Are you motivating your staff?

Eager to grasp an opportunity, Stephen Walker of Motivation Matters offered to stand in for one of the absent speakers at the Oliver Cromwell Hotel, March.
 
As avid networkers the Motivation Matters team sometimes meet people who say you should only employ motivated people; that some people just don’t want to work; that it is obvious that people only work for money: that motivation training is a lot of nonsense!

The theory is that motivated people are born and not made. Presumably they are immune to the effects of their experiences whether good or bad.

Our co-breakfastees that morning were the guinea-pigs for a little statistical test of this theory.

First those people brave enough to admit being unhappy and de-motivated at work, at some time during their career, made a show of hands estimated at 60% of those present!

Then those who had been happy and fully engaged at work were asked to show. Now about 70% put their hands up, including most of those who said they had been de-motivated at some time!

The question was put to the floor: “What made the difference to your work experience?” Just two answers; the job and the manager.

Clearly the theory is wrong. People are not born motivated or de-motivated. Their experiences create those feelings to a very large extent.

What do you do to make people feel motivated at work?