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21 Proven Motivation Tactics
pickthebrain.com — If you want to make things happen the ability to motivate yourself and others is a crucial skill. At work, home, and everywhere in between, people use motivation to get results. Motivation requires a delicate balance of communication, structure, and incentives. These 21 tactics will help you maximize motivation in yourself and others.
zaibatsu- 797 diggs
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- ChromaVita, on 10/10/2007, -6/+5It's really fun to read all of these and apply them to your sex life... Seriously try it.
- LWXZ, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8sex life? wtf is that?
- PeeCee, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Pretty dead-on...
- mydigga, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4For the ladies: "2. Pleasure - This is the old carrot on a stick technique."
- fishbert, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Damn straight!
Nothing says "lovin'" like giving Detailed Instructions (#4) and Demanding Improvement (#17) while setting reasonable Deadlines (#7) and being clear on the Consequences (#1) of failure.
- littlebylittle, on 10/10/2007, -5/+2Cool.
- collareddrifter, on 10/10/2007, -5/+5What are we? In elementary school?
- djdole, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1or even your average work office.
- TheSwagger, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5#22 Cattle Prod
- has2k1, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2Any crap you say to me will motivate me. Just don't tell me you are trying to motivate me.
- PeeCee, on 10/10/2007, -2/+821 Proven Motivation Tactics
by John Wesley · 10 Comments
If you want to make things happen the ability to motivate yourself and others is a crucial skill. At work, home, and everywhere in between, people use motivation to get results. Motivation requires a delicate balance of communication, structure, and incentives. These 21 tactics will help you maximize motivation in yourself and others.
1. Consequences - Never use threats. They’ll turn people against you. But making people aware of the negative consequences of not getting results (for everyone involved) can have a big impact. This one is also big for self motivation. If you don’t get your act together, will you ever get what you want?
2. Pleasure - This is the old carrot on a stick technique. Providing pleasurable rewards creates eager and productive people.
3. Performance incentives - Appeal to people’s selfish nature. Give them the opportunity to earn more for themselves by earning more for you.
4. Detailed instructions - If you want a specific result, give specific instructions. People work better when they know exactly what’s expected.
5. Short and long term goals - Use both short and long term goals to guide the action process and create an overall philosophy.
6. Kindness - Get people on your side and they’ll want to help you. Piss them off and they’ll do everything they can to screw you over.
7. Deadlines - Many people are most productive right before a big deadline. They also have a hard time focusing until that deadline is looming overhead. Use this to your advantage by setting up a series of mini-deadlines building up to an end result.
8. Team Spirit - Create an environment of camaraderie. People work more effectively when they feel like part of team — they don’t want to let others down.
10. Recognize achievement - Make a point to recognize achievements one-on-one and also in group settings. People like to see that their work isn’t being ignored.
11. Personal stake - Think about the personal stake of others. What do they need? By understanding this you’ll be able to keep people happy and productive.
12. Concentrate on outcomes - No one likes to work with someone standing over their shoulder. Focus on outcomes — make it clear what you want and cut people loose to get it done on their own.
13. Trust and Respect - Give people the trust and respect they deserve and they’ll respond to requests much more favorably.
14. Create challenges - People are happy when they’re progressing towards a goal. Give them the opportunity to face new and difficult problems and they’ll be more enthusiastic.
15. Let people be creative - Don’t expect everyone to do things your way. Allowing people to be creative creates a more optimistic environment and can lead to awesome new ideas.
16. Constructive criticism - Often people don’t realize what they’re doing wrong. Let them know. Most people want to improve and will make an effort once they know how to do it.
17. Demand improvement - Don’t let people stagnate. Each time someone advances raise the bar a little higher (especially for yourself).
18. Make it fun - Work is most enjoyable when it doesn’t feel like work at all. Let people have fun and the positive environment will lead to better results.
19. Create opportunities - Give people the opportunity to advance. Let them know that hard work will pay off.
20. Communication - Keep the communication channels open. By being aware of potential problems you can fix them before a serious dispute arises.
21. Make it stimulating - Mix it up. Don’t ask people to do the same boring tasks all the time. A stimulating environment creates enthusiasm and the opportunity for “big picture” thinking.- fishbert, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1had to digg you down just so I could see other people's comments.
- brianbb98, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6i wasnt motivated enough to read this.
- nymphetamine, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1A gun to the head always works best!
- donkeySays, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Esp when a hot chick is giving you head at the same time
- devoted, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1I am a bit skeptical about self motivating, I think enforcers (http://tinyurl.com/2w4dhz ) get much better results...
- johnstar, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1#22 hang in their kitty poster!
- tomlaw, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I've always found that slapping female employees on the ass is a huge motivator. Also, giving the men 30 second hugs tends to weild higher rates of productivity. This article reads more like they're trying to motivate kindergarteners to create better crayon drawings. Meh.
- cuoops, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I get motivated about beer30.
- GMorgan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1On the short term and long term goals. They aren't really the same thing. A long term goal is an end, the short term goal is a target on the way. The point being that any large task should be broken down into manageable steps.
This isn't just to give you a near target, it also gives you time to re-evaluate what you have to do to reach your eventual target. Nobody truly knows enough when they start something (even professionals and anyone who believes differently is delusional), by breaking it down into an iterative process you can continually re-evaluate without losing all structure. See a new idea, stick to what you are doing then perhaps bring it in for the next target period. - CerMakAlot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7I think number 9 should be "learn to count."
- HanSolo69, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2In what way were these "proven"? Proven to work? Proven to sell this guy's book? what? Proven to work on aaalllll people because everybody's mind works in exactly the same way?
- denzinger, on 10/10/2007, -0/+122. The beatings will continue until morale improves.
- randomizer9, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0More common sense things that bad managers "don't get" Film at 11.
- paris75, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I was wondering how many of these I had to read before the word 'fun' was mentioned.
- Moskie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Buried. Too lazy to click on link.
- CryptiniteDemon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Sadly enough, this is all complete BS a lot of the time. I intuitively developed all of those techniques when I was in charge of operations at my employer because it's what I wanted. And then I realized that when you do that crap, people just don't care. They're only there because they want money and they'll do the minimum amount of work not to be fired. If you want to be an effective boss and get efficient work done, you have to separate yourself from the employees and be a mean jackass that strikes fear into the heart of woodland creatures and humans alike.
It's very rare that you actually get a group of employees who want to be alive while they're at work. - fratboybrian, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Do something nice for someone.
Send me a birthday card please :)
Brian
PO BOX 8533
Albany, NY. 12208
Thanks- bgmowen, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1IMA COMING TO RAEP YOU!
- SuccessWriter, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Motivated to make money, that's what matters to me. So I keep myself on task with assignments I challenge myself to complete. I find that is the ultimate factor in getting things done. Sorry to burst your bubble here, but all the written stuff about motivation doesn't do jack unless one really is passionate about what they do!
http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.makemoney.thewritersmanifesto.com - wizard1974uk, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0I know this is a little nitpick, anyone else notice that no 9 is missing from the list? That aside a very good list and a lot of common sense in there as well.
- iheartiheart, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Good reminder. I think it comes down to treating employees like people and not just workers.
http://www.media-partners.com/motivation/ - knk082, on 05/12/2008, -0/+0give this link a try, http://www.knoetry.net
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