Monthly Motivation Series:

This is the first post in the Monthly Motivation Series. Subscribe to receive new posts via email.

Motivation Is Power

The core of any service business is people. And the level at which people perform in the workplace is connected to their level of motivation.

The best service businesses have motivated leaders and management. They hire employees who are motivated to learn the jobs, and deliver the work with excellence. Outstanding companies have a culture driven by values, standards and objectives that motivate everyone in the business to work together as a team. Motivated companies are powerful companies.

The Monthly Motivation Series

At Go iTalk we believe motivation is a process that feeds on itself. Eg. a motivated contractor has a sales win and it motivates him to sell even more. We also see motivation as a fuel that needs to be replenished often. So the Go iTalk monthly motivation series will explore the different sides of motivation – how to create it, use it and if you lose it, how to get it back. We’ll look at how you can motivate yourself and others to achieve your objectives faster and enjoy the process.

What Is Motivation?

To kick this series off we’ll start by defining the ideas behind motivation. Motivation is one of those mysterious concepts. A dictionary definition typically includes “a reason to act in a certain way”. That reason is called a motivator. So a motivator creates the motivation that makes you act in a certain way.

Meet The Most Powerful Motivators In The World

Throughout the ages, scholars, scientists and philosophers agree the most powerful motivators of human behavior are Pain & Pleasure and Fear & Greed. These motivators have pro’s and cons and varying degrees of effectiveness depending on the personality of the person they impact. Let’s use the case of motivating an under-performing employee as an example:

Threatening to fire an employee is motivating with pain. The employee may take it as a wake up call and get their act together or they may resent being threatened and try to undermine the company.
Providing incentive or recognition for improving performance is motivating with pleasure. The employee may rise to the occasion to attain the benefit or they may be completely indifferent to.

Why We Do What We Do, And How We Can Do It Better

I’d like to close this post out with a very worthwhile video about motivation. It was given in 2006 at a main TED event – which is a yearly invitation only conference designed to share ideas among leaders. The top CEO’s, politicians, celebrities and scientists in the world are among the select audience (Bill Gates & Al Gore were in front row) and getting invited as a speaker is a distinctive honor.

Whatever you think of Tony Robins – he had to bring substantial and impressive information to get the attention of this crowd. Watch the video here if you can’t see it below. Enjoy!