The Helpful Pointer

Motivation is a term that is so widely used, yet many managers know little about how it really works. But it doesn’t have to be confusingin fact, it’s quite simple. Treat your employees as valuable assets and you will reap the rewards. Here are five truths to pay attention to in motivating your workforce.

1. Most managers think money is the top motivatorbut, it’s not.

   Sure compensation is important, but most employees consider it a rightan exchange for the work they do. Rather, they want is to be valued for a job well done by those they hold in high esteem. They want to feel what they do make a difference. Money does not do this; personal recognition does.

2. You get what you reward’ is common sense, but not common practice.

   How many managers consider ‘appreciating others’ to be part of their job responsibility? Not many. They tend to be too busy and too removed from their employees to notice when they have done exceptional workand to thank them for it. Limited appreciation leads to limited motivation.

3. What is most motivating to employees tend to be relatively easy to do and cost the least.

   For example, recognize a high performer in the company newsletter or website. Have her manager’s manager call to thank her for a job well done. Leave a voice mail praising. Distribute a praising e-mail to everyone.

4. What motivates others is often different from what motivates oneself.

   When workers and supervisors were asked to rank a list of motivators from 1 to 10 in order of importance to workers, workers rated ‘appreciation for a job well done” as their top motivator; supervisors ranked it eighth. Employees ranked ‘feeling in on things’ as being #2 in importance; their managers ranked it last at #10. What is one person’s carrot is another’s ‘yucky’ orange vegetable.

5. Managers don’t tend to focus on employee motivation until it’s lost.

   They are often too busy focusing on what’s urgent and forget about regularly motivating and recognizing employees. They forget about it until morale sinks, employees quit and then management must scramble to figure out what’s going on. At this point, responding to poor morale is much more difficult than doing little things along the way to keep it high.

When economic conditions turn tough or when the heavy work load seems never-ending, leaders tend to forget the “basics”-building commitment and loyalty beyond the paycheck. It’s the small things everyday that can bring down morale and it’s the small things everyday that can raise performance. A holiday party or picnic once or twice a year probably won’t do it. Rather, it’s a leader’s sincere recognition that employees are assets to be valued, not tools to be used up and discarded.

Marcia Zidle, the ‘people smarts’ coach, works with business leaders to quickly solve their people management headaches so they can concentrate on their #1 job to grow and increase profits. She offers free help through Leadership Briefing, a weekly e-newsletter with practical tips on leadership style, employee motivation, recruitment and retention and relationship management. Subscribe by going to
http://leadershiphooks.com/ and get the bonus report “61 Leadership Time Savers and Life Savers”. Marcia is the author of the What Really Works Handbooks resources for managers on the front line and the Power-by-the-Hour programs fast, convenient, real life, affordable courses for leadership and staff development. She is available for media interviews, conference presentations and panel discussions on the hottest issues affecting the workplace today. Contact Marcia at 800-971-7619.

An interested visitor who has been strolling through your site
has finally come to just what she is looking for and is about to
make a purchase. It’s a sunny afternoon, and her cat, who
happens to be sitting on the moss under the visitor’s large
fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree, suddenly jumps down, and
the priceless tree topples over.

In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and your
sale is dust - unless you have had the foresight to utilize an
autoresponder that has captured her email address. If you have
installed an autoresponder, you can then follow-up with her, and
in all probability, make the sale when the poor woman has
finished repotting her precious bonsai.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do so
much more than just automatically answer your email. Here are a
few ideas that will help you to creatively and productively use
your autoresponder to transform the casual visitor into a
profitable customer. Use your autoresponder to:

1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponders will
manage subscriptions and follow-up with interested prospects.
Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed about your
services or products, while building your reputation as a
credible expert in your particular business.

2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform them of
current sales you are running and of promotional material that
your affiliates can use themselves to increase their
commissions. Include tips, advice, and techniques that your
affiliates can use to successfully go out and promote your
business.

3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books, movies,
etc., and put each review in an autoresponder. Review your
affiliate programs, using a link to your affiliate’s page in
your autoresponder.

4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing targeted
articles is a powerful tool to build your business credibility,
bring traffic to your site, and increase your sales potential.
If your articles contain valuable information, many editors will
print what is known as a resource box for you. A resource box
contains your bio and a brief description of your service or
product. It can also contain your autoresponder address. Let’s
say you’ve written fifty articles. Put them on separate
autoresponder accounts and create a master list that contains
the titles of each article, the autoresponder address, and a
brief abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally,
include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can add
their articles to your list, increasing the number of writers
who are represented in your article list.

5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to your articles
when you’ve written new ones that they may want to publish in
their own newsletter or website.

6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insure repeated
exposure of your message, which has been proven to effectively
increase sales. In your ad, put your autoresponder address where
a visitor will be exposed to numerous marketing materials. This
multiplies the chances of converting visitors into customers.
For example, if you’re selling a particular product, put
testimonials about how spectacular it is on your autoresponder,
and add a detailed, enticing description of your product.

7. Distribute advertising. Let’s say you sell advertising on
your website or in your newsletter or e-zine. Set your
autoresponder to send the information about rates and how to
place an ad automatically to all prospects’ email addresses.
Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It can also send
notification of any special deals you are currently offering.

8. Distribute an email course. Each day, have your autoresponder
send out another lesson. Just be sure that each lesson has
quality content - not a sales pitch. Your content will do the
selling for you, and will do it much more effectively. You can
include tips centered on a different topic for each lesson,
illustrating how your product will benefit the reader. Include
the tangible benefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your
product. Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of
each lesson enticing your prospect to consider making a purchase.

9. Automate a reminder about your service or product after a
visitor has completed your course. This will increase the
possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your course
but are dragging their feet about actually making a purchase.
You can also use these reminders to promote new products or
services, and the products and services of your affiliate
programs.

10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor an idea of
the type of information you can provide and the quality of your
product or service. Make sure these reports are not sales
letters or you will more than likely lose a potential customer
than gain a sale.

11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the answers in
an autoresponder. Your visitor will then be motivated to request
your autoresponder, and you will have a record of the visitors’
email addresses who took your quiz. Or create a contest and have
any visitors that enter send their responses to your
autoresponder. Your autoresponder can be set-up to send them a
confirmation of their entry.

12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give your prospects a
sample of your ebook, course, software, membership, etc. People
who are exposed to a little taste often end up wanting the whole
pie. You can also capture their email addresses when you offer
them a free trial from your website. Set up your autoresponder
to give instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then
make sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.

13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. For example, a
hidden page could be your affiliate page that contains graphics,
promotional articles, and text links that interested affiliates
can make use of. Inform visitors that they may have free access
to your affiliate page by simply requesting your autoresponder.
You will then gather a list of visitors who may be interested in
becoming your affiliates.

14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a request form
for visitors to be notified of special offers or discounts in
the future. This creates a very effective mailing list that
contains the names of people who are already your customers.

15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It should contain
up to fifty links that would be of particular interest to your
visitors. Make sure to add your own promotional copy at the top
or bottom of this page.

Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used
creatively, see if you can come up with some brilliant ideas of
your own!

Let’s face it. People aren’t very good at returning calls these days. If you don’t have something they want right then, often times the calls take a back seat to the more pressing matters at hand.

In business, it seems to be less offensive than in one’s personal life. In business, if someone doesn’t return calls it is usually because the person isn’t quite ready to do business. Perhaps they haven’t made a decision or they are working on another project. Perhaps they don’t want or need your services and so they’re saving face by not returning the calls. Casual persistence is the best way to handle these people. And dropping a hand written note with valuable information is always a good tactic. Sometimes, by adding enough value you are able to charm the person into returning or taking your calls. A rule of thumb though is to NEVER, EVER make them feel guilty for not returning the calls. It’s best to pass it off and never mention it again. It’s past history!

In personal life, the “not returning calls (or emails) syndrome” takes on a whole new meaning. It’s personal, and it hits you more at a core level. It’s YOU they are rejecting, not your BUSINESS!!!

Lets say for instance that you’ve talked about getting together socially with someone for quite some time. Finally, you offer up a few days and expect to get the time set up and meet within a short amount of time. Yet, the email or call never comes back and you begin to wonder, “What did I do?” Potentially you mentally rehearse your last few conversations to see if there was something that could have been misconstrued. Then your mind starts playing tricks on you and sometimes leads you to believe that something you said wasn’t communicated correctly, or perhaps the person ran into someone else who told them that you were talking about them. Or, perhaps you were too scatterbrained when you last spoke and the person no longer wants to be friends. You are bound and determined to put forth a good face to them “next” time, even though your life is crumbling apart.

Ahhhhhhh!!! Now the obsession takes over and you can’t stop thinking about it and wondered what you did wrong?

STOPPPPPPP!!!

Isn’t it funny what our thoughts can do to us? They can rip us to shreds quicker and faster than anyone else can imagine. They can pull us down and force us to spiral downward that leave us in a heap of mental dysfunction.

Okay, there are times that a friendship will be put on hold due to some of the choices we make. And there are cases that a friendship is over due to the differences in values that people have. But normally, it doesn’t happen like this. Normally, there is something else going on.

For instance:

The other person had a death in the family and is having to attend a funeral.

Their brother or sister, or both… ended up in the hospital.

Their kids are having problems at school.

Their kids are having projects at school.
They are having company in town for a week.

They are in the process of moving offices or homes.

They are looking for a job and it’s taking every second of their time.

They aren’t getting along with their spouse and don’t feel up to getting together with anyone.

They are having some financial issues and getting together for lunch or dinner is not in the budget.

Their child needs some sort of therapy or counseling and their mind is on that.

They are going out of town for the weekend and trying to get ready.

Their husband and son are taking a camping trip and they need to prepare the tent and camping equipment.

They are competing in some sort of sporting event and they are practicing extra.

They’ve started taking classes and are now studying for the class and upcoming tests.

Okay, you now get the picture! People are BUSY. Taking it personal that someone isn’t calling or emailing you back is probably natural, but not practical. We are living in a different day and time now and the old days of everyone returning calls immediately has now changed to, “I’ll call you back when I can.”

People are BUSY and we can’t and won’t all fit into each others’ lives at the same level that we’d like. Children and family takes priority over people with small kids, and work loads and other responsibilities come first before an active social life. Often now, the conversations have to be cut short and continued later. It’s nothing now for people to stop a conversation midstream only to promise a later get together. Interestingly enough, people seem to be fine with it.

I know that I’ve been unable to attend to a few personal meetings as of late. I’ve not been able to be up with my work load or return calls and emails promptly. I know that it can look bad to others at this point. I can talk a good game, but I can’t back it up right now. It’s just where I am at this point in my life.

I had to tell an old friend recently who commonly makes me feel guilty if I’m not checking in regularly that he shouldn’t expect any phone calls from me in the next year. I currently do not HAVE a social life and don’t intend to have one in the next few months or year at least. My plate is full. My child is my sole focus right now. If I’m not taking him to Occupational Therapy, then I’m taking him to the park or on a bike ride. If he’s at school and I have an extra hour, I’m going to be reading about things that will help him. I will NOT be nursing my social life. It’s just where I am right now and I requested that he just understand that I don’t have anyone outside of my immediate family as a focus right now. I wish things were different but they’re not. I was as nice as I could be, and I think it helped him understand that I can’t be an attentive friend right now.

On the flipside, I’ve also been on the other side where I’m obsessing about people not returning MY calls. I soon found out though that they were out of town or had another amazing excuse that I didn’t know at the time. So I’ve had to forgive others of these minor offenses just like I’m hoping others are forgiving me. I have found however, that if you drop a note to the person saying you can’t respond right then because of some personal issues, people are completely fine with that.

Returning calls and emails is the polite thing to do. My dad once told me to always be the last one to write or call and to never leave people hanging. It’s great advice and it’s advice I share with others. But I also have tolerance for others when they are slow to move as quickly as I am at that moment. My life responsibilities have interrupted my social life more than once and I’m sure it will again.

I just want to make sure that my SOCIAL life, doesn’t interrupt my DAILY life. That is where I am right now. My close friends will understand and the others will just have to wait. And meanwhile, I’m wishing you all love and blessings in your life!!! We’ll all be together again!

Mary Gardner is a professional in the area of lifestyles and communications who is officially taking a break from her normally exciting social life. Sometimes life gets in the way, and you have to role with the punches!

For more information: http://www.marygardner.com