Archive for August, 2009
Motivational Seminars Are Not Motivating Anyone!
Posted by: | CommentsIs Motivation Truly Motivation
We are all born into this world with motivation. It is an intrinsic part of who we are. What’s more, we all possess our own unique style of motivation and are driven by it each day. However, pop-psychology along with the sales training industry has decide for us what motivation is and have done so based upon their own biased research. All of us have paid for this confusion, but managers and employees especially so, since management expects emotionally induced seminars to generate sustainable life changes within their employees. These seminars are expensive and generate temporary results. What they have done is confused enthusiasm for motivation. What is enthusiasm?
Enthusiasm is defined as emotionally explosive eagerness; rapturous intensity; intense conviction or worthiness, fervor or zeal. It is a temporary emotion. Temporary in the sense that it can only be sustained for a brief period of time until it is either replaced by another emotion or a sustained feeling. (See the article: “The Difference Between Emotions and Feelings” for more info.) Ponder how long you could really sustain the act of laughing or crying? For how long can you cry? How long can you sustain being excited or thrilled?
That is why you can go to any number of so called “motivational seminars” get really “pumped” only to have that enthusiasm and energy fade away after just a few days. What you truly experience at such seminars is a form of social hysteria, albeit in a positive form but nevertheless very transient.These events should be called “Enthusiasm Seminars.”.
Employee Motivation
Motivation in the work place can become a matter of struggle and turmoil. It begins with the gross profit numbers. When profits are down, the company usually looks for an internal cause. Upper management gets leaned on and squeezes middle management who then pressures lower management who in turn accuse employees of not having enough motivation.The solution is usually a motivational seminar, workshop, or other program to get everyone fired up and back up to peak performance.
Thus, motivation gets treated as if it were a skill one can learn(See the article: “What is Motivation” for a more in depth discussion of true motivation). However, with such training, a downward spiral soon begins that is fraught with confusion, distress, and self sabotage. As aforestated above, “Motivational (Enthusiasm) Seminars” only have temporary effects. You can only sustain your enthusiasm for just so long. Inevitability your enthusiasm wanes. When this occurs you’ll generally ask yourself: “What’s wrong with me?” Doubt, and a lack of confidence follows and the stress builds. Does this sound familiar to you? Understand that there is nothing wrong with you and there is nothing to fix. You are actually behaving within normal expectations. The problem lies with our culture’s inaccurate understanding of motivation. Motivation can’t be a learned skill. It is naturally present. It is the expression of your state of “being”. Natural motivation is the energy that compels you to leave your bed each morning. It is a propelling need to express individual existence to the world.
People who teach motivation as a “learned skill of doing” de3omonstrates a misunderstanding of the basic function of motivation. This is the reason why so many people are confused about motivation and why pop-psychology continues to design inherently flawed testing methods, books, seminars, and workshops which sadly point people down the wrong path. That being said, some will find value in the information but only uniquely motivating to them.
Westernized cultures (Particularly Americans), live in a capitalistic society that cannot afford to define motivation as simply a state of “being”. That is why Motivational Gurus, do not use Mother Teresa as an example of what it means to be motivated even though she is a fine example of natural, authentic motivation. From their perspective, there is simply no profit to be had in using her as an example of what it truly means to be motivated.
The Ultimate Answer to Employee Motivation in the Workplace
The answer to employee motivation in the workplace is natural and always effective. If you like what your work, it is beside the point to seek out motivation because it is already present. If any professional feels the need to attend a “Motivational Seminar,” they should seriously consider another profession. Imagine for a moment that your surgeon is running late to your pre-surgery consultation because he or she has yet to return from a “motivational seminar”. How may you feel? For that matter, what might you do? Would you still take a chance?
Motivation comes naturally to each of us from a deep level within. No one should have to go out and find their motivation. Your motivation is not somewhere out there, it’s intrinsic, It’s within you. Why do carpenters, plumbers, electricians, computer technicians, doctors, and in fact most professionals do not have a hopeless need to go to motivational seminars in order to get fired up to do their job.
The real secret to all this, is to discover the exact style of motivation you already posses. We call this “Your Life Theme“. It is as though you view the world through a unique set of prescription glasses. It is this prescription which dictates how you should live life and what career you should pursue. Discovering it and learning how it guides you is vital in creating meaningful, sustainable change in your personal and business life.
It is through discovering who employees are at their very core that management will be able to generate natural and effective motivation in the workplace. Managers who discover their “Life Theme” as well as that of their employees, are capable of building dynamic, highly productive and profitable teams where everyone has a greater sense of fulfillment and sustained cooperation. Management will also know which projects should be delegated to which individuals in order to attain the highest level of productivity. Each person will be able to maximize their self-expression with each project, completely by-passing the typical, costly debating and negotiating process. Imagine no more ego driven episodes that cause inner office strife and hinder productivity. This is the future of business. Discover Your Life Theme.
Communication Steroids Podcast Tease-Speaking Means Business
Posted by: | Comments
How important is public speaking to a business, whether small, or a large corporation? The leader(s) of businesses can position themselves as experts, industry leaders and the go-to folks just by being good communicators in public. Tim ‘Gonzo’ Gordon and Roger Pike discuss various ways that being a good public speaker can position your business as an market leader.
http://communicationsteroids.com/index.php?id=147
Join our Inner Circle:
http://communicationsteroids.com
Start Your Public Speaking Career Today:
http://communicationsteroids.com/secrets
Duration : 0:1:41
Why Should Good Employees Leave?
Posted by: | CommentsLosing good employees is not only an expense in terms of time, effort and the associated cost of finding a suitable replacement but also in the untold cost of losing valuable knowledge and experience that is unique to the organization; Prevention is the best cure against the problem of losing good employees.
It is a fact of life that employees will leave from time to time but it is useful for an employer to understand the reasons for an employee to leave so that they can be sure that personnel are leaving for reasons that are right and not reasons that are wrong and avoidable.
Concerns of employees can be identified early by the regular use of well designed job satisfaction surveys, allowing for problems to be resolved and helping to minimize needless loss of staff. However, some problems, especially those that involve personalities, are not always brought to the surface until it is too late.
A lack of career development and/or poor management are two common reasons for employee dissatisfaction that can often result in personnel deciding to change jobs. Both of these problems can be difficult to identify even for organizations that adopt regular 360-degree appraisals (i.e. where as part of the overall review process, employees may be asked to evaluate their managers).
Some employees while still employed may be reluctant to criticize their line managers for fear of reprisal; however they can be more candid when completing an employee exit survey.
Once an employee has decided to resign it is very unlikely that an Exit survey will prevent them from leaving, however the survey may help identify areas that if not addressed could result in more preventable resignations.
Lack of Career Development
Not all employees desire, nor can employers always provide their employees with a clear and long term career path. There are just as many people that find comfort and security in doing one job well as there are people that need to feel that they are continual being challenged, learning new skills and moving onwards and upwards with respect to the corporate ladder. Organizations that succeed and excel need the balance of having high flyers and steady Eddies.
Having good records could prove to be very valuable long term and they also provide management with information that could help them improve the moral of an organization as well as productivity and the bottom line.
Poor Management
Many a manager has achieved their managerial position through hard work and a deserved promotion, but a good worker does not always make a good manager and many are awarded a management position without any management training.
Poor managers can be quick to discredit the views of disgruntled staff, ‘I was thinking of getting rid of them anyway’ and ‘they were a waste of space’ are typical responses to being asked if there is a problem causing people to leave an organization.
It is proper and natural for senior management to support their line managers by giving them the benefit of any doubt, after all a good managers can always be slighted by poor employees. But by conducting exit surveys, if a man-management problem were to be identified early there is a good chance that it can be addressed and resolved with the appropriate formal training and guidance.
Records
It is not that unusual for a person to leave an employer and put in a claim for constructive dismissal at a later date. With ‘No win no fee’ legal representation this has become a real problem for even good employers. At best Exit surveys will provide an organization with a valuable record of the employee’s reasons for leaving, and at worse, provide advanced warning that a possible claim for unfair dismissal might be expected.
Unless it is on record a tribunal will not necessarily accept an employer’s word that when an employee left they did so without indicating any grievance.
Timing the exit survey
Exit surveys can with the employee’s agreement be delayed for a few months or be conducted as part of the termination procedures.
There can be an advantage in delaying an exit survey for a few months in that a former employee may be less emotional and more honest with their views and may be in a position to compare their previous role with their new role.
The advantages with conducting an exit survey as part of the termination procedure is that although emotions may be running high it is probably more reflective of the employee’s state of mind and therefore closer to the reasons they have decided to leave (justified or otherwise). If left until later any comparison between their old and new roles may be the result of them putting on a brave face, and if reasons are given that require action, the delay may well hinder the problem from being resolved.
Summary
Organization that include exit surveys as part of their employee termination procedures will generally benefit in a number of ways. Having good records could prove to be very valuable later and they will also provide management with information that can help them improve an organization’s moral as well as the bottom line.
See the following survey for sample exit interview questions.
ADM2381: Business Presentation Challenge – Matthew Ferguson (Winter 2009)
Posted by: | Comments
Matthew Ferguson, an Accounting student at the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management, finished in the top 6 out of over 175 students in the ADM 2381 “business communication Skills” course, during the Winter 2009 semester. This allowed him to compete in the 14th Pearson Business Presentation Challenge on April 6, 2009.
Matthew presented a topic concerning “Optimism during Recession” in front of an audience of over 200 attendees and 3 judges.
Duration : 0:4:55
Media Relations The EMG Way
Posted by: | Comments
overview of EMG capabilities using samples from K2007 in Düsseldorf, Germany
Duration : 0:1:51
6 Things to Avoid in Business Articles
Posted by: | CommentsHave you stumbled upon  blogs that tickles your curiosity beyond the first posting? These blogs are those which are browsed upon again and again and which get links even without asking for it. How do you make your blogs useful to many bloggers? There are many possible reasons for the success of a popular blog, although it may be an advantage if you’ll know what mistakes to avoid in maintaining a blog.
- Few created articles. While you may have useful information on your blogsite if you do not make any changes it then no one will visit your webpage again.  The more you update it with important, interesting content, the more people will pay attention to your blog.  This is what makes business blogging hard since  you have to update your webpage by writing fresh content to keep the readers from coming back.
- Not giving thought on how your blog looks. Almost all the people surfing the internet these days put much consideration in the appearance of your website. People become more comfortable with clean and easy to navigate designs since the advent of the Web 2.0 styles. The design of your website must be well thought of. There are plenty of ways to make your website more interesting-looking. One very striking way is by using SiteGrinder; a plugin that makes designing your website as easy as putting together something that looks good through Photoshop. Sitegrinder 2 Pro is my design saviour. If you struggle to make your blog interesting, you will get the respect of your readers and they will visit your more.
- Not utilizing the beauty of RSS. Shockingly, some blogs today do not even have the selection to subscribe to its RSS (Really Simple Syndication). In simple terms, this is a way for readers to be made aware of new content when you post it and to read this content (or part of it) in a more fitting way. Â Make it atradition to put a link to your RSS feed in some place where it could be seen by the users.
- Blog contents which could be quite long. Â Interesting content does not automatically implies long content. Â Chances are high that you are able to take the attention of the readers longer. It is adequate to make your blogs about two to three paragraphs so long as that they are of reasonable length.
- Non placement of “About†page. If they find an interesting writing on your site, people would want to discover more about you. Your readers are assured that the contents are written by  an existing person if you put up an about page.
- Non registration with blog directories.  Better hits are expected for sites where bloggers devote a few minutes of their time putting up profile and getting themselves listed in blog directories.  This is one of the top places to find bloggers who belong to your targeted market.
The more popular your blog gets, the more you will realize what a good asset to promote your business.
Â
ADM2381: Business Presentation Challenge – Stephanie Lui
Posted by: | Comments
Stephanie Lui finished in the top 6 out of over 200 students in the ADM 2381 “business communication Skills” course, during the Summer 2008 semester, at the University of Ottawa. This allowed her to compete in the McGraw Hill Ryerson Business Presentation Challenge on July 31, 2008.
Stephanie’s presentation concerns offering online services for the University of Ottawa’s Telfer School of Management, and is titled “Online Telfer School of Management”.
Duration : 0:5:58
International Business Communication: Communicating with the Chinese
Posted by: | Comments
In todays world economic and financial factors dictate the
need to communicate with our international counterparts.
With the enormous growth of their economy and increasing
business and diplomatic connections with the United States,
China commands primary consideration in the 21st Century.
Unfortunately our ability to communicate with this emerging
economic power is hampered by our divergent cultures and
distinctly different views on the role of communication. Dr.
Jessica Stowell, coordinator of University of Oklahomas
Institute for Teaching East Asia and ociate Director of the
Confucius Institute, explains the Chinese concept and use of
communication and identifies the approach and skills needed
to communicate in this international arena.
Product Title: Communicating with the Chinese
DVD – 36 min. – Cat. # 5321D – $80.00
Duration : 0:2:52
Business Card Creation, Part One
Posted by: | Comments
Part one of a demo showing you how to create a church or ministry business card in MS Publisher–these are great ministy tools and really easy to do! Part of the new Effective Church Communications & Marketing Seminar by Yvon Prehn.
Duration : 0:6:31