Posts Tagged ‘motivation’
Halftime – Down Means Up
Tags: Coaching, Markeing, mentoring, motivation, Recruitment, sales
Posted in Uncategorized on March 22nd, 2009
I unabashedly admit that I am a college basketball junkie. My team, the University of Louisville Cardinals, earned the top overall number one seed in the N.C.A.A. tourney and at this writing; they are headed for the Sweet 16.
Lately, my Cards have been down at half time and then just demoralize their opponent in the second half. I am curious as to what goes on in that locker room to make the light come on for the players. Does being down inspire a team or an individual to reach their maximum potential?
Jonah Berger, assistant professor of marketing and Devin Pope, an assistant professor of operations and information management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, analyzed game outcomes based on the half time score. They researched N.C.A.A. teams across all divisions and found that teams down by 4 at halftime lose about 60 percent of games. Teams down by 8 lose about 80 percent of the time. They analyzed more than 6,000 N.C.A.A. basketball games played in the past four seasons. Surprisingly, the data show that trailing by a little can actually be a good thing.
According to Berger and Pope, on average the team with the lead should win more than half of those games. The data however shows the opposite. The team trailing by a point actually wins more often. According to the research, being slightly behind increases a team’s chance of winning by 5 percent to 7 percent.
I suspect that a good reason for the second half turnarounds is the result of great coaches, motivational techniques and good team chemistry.
If you are like most people, you are probably feeling like a team that is down at half against a very tough opponent, the economy. Therefore, it is incumbent upon all of us to become that great coach. We need to be that motivational coach to others and ourselves everyday.
When it comes to sales, recruitment or maintaining existing clients, never underestimate the power of motivation. As coaches we need to motivate our teams to do that one little extra thing that will make us better than the competition.
Often time’s leaders think that money is the motivator for those that we mentor. In fact, the desire for more money tends to score much lower. Motivation is best delivered when we understand the human need to belong to a group. The three motivators that consistently rank at the top of employee list are:
- Advancement
- Type of work
- A company that they are proud to work for
So, if your team finds itself a little ahead at half, perhaps you should remind them what is going on in the other locker room – they are planning a big second half surge. I hope you enjoy the rest of the N.C.A.A. tournament. Go Cards!
Leadership, Clarity of Message
Tags: clarity, Communication, discipline, diversity, ethics, four agreements, good to great, Leadership, motivation, values
Posted in Communication, Internal Communication, Leadership on September 26th, 2008
Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.
If every job description was as direct as this one by explorer Ernest Shackleston in an 1890 job ad for the first Antarctic expedition there would be no issue of getting the right people on the bus and most likely in the right seats. However, contemporary business dictates that leaders possess an intuitive understanding of the human psyche and the compelling motivational issues of each member of the executive team.
Understanding the individual executives motivation of beliefs, values, interests, fears, and moral positions provide leaders the strategic insight to maximize executives skills and to ensure that they occupy the correct seat on the bus. In an article on Motivation and Leadership (Leadership.org), a person’s motivation depends upon two things:
1) The strength of certain needs.
For example, you are hungry, but you must have a task completed by a nearing deadline. If you are starving you will eat. If you are slightly hungry you will finish the task at hand.
2) The perception that taking a certain action will help satisfy those needs.
For example, you have two burning needs -The desire to complete the task and the desire to go to lunch. Your perception of how you view those two needs will determine which one takes priority. If you believe that you could be fired for not completing the task, you will probably put off lunch and complete the task. If you believe that you will not get into trouble or perhaps finish the task in time, then you will likely go to lunch.
So how do Level 5 leaders align human resources with the strategic goals of the company? Understanding the motivation of the individual is key. Additionally, there are four tactical hiring strategies.
The first is to realize that a great organization embraces diversity. This is a tremendous challenge because from the moment we are born, we learn about our environment, the world, and ourselves. Author Miguel Ruiz notes in the book The Four Agreements, “Families, friends, peers, books, teachers, idols, and others influence us on what is right and what is wrong based on what previous generations told them.” These early learning’s are deeply rooted within us and shape how we interact and how we view the contributions of people different from us. People who embrace diversity are right candidates for choice seats on the bus.
The second hiring strategy is communication. A quote attributed to Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe says, “No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.” Effective communication of responsibilities and measurement metrics ensures that the right applicants will fill the job description for each given seat.
The third hiring strategy is self-discipline ¬- the self-discipline to wait, to be patient and conduct a thorough search until the right candidate is found. The second component of the self-discipline strategy is relative to the prospective executive. According to Jim Collins in Good to Great “great companies hire self-disciplined people who didn’t need to be managed”. Thus they managed the system not the people.
The fourth hiring strategy to ensure that the right people are in the right seats is to hire candidates who look beyond task and seek to find their unique contribution to the success of the company. They are not necessarily concerned with where the bus is headed today, but more with how can they keep the bus moving towards it ultimate destination.
Getting the right people in the right seats requires that a Level 5 leader be part psychologist, humorist, teacher, philosopher, and pragmatist. It requires a person who has the vision of greatness and the willingness to achieve that regardless of the time it takes to get there. Getting the right people in the right seats requires an entrepreneurial environment where executives are rewarded for risk taking within the framework of the long-term goal. Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.
Kenneth Boulding in The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society states, “Leaders carry out this process (inspiring executives) by applying their beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge and skills.” Mahatma Gandhi said, “Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.” For the Level 5 leader the ultimate quest for filling the seats correctly is the clarity of message.
