Category Archives: Motivation

Free or Low-Cost ways to reward employees

April 23, 2019 ianmckenzie

Everyone likes to be appreciated!

This sounds like it should be common sense, but it doesn’t always translate to common action. This is especially true in non-profit organizations. There is an assumption that using rewards to show employee appreciation costs money; and money is generally in short supply in a non-profit. There are however, many ways to show appreciation and reward employees that cost little or nothing.

Bob Nelson, co-founder of the National Association for Employee Recognition, is passionate about recognizing and rewarding employees, and, more importantly, doesn’t believe it needs to cost much (or anything!) to do it effectively. His doctoral research focused on why managers do or don’t use praise or recognition with employees, and he has done research with employees to determine what has the most impact on them.

His book, 1001 Ways to Reward Employees: 100’s of New Ways to Praise! Revised & Updated 2nd Edition (aff), is full of simple, time-tested ways (1001) for rewarding employees, ways any manager in any organization can add to their arsenal.

Nelson lists three key principles for employee recognition:

Match the reward to the person
Match the reward to the achievement
Be timely and specific

If you are looking for free or inexpensive ways to reward and recognize your employees, this book is a great resource.

By-the-way: it’s also works for volunteer appreciation.

Leadership, Motivation

The R’s Of Employee Motivation

June 16, 2014 ianmckenzie

If you think your employee’s poor performance is costing you profit, instead of overhauling your employee roster, why not try motivating them to become better employees? Smart managers never overlook this fact: loyal, productive employees are one of your biggest assets. From corporate cubicles to the factory floor, the collective skills and efforts of people keep your operation going.

You can easily set the right tone in the workplace by learning to respond to a basic need we all share… which is to be respected and valued.

What you need?
You know I got it!

R-e-s-p-e-c-t

Everyone wants to be treated with respect.

As a manager, your words, body language, even your facial expressions make a huge difference in how employees perceive your opinion of them. For instance, extending common courtesies such as “Good morning” or a nod as you pass others in the hallway says to them that they are not invisible to you.

Other demonstrations of respect could include asking employees for suggestions to improve operations and/or management. It’s another way of saying, “I respect and value your opinions.”

And never forget, meeting in private, with an employee who may have missed the mark says, “I respect you enough not to embarrass you in front of your co-workers…”

Recognition

Two powerful words are important in employee motivation… “Great Job!”

By recognizing the work of others, you motivate them to keep working. You’ll find that regularly giving verbal or written praise for a job well done goes a long way in making employees feel appreciated. If workers feel that they play an important part in the company by the work they provide, they are much more likely to seek ways to improve their performance.

Reward

While cash incentives are a sure way to put a smile on an employee’s face, there are other creative ways to motivate employees through “thoughtful” gestures.

For individual rewards, how about gift certificates for DVD rentals, music CD purchases, theme park tickets or “Dinner for 2″ at a local eatery?

For group or departmental appreciations, consider a “Leave Work 30 Minutes Early Next Friday” reward. Or once-a-month, spring for dessert treats in honor of those celebrating birthdays in that calendar month. You are limited only by your imagination and budget.

Placing respect, recognition and reward at the heart of your employee motivation efforts will serve to boost morale, increase productivity and positively affect the company’s bottom-line. A WIN-WIN-WIN situation for all.

(These are not original thoughts, I’ve seen this piece attributed to various writers.)

Motivation, Personal Development

7 Steps You Can Take When Your Best Isn’t Good Enough

September 30, 2013 ianmckenzie 1 Comment

Traditionally, Canada does not place well in the Olympic Summer Games. (The winter games is a better story.) Canadian athletes competing often surpass “personal best” results or break Canadian records for their sport. However, that’s not always good enough on the world stage.

You’ve trained and prepared, you’re motivated and ready, but you end up fourth, fifth or even last. What do you do when your personal best is not good enough?

Here are some steps you can take when you find yourself in that position. This is not a all-or-nothing or sequential list. This is a list of options to consider, to help you decide what your next step will be.

Don’t quit

This seems obvious. If you feel you have potential to improve, you need to keep working toward that objective. A surprising number of people quit the moment they hit their first setback. Those who want to push their personal best to new levels keep working to improve.

Know when to quit

I once knew a woman who had a desire to lead a music group, despite the fact that she was not much of a musician. She never did anything to improve her musical ability and she was so focused on this impractical goal that she missed opportunities to engage and develop her genuine skills.

Sometimes you have to acknowledge that your personal best is not going to lead to success in an endeavour. Take a hard and honest look at your skills inventory and determine if you should be pursuing a different passion.

Know when to switch gears

Similar to knowing when to quit, sometimes you need to know when to take your current skills and passion in a different direction. For example, your painting skills may never get you into the National Gallery, but you may have the ability to be the next Bob Ross. By paring up two skills, you might be able to create something bigger than either of them.

Evaluate your pond size

There’s an expression that speaks of being a big fish in a small pond. This refers to people who are important within their circle of influence. You need to know what kind of pond you’re swimming in to determine the outcome of your efforts.

You may be the best swimmer in Canada, but competing on the world stage, at the Olympic Summer Games, brings a different standard of success. If you are content with being a big fish in a small pond, continue to enjoy what you’re doing.

Reduce the unnecessary

You may feel you have a novel in you just waiting to burst out and become a bestseller. However, you spend three or four hours per day camped in front of the television. That novel is likely to sit and perhaps get written by someone else.

Whatever you’re trying to achieve in life, you’ve got to take action if you’re going to succeed. A fool waits for opportunity to knock; a wise man searches out opportunity and wrestles with it until it gives in.

Learn, learn, learn

Whatever your goals and ambitions, you need to develop a personal plan for continuous improvement. You may aspire to be the next Michael Phelps, the best corn farmer in Taber, or the best math teacher in California. Success comes when you pursue learning opportunities. This is not merely signing up for a course at your local college. This is evaluating your abilities, reading, watching, practicing and so on.

Enjoy yourself and the Journey

Not every success is measured in medals, money or fame. Success is the completion of anything intended. Just because you pull out your camera everyday to take pictures doesn’t mean you want to be the next Clive Arrowsmith or Joe McNally. You may be looking through the lens for personal enjoyment, preserving family history or any number of things. If you’re enjoying the journey, you are one large step towards success.

Motivation

4 Ways to Stimulate Your Creativity

September 12, 2013 ianmckenzie 3 Comments

Self Motivation – If you want to make new things happen you need to be able to drive yourself. Most people have the misconception that creativity is exclusive to those with special skills or some sort of genetic predisposition to creativity. Nothing is further from the truth. Creativity is a muscle that needs exercise to grow and give great results.

If you don’t practice creative thinking, this skill can die. How do you unleash creative thinking? Here are four ways to stimulate creativity:

Open yourself to creativity. Creativity breeds creativity. Take in as much knowledge, from as many sources, as you can: read, watch, listen, taste as much as possible. Keep an open mind. Absorb as much of information as you can.
Practice creativity every day. It doesn’t have to be anything extraordinary. Write in a journal everyday. Carry your camera with you at all times and snap away. The more creativity you practice each day, the further you will push your limits. Soon these exercises be a part of you and you’ll miss them when you don’t practice them.
Think differently. Sometimes, being creative means being different. Different can be scary for most people. It may feel like you’re working in new territory where no one has been before. Remember this, many have experience and overcome the same insecurities you feel. Stick with it. The reward outweighs the fear.
Always try something different. Just because it’s been done one way for years doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it the old way. Just because you have tried a particular experience doesn’t mean you should avoid it for the rest of your life. Let your experiences broaden your perspective. Explore a new area in your community. Visit a museum you’ve never been to before. Make new friends. Listen to a different style of music. As you reach beyond your common experiences, your sense of adventure will grow.

When was the last time you did something for the first time? If you’re like most people, the older you get, the fewer the new things you want to try. If so, you’ve been missing out on a whole lot of experiences that might have added to your mental and spiritual growth.

Why not start something new today? If you follow these four steps, soon others will look at you with envy. Unleashing your creativity will bring a new zest for life.

Recommended: The Mind Mapping Manifesto A Practical Cure for Information Overload

Motivation

The ABC’s of Self-Motivation

August 29, 2013 ianmckenzie 4 Comments

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.

Recommended: Make Money with Chitika eMiniMalls Cost Per Click Advertising for your Blog

Motivation

25 Simple Tips for Self Motivation

July 23, 2013 ianmckenzie 1 Comment

motivation (Photo credit: I am marlon)

Visualize successful outcomes.
Use positive affirmations to boost your attitude.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Find successful people and ask them how they do it. Pick their brains and copy their techniques.
Give yourself rewards.
Find what really interests you and you’ll get into the habit of wanting to learn.
Be realistic about what you can achieve.
Team up with others. If you are having a bad day, others can encourage and motivate.
Always finish things. If you keep starting things and don’t complete them, you end up thinking you can never get anything done.
If something goes wrong, keep it in perspective. It doesn’t mean that you’re bad at everything.
Be persistent, “Constant dripping hollows out a stone.” —Lucretius
Don’t procrastinate. You’ll find that whatever you’ve been putting off isn’t as bad as you thought.
You can’t achieve everything at once. Learn to be patient – break tasks down into small chunks and tackle them one at a time.
Set goals and targets for yourself.
Use different types of music to fire yourself up, concentrate or relax.
You have to work hard to achieve success.
Be confident; believe that you can do whatever you are planning to do.
Work organized: it’s easier to work if you can find things you need.
Sometimes it’s just not the right time to work. Take some time out to go outside, read a book, play a musical instrument.
Focus on what you have done well in the past to motivate for the future.
Avoid negative thinking. Don’t say, ”I’ll never be able to do that” Instead say, “I’ll try and then I’ll know for certain if I can do it or not.”
Read and listen to success and motivation material.
Get family and friends on-side to give support.
Set time-lines to reach your goals.
Have a system for collecting ideas.
Have fun. The more you enjoy what you’re trying to accomplish, the easier it’s going to be.