Motivating Individuals through Performance Coaching
The difficult economic climate and the forthcoming 2012 Olympics are uniting leadings in industry and sport in a common objective to inspire and encourage growth and development within their specific sector. With this in mind it is the perfect time to consider ‘how’ progress can be made. Many managers will be thinking that effective teamwork can produce extraordinary results. However that is easier said than done for effective teamwork does not happen automatically. There are a number of factors that need to cohere together for an effective team to develop and perform.
Too often the ‘individual’ is forgotten at the expense of the team. It is thought that ‘the collective’ is more important than the significance of the individual. We hear the phrase ‘there is no ‘I’ in teams.’ Yet this completely misses the point and does not adhere to the influence of individuals, their thought processes and their decision making. When individuals operating in a high pressure environment have to make split decisions in critical times then devastating consequences can occur when thinking is confused.
Rather than thinking ‘generically’ and conducting a ‘gap analysis’ between target and current teamwork behaviours; my advice would be to begin by investing in the individual. Of course the dynamics of the team and its performance should not be forgotten but now is the time for the individual.
Why now? ..because with a new year beginning many people will be thinking about how to change. They want to change old habits, look at achieving greater success and some will be thinking about promotion. Creating something new requires effort, hard work and positive action.
It helps if individuals are able to share their goals with team leaders so that there is an awareness of what that individual wishes to achieve and this will create focus and become motivational. Unless you have a highly motivated individual and ambitious person who jumps from success to success then people will require support from their colleagues and team to achieve their goals because without continual review and adjustment people revert back to their comfortable ways
So now is the time for the development of the individual and understanding the individual’s goals, motivations and values. Then meet the needs of the individual. This is the key to performance improvement. Performance Coaching includes a number of tools to find out which ‘buttons’ can be used that will inspire and create passion so the employee ‘wants’ to do well. Interestingly it is not necessarily financial reward that creates motivation. A study carried out by Minneapolis Gas Company found that security was the highest motivational factor followed by advancement, type of work and a company that they could be proud to work for.
Organisations would perform better by inspiring the individual and making them feel important at work. Otherwise many will perform their daily tasks as a matter of routine and it won’t matter if they excel or not. Therefore, instead of focussing on the team performance and so marginalising the individual; focus on the individual and find out what makes each individual happy, fulfilled and stable so that the individual will want to be responsible for performing well and being part of the team.
Eduardo Maina provides guidance and training on the power of positive thinking. View positive thinking articles, profiles, tips and more. Author o the Blog MRD about internet marketing, affiliate marketing and your self way online. Visit at: http://blog.maisricodinheiro.net
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