''It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.'' These are the words of Lou Holtz, a retired American football Coach. I decided to begin the blog with the quote because of how in a very profond way speak to the subject of the blog. It speaks to every aspect of work and life experience. Moreover, it challenges us to face our difficulties with boldness inspite of the reality of the situation. As a Coach myself, I deal with the question of motivation often- how do I motivate my players to play harder when we are losing? What motivate these set of players? Why did my team played horrible in the last game? Questions like these Coaches have to find answers to daily in order to be effective.
But let me continue by referring first to the ''ancient story'' from the class handout. In the story we saw three types of common attitude in life as it relate to work. These types of attitude I think is what Warren Buffet referred to as the three 'I's. In quoting Buffet, Theodore Forstmann said, ''Buffet once told me there are three 'I's in every circle. The 'Innovator', that is the first 'I'. After the Innovator comes the 'Imitator', and after the Imitator comes the 'Idiot'.'' The three 'I's are represented in the story. In the first worker, we saw the Idiot attitude. These are the type of workers that believe that the world owe them something. They see every task as a burden of some sort. They are pessimists. If they stay long enough in the job, they will contaminate the whole team with their negativity, which in turn affect the performance of others in a negative way. Confidence is contagious, so is lack of confidence (Vince Lombardi). Subsequently, we saw in the second employee the Imitator's altitude. These are the types of employees that are either in or out. They flow with the motion as they say- anything goes type of people. These are the types of employees that perform the duty because they are told to do so. No personal imagination or creativity. It is important to know that the imitators can be more subtle than the Idiots. However, the third worker display a different type of attitude towards work. The attitude of success, nation building, Patriot, optimist and of an innovator. A writer once said, the harder I work, the luckier I become. These are the type of employees you want on your team. The kind of attitude that brighten up your day even when the circumstances dictate otherwise. Employees that see a greater good in what they do.
Moreover, there are different theories that explain what motivate people. The one that interest me is Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The reason being that maslow's in my opinion is the most fundamental and a starting point in understanding motivation. Another reason am discussing Maslow's is because of a quote that has stuck with me even before I know Maslow's.
''.......Life is a series of choices. You can't follow your passion unless your basic needs are being met. like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, until you take care of your basic survival needs, you're not going to have room to start following your passion.'' - Mitchell, Black Enterprise magazine (January 2007 issue). In the article, Meeting Employee Requirements, Golnaz Sadri and R. Clarke Bowen relates the premise of Maslow's research to employees motivation. According to them, the highest priority of every employee who start a new job is pay. Once that need is satisfied, the employee requires a level of safety. The third level of need focuses on developing a sense of belonging and connection. Next, employees need to feel recognized and valued to satisfy their esteem needs. Once all these needs are met, organizations need to add incentives that lead to satisfaction of the highest need on Maslow's hierarchy, the need for self-actualization. They want further to say that, it is the responsibility of managers to identify the need that motivate an employee at any given time and develop benefits packages that help satisfy those needs, each time building on the benefits that were provided before.
Looking back at the questions- Why did my team played horrible the last game? how can I motivate my team? Conventional management wisdom tells us that you can't motivate another person. You can, however create the conditons in which an individual can motivate him/herself (Zofi and Meltzer,2007)
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