How people are motivated....

Every day, in the life, you face the motivational issue. There are lot of discussion on how to motivate people. Common complaint is people are not motivated to do something, People are self-centered, they are not proactive, they have to be pushed. When you try to motivate that doesn't always work. The question is how to motivate? How to make them to do the job which you want. I think, this is the fundamental question in life of parents, teachers, managers…  

How people are motivated???

People are motivated for two reasons,

•        To get the pleasure…
•        To avoid the pain…

When you project the pleasure in the task, they probably will work hardly to achieve the task.  You can also project the pain, in case the task is not completed and they will still work. People who are motivated to get the pleasure are “towards” people and people who are motivated to avoid the pain can be called “away from” people.

You have to give an appealing emotional reason to feel emotionally good. If the person compete the task, he will fill  better and his boss as well and perhaps he may get the good feedback during annual performance review. This is associated with the pride. “I did this because, I am proud to do this” should be the feeling.

You need to find in the people what makes them feel good. You have to care and be interested in them. Think of the benefits, to yourself or another of doing something and use benefits rather than obligation to motivate the people.

“Away from people” or pain avoiding people will have different strategy. You have to use the different strategy while dealing with them. They are motivated by avoiding pain. You can motivate them by telling about the pain, they will avoid by doing it. It’s like the same proverb which says, “one man’s meat is the poison for another.”

Here, you have to give an appealing statement, where if the person performs the task, he will avoid lot of problems and pains in life.    

You can use both pleasure and pain statements to motivate the people. Most of us are motivated to pleasure self or others, however sometimes, avoid pain/problem is also required.

Choose the appropriate statements to motivate the people based on these two strategies. By the way, how are you motivated? Motivate to pleasure or motivate to avoid the pain? 

Do you know what’s happening there??

When Sales Manager put down his papers, his boss, Sales Director was very unhappy, unhappy with the HR. Sales Manager was high performer and probably was the successor of Sales Director in the future. He was happy in the organization, but somehow for last few days he was not much engaged. Sales director and CEO were unhappy not because of Sales Manager put down the paper, they were unhappy because this news was shock for them. The issue was discussed in the meeting and CEO asked HR Head, “Why his resignation is surprise for all?”  

When Sudhashu, Plant HR Head was called by his boss, Sudhanshu never thought that internal union members were planning to get the external affiliation. In day to day activities, he was so tied up that he could not get the feel of workmen in the organization. When his boss told this, we was actually surprised, why he was not able to get this news before his boss.

In both incidences, management has some expectations from HR. Management clearly wanted to know such news from HR. When it came via other channels, it was considered error from HR side, though not a major failure.

Does such cases  are frequent in organizations? Is HR senses what’s happening in the organization? Are there any channels where management comes to know any events, pulse, feels before they becomes the surprises? It is not expected that HR should keep an eye on everything in the organization, but when it comes to HR related issues, definitely HR is expected to break such news.

If you are a HR professional, irrespective of your profile, you need to be more proactive while dealing with the people. I always tell my team members that every paper, every issue coming on your table, is the opportunity to start interaction and further opportunity to build the relationship with the person. This help you to build the  trust. And if you build the trust, people will come to you to speak, not only official issues, but they will give you the feeling of the people. They are your communication channels.

It is not just for the sake of communication only, but then you get the time to act and possible certain positive actions on the issues.      

I have three suggestions for HR professional and even other functional  line managers.

1. You should be the first: You should be the first person who should come to know every function related information. Your team members are your eyes and ear of your function. It depend upon you how you build the relations, and how people are comfortable coming to you.
2. You should be Proactive in approach: You should not be reactive in approach. Exit interviews are the reactive approach. Why you should act after the event? In 95% resignations, there is less probability, that employee will stay back in the organization. They already made up their mind. There is no point in discussing why he is leaving the organization and what better could have been done for him. Exit interviews still can be conducted, but more proactive approach (e.g. stay interviews) should be adopted.
3. Your approach should be long term: Most of the time, reactive approach leads to short term solutions. If your approach is proactive, you can think long term Consequences. Compliance attitude may lead you in mess. Just think, how the particular solution will be long lasting, off course not necessary permanently.

These are not technical and functional competencies. These come through experience, but awareness of this will definitely help you.

Why are you on Social Media?

If you have the talent and you want to exhibit it to people, you don’t need dedicated media. You have YouTube. Just record your talent, post it on you tube and circulate the link through e-mail, Facebook and Google plus. You can also create your own channel. Now we can’t say that we don’t have any exposure. We have lot of exposure…  

Social sites are very effective tools if used properly. Different social sites have different characteristic and utility value. Facebook is for leisure and fun, LinkedIn is for professional networking, you can share your slides on slideshare, on BlogSpot you can express your opinion and views, you can upload documents, videos, slides. But your objective should be clear. However most of the time we get confused and don’t have the clear objective.

Facebook is the media where people get the opportunity to glorify themselves. At one stage everybody wants to be recognized and this hunger of publicity and recognition is fulfilled on Facebook. If you see the posts and updates, you don’t actually get something which has the value. People exposed their personal life on the Facebook and make everything public. You come to know about the person, where s/he is, what s/he is doing, where s/he is vacationing, what s/he is drinking, what s/he is eating, when s/he is doing the romance with his/her girlfriend/boyfriend or spouse and so on… and once it is on internet, you already made it public.

So you are on the public domain with all the details. Anti-social elements can use these details to damage your reputation. There is the case where person updated the status about travelling, and when he came back, his house was cleaned by thieves.  You also must have read the funny story recently in newspaper where the thief send the friendship request and got caught. (this also is one of the benefits of Facebook!)

I use most of the social media and I can definitely say that I am benefitted a lot. If you use following tips, you can leverage on the social media…

Objective: When you start using the social media, firstly your objective should be clear. LinkedIn is for professional networking and your professional branding. Use this for the same purpose. Facebook also can be for personal branding, but there is a trap. Ask the question yourself, “why do you want to spend time on Facebook?” is it just for the leisure, fun, networking, making friends or creating your own personal brand? You can find your old friends and colleagues on Facebook, but would you love to be in touch with them only in virtual world or want to take it further? Will you network with your boss, colleagues etc? 

Your Facebook profile has the identity, it is your brand. People may judge you based on your posting, likes and comments. Sometimes, HR professionals may dig into your profile to assess you.

Whatsoever is your objective is, keep confidential and (so) personal information out of the facebook.

You can use Facebook for two purposes,

1) Just for making friends (as far as possible known friends and old classmates).  Suggestion is, don’t make it too personal. You can actually keep this for your close friends and relatives. Choose your friends very carefully. Remember, the posts what they are sharing will be on you wall and it may have adverse effect on your reputation.    

2) Creating your personal brand in the virtual world. You can actually use your talent and intellect here to make your image. Yes, image building exercise!

You can also create your personal page on the Facebook if you want to make it for professional use. Here you share the stuff which is not personal and you allow to join anybody.

Keep in  the mind that Big Brother is always watching you.     

Why I read...

My parents were not rich. I didn't succeed even single rupee from them but I succeeded a rich property from them, ‘my reading habit’. In my childhood, my elder siblings gifted different books and my mother used to read all the stuff including newspapers. I had a small cupboard attached to the  wooden table. I made a small library with all stuff. Not so many books, but good books and magazines to read. My village was so small that we had no library. In schools, we had very small library. Even newspapers were not delivered. Environment maintained for reading something  was discouraging. But my small library with limited books helped me a lot. I must have read all the books hundred times. Those books were my friends and mentor too.  

Today, I can afford to buy books and my son is very fortunate that he has all the reading stuff available including encyclopedia, magazines, books. He like to read all. He knows most of the stuff which probably his 5^th standard peers don’t. Perhaps my son will definitely recognize me for this rich heritage. I also suggest to my friends, colleagues and employees in my organization to get books for their children.

Unfortunately people take books only for putting in show case.  During this week, I was invited by two business schools for  interacting with the students. I spoke on employability and what industries expect from Management students. I asked common question, “how many student read any newspaper?” At both colleges and hardly 5-6 students raised their hands. I asked how many student read book except academic books. Hardly 2-3 students raised their hands.

There are lot of excuses, but there are people who get time for reading something. Perhaps all the students will get the job. Perhaps by not reading newspapers and books, they will not mislay anything. However they will definitely lose the opportunities to excel, opportunities to learn something extra which may be useful in dealing with difficult situations in life…

There are two people in this world, who like reading and who don’t like reading. I have seen people who even don’t bother to read newspaper. Reading is a habit and it is developed during childhood. Unfortunately in our education system reading is limited to academicals books. It is associated to examinations. Students are forced to read and then solve questions in examination and examination is associated with hidden fear.. fear of failure in exams so reading itself is dreary for them.  

Everything written in books may not be right, there are some opinions, especially in autobiographies, philosophies etc., but they give us different perspective and ideas to be used in different circumstances. For me, books are friends, mentors and coach. If you don’t have anybody to consult, then books come to your rescue. Authors give you a perspective and sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it is just fun, but give dose of encouragement and motivation; sometimes it’s just philosophy but gives you an intellectual strength; sometimes, it is just knowledge, but helps you to differentiate from others.

Instead of just blindly following to so called babas, bapus and maas, take some time for yourself and read something. Nothing to lose, but just gain something.