Wednesday 11 November 2009

For motivation, catch someone doing something right

I received a newsletter from John Dashfield at http://www.dashfield.com/ this week. I'd like to quote one article in its entirety:

Most business people want to perform better. Organisations want their people to perform better. Enormous amounts of money are spent on coaching, training and ideas to increase performance.

In spite of this there's one simple truth that many people either ignore or are unaware of that, if it were followed, it would often transform results. That truth is:

You get more of what you reward.

Why do sales people often get paid on commission? Why do employers create bonus schemes?

I know from years of coaching business people that we can be very quick to criticise, whether that be ourselves or other people, and yet we find it far harder to reward something that's being done right or almost right.

The problem with this is that it results in confusion. This comes from there being criticism for doing something perceived as 'wrong' but no reward for doing something that's right. Consequently, the focus is often on avoiding doing something 'wrong', which, ironically, tends to lead to more of that behaviour rather than the right behaviour.

In one of my favourite business books 'How to win customers and keep them for life' by Michael LeBoeff it says "The single greatest obstacle to effective performance in most organisations is the giant mismatch between the behaviour needed and the behaviour rewarded."

In the best selling book 'The One Minute manager' by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, it says "The most important thing in training somebody to become a winner is to catch them doing something right - in the beginning approximately right."

This isn't just a business thing. It works everywhere. We can praise and reward anyone we believe deserves it. The way to improve at this is to begin with ourselves. When you do something right then acknowledge it and appropriately reward yourself. Your unconscious mind will then begin to 'get it' and you'll not only find yourself doing better you'll also find yourself feeling good more of the time. When you feel good you'll be far more inclined to encourage other people.

Find more about John Dashfield at http://www.dashfield.com/.

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