fulfilling.

3.Appreciation is the best motivation, so we've created a fun and inspiring workspace you'll be glad to be a part of, including on-site doctor and dentist; massage and yoga; professional development opportunities; on-site day care; shoreline running trails; and plenty of snacks to get you through the day.

4.Work and play are not mutually exclusive. It is possible to code and pass the puck at the same time.

5.We love our employees, and we want them to know it. Google offers a variety of benefits, including a choice of medical programs, company-matched 401(k), stock options, maternity and paternity leave, and much more.

6.Innovation is our bloodline. Even the best technology can be improved. We see endless opportunity to create even more relevant, more useful, and faster products for our users. Google is the technology leader in organizing the world’s information.

7.Good company everywhere you look. Googlers range from former neurosurgeons, CEOs, and U.S. puzzle champions to alligator wrestlers and former-Marines. No matter what their backgrounds Googlers make for interesting cube mates.

8.Uniting the world, one user at a time. People in every country and every language use our products. As such we think, act, and work globally - just our little contribution to making the world a better place.

9.Boldly go where no one has gone before. There are hundreds of challenges yet to solve. Your creative ideas matter here and are worth exploring. You'll have the opportunity to develop innovative new products that millions of people will find useful.

10. There is such a thing as a free lunch after all. In fact we have them every day: healthy, yummy, and made with love.

Five reasons to forget about money and focus on what makes you happy at work

by: positivesharing.com

The constant hunt for more money, eternally chasing the next raise, measuring yourself against the number on your pay check is no way to run a career, and no way to live a work life.
Using money as your yardstick is seductive because it’s one of the few objective measures of progress in a career. If you made 100,000 last year and 150,000 this year you must be doing better, right? Wrong. Your salary, no matter how large, can never make you happy at work. Sacrificing happiness at work for more money is a terrible trade - one that you will end up regretting.
Here’s five reasons why.

1: More money does not make you happier
Most people think that having a higher income would make them happier. They’re wrong!
That is the conclusion of a study by Two Princeton professors, economist Alan B. Krueger and psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, who say that: The belief that high income is associated with good mood is widespread but mostly illusory. People with above-average income are relatively satisfied with their lives but are barely happier than others in moment-to-moment experience, tend to be more tense, and do not spend more time in particularly enjoyable activities.

The problem is that people still act on their mistaken belief that making more money makes them happier:
Despite the weak relationship between income and global life satisfaction or experienced happiness, many people are highly motivated to increase their income. In some cases, this focusing illusion may lead to a misallocation of time, from accepting lengthy commutes (which are among the worst moments of the day) to sacrificing time spent socializing (which are among the best moments of the day).

Which is just a fancy way of saying that you may think that switching jobs to get a 25% raise in return for a 2-hour commute or a 70-hour work week or ten days a month of business travel is a good deal. You’re wrong. You’d be happier with a lower salary, a more fun job and more time with your friends and family.

2: Always thinking of money is bad for you
“Money pushes people into a state where they become focused on achieving their own goals without help of others,” says researcher Kathleen Vohs, assistant marketing professor at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota.

They performed a series of experiments where subjects were asked to solve a difficult puzzle and told they could ask for help. Some of the subjects were subliminally primed to think of money, eg. by placing a pile of monopoly money in their field of vision or by giving them a warm-up exercise where they had to de-scramble sentences related to money.

The experiment showed that thinking of money had a significant, negative effect on the subjects:
· They became less likely to ask for help
· They became more reluctant to help others
· They became less generous
· They isolated themselves more from others
So if your success depends on you working well with others, on being able to help others and ask for help, thinking of money (even in a subtle and subconscious way) makes you less effective. On the other hand, if your success depends on you being selfish and isolated - go right ahead, make money your only goal :o)

One group of people who are particularly at risk are those who think that “time is money”. Bob Sutton, author of the excellent book The No Asshole Rule, has a great post on how the billable hour affects people. This constant focus on money even means that “lawyers watching their kids play soccer admitted to mentally ticking away lost income for each minute they stood on the sidelines.‿ Ouch.

3: The actual amount doesn’t matter - fairness does
Try this experiment: Get a bunch of Capuchin monkeys, and train them to give you a small, polished granite rock in exchange for a slice of cucumber. Capuchins are pretty clever, and soon the monkeys learn that when they hand over the rock, they get their treat.

Then try something new: Get two of these monkeys together, and give one of them a better treat. Capuchin monkeys like cucumber fine, but they like grapes even better because they’re sweeter. When one capuchin sees you paying another one in grapes, it refuses to cooperate, and will no longer hand over the rock in exchange for cucumber. “Listen, buster it seems to say, “you’re paying that guy in grapes and my work is at least as good. I want grapes too, or I’m going on strike.” In another experiment using brain-scanning equipment, this time on humans, researchers found a center in our brains that lights up whenever we believe we’re being treated unfairly. It seems that fairness is not just a nice ideal to strive for—we have a biological need to be treated fairly So we humans have a built-in desire for fairness that even seems to be present in other species close to us. If you feel that your salary is unfair, this will make you unhappy!

4: It’s not getting what you want - it’s wanting what you get
Stephen Shapiro, author of the excellent book Goal Free Living, writes about a German study that shows that what really matters is the gap between your current income and your desired income. When people wish for more money than they have, they tend to be unhappy.

There are of course two ways to close this gap, the traditional one being to make more money. The downside of this approach is, that very often, more isn’t enough and the more people have, the more they want.

The other approach is much more sustainable, and it is to want what you have. To realize that once your most basic needs are met, more money, a bigger house, a larger car and flat-screen TVs in every room will not make you any happier than you are today!
But being happy with what you have, will.

5: Your salary can make you unhappy - but not happy
Herzberg’s motivational theory divides motivational factors in two categories: Hygiene and motivational.
The hygiene factors can make us unhappy when they’re not present, but their presence can’t make us happy. The motivational factors can actually make us happy. Salary falls squarely in the “hygiene” category, meaning that getting paid well can remove dissatisfaction - but it can’t create satisfaction.
What to do instead: cultivate a healthy attitude towards money
I want to make this very clear: I’m not against money. I looooooove money. Money is fun. There is nothing wrong with making tons of it.
And I’m not saying you should ignore money completely and just accept whatever your workplace is willing to pay you.
I’m also not saying that you have to choose - that it can only ever be money or happiness. You can have both. But the way to get it is to cultivate a healthy attitude towards money. Which is this:
Your salary makes it possible for you to come to work. It’s not what motivates you or makes you happy. It’s a means, not an end.
An unfair salary has the power to make you unhappy - a fair one can’t make you happy.
Never sacrifice your happiness at work for money.
If you make all your career decisions based on money you will always be chasing the next, larger paycheck, never stopping to think if you like what you do in pursuit of that next raise.
If you instead decide based on what will make you happy at work, there’s a much bigger chance that you will be. You will probably also make more money.
You should make an effort to be paid what you’re worth - to get what is fair considering how much value you create and what other people in the company and in similar positions elsewhere are getting. Then forget about money and focus on enjoying your job.

And you know what: This is pretty hard. I’m doing well financially, and I still dream of all the great stuff more money could by me. It’s damn hard to let go of. But I know that the main reason I’m happy today is not that I make more money than before - it’s that I enjoy what I have and that I live squarely within my means.

THAT is true wealth, and I’m not exactly the first to say so (by a long shot):
“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty‿- Socrates
“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”- Frederic Koenig
“There is no end of craving. Hence contentment alone is the best way to happiness. Therefore, acquire contentment.- Swami Sivananda

And what about you? How important is your salary to you? What matters the most to you - money or happiness at work? How have you chosen in your career? Write a comment, I’d really like to know.