5 Steps To Motivate Your Team (and you).

In How To Motivate People, Fran Tarkenton, professional quarterback for the NFL and TV personality, offers a focused motivation system — "People don't change their behavior unless it makes a difference to them to do so." The first area I'd like to tackle in my "Are You A Catalyst?" series is Motivation.

Fran focuses on three immutable rules:

1. Good behavior that is reinforced by positive consequences tends to continue or to improve.

2. Behavior that is demotivated by negative consequences tends to decrease.

3. Good, productive behavior that goes unnoticed tends to decrease over time.

It all comes down to the right rewards — and Tarkenton uses a simple system to ensure correct behavioral principles — P R I C E.

Pinpoint

Focus on the behavior you are trying to influence, then set precise objectives of what needs to be done, by whom, and by what date. Objectives must be realistic, easily understood, meaningful, and the result of every member of the team getting together to set them.

Recording

Keeping score is a motivator in business as it is in sports. Keep score of performance during a critical project, customer service, production, sales and any other performances that can be measured. Post or communicate the scores publicly — tie results to positive consequences such as bonuses and promotions.

Scorekeeping lets the individual and group know how they're doing and how their performance ties in with the organization's. In addition, when it comes to tangible consequences such as bonuses, people gain the satisfaction of knowing they have contributed to a winning team.

Involvement

Move from the old school mindset and get your people to play an engaged role in their work. It takes time for a participative approach to get off the ground (have patience!), but it does work and the benefits of getting the most from your team extends to other departments throughout the company (great advertising for you!).

Consequences

This is where you start to change behavior. At this point, you can provide positive, negative, or no reinforcement. The last is the most typical situation and unfortunately, the most useless. Poor behavior doesn't change and positive behavior that goes unnoticed may change dramatically for the worse.

Tie consequences directly to performance improvement. When someone does something right, let them know immediately that you've noticed and appreciate it. When you want to change the behavior, proceed just as quickly. Focus on the behavior and not the person, and make it clear that change is a must.

Evaluation

Determine whether what you tried worked. Did you pinpoint the right behaviors that were holding you back? Were you on target with recording, involvement, and consequences? Keep fine-tuning your system until it hums.

Remember, the most successful managers will be those who can motivate to win because they understand what gets people off their behinds and energized.

What do you do to motivate your team? How do you motivate yourself?

Play With The Big Boys & Girls.

We've got a big snowstorm here in Oxford, Connecticut. Thankfully, I work from my home office on Fridays — so I really don't have to go anywhere — I just meander down to my first-floor home office and talk to my clients. We only get better when we play tennis with better tennis players. One way is to immerse ourselves into their lives, their learnings, and their tricks of the trade.

I thought I would do a "Rich's Favorite Things Early 2017" post and let you know what resources I use to stay at the top of my game. So here goes . . .

Podcasts:

How I Built This - I religiously listen to ever episode. It's about innovators, entrepreneurs, and idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. Each episode is a narrative journey marked by triumphs, failures, serendipity and insight — told by the founders of some of the world's best known companies and brands. (from NPR)

The Tim Ferriss Show - I've listened to this since his first broadcast. Tim Ferriss deconstructs world-class performers from eclectic areas (investing, chess, pro sports, etc.), digging deep to find the tools, tactics, and tricks that listeners can use.

Smart Passive Income Online Business and Blogging - Pat Flynn reveals all of his online business and blogging strategies, income sources and killer marketing tips and tricks so you can be ahead of the curve with your online business or blog. Discover how you can create multiple passive income streams that work for you so that you can have the time and freedom to do what you love, whether it's traveling the world, or just living comfortably at home.

Books:

The One Thing - You'll learn to cut through the clutter, achieve better results in less time, build momentum toward your goal,  dial down the stress, overcome that overwhelmed feeling, revive your energy, stay on track, and master what matters to you. The ONE Thing delivers extraordinary results in every area of your life--work, personal, family, and spiritual.

The Pumpkin Plan - Each year Americans start one million new businesses, nearly 80 percent of which fail within the first five years. Under such pressure to stay alive—let alone grow—it’s easy for entrepreneurs to get caught up in a never-ending cycle of “sell it—do it, sell it—do it” that leaves them exhausted, frustrated, and unable to get ahead no matter how hard they try.  The Pumpkin Plan guides you through unconven­tional strategies to help you build a truly profitable blue-ribbon company that is the best in its field.

P.S. If you want to play with the big boys and girls,  Let’s talk. I’ve worked with people from all over the world who wanted to play a bigger game and I got them to Wimbledon — call me to schedule a complimentary session.

How To Handle A Skeptical Client.

Second in my series of Mad Men management videos - this lesson is critical on how to handle a recalcitrant client.

Your Presentations Stink! Part One: Pie Charts.

This series is an offshoot from my nationwide corporate workshop on "You Will Own The Room".  Powerpoint (PC) and Keynote (Mac) force the average user to use many of their various tools to supposedly make their presentations 'better'. Unfortunately, they make them more colorful, complex, and hard to understand. Mix in the barrage of bad slides and presentations out there — and you get a real mess on your hands.

More colorful, more complex, and more stuff do not make a great presentation. Actually, just the opposite.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to present various elements I frequently run into when working with C-Level executives and their support staffs.

First up . . . Pie Charts. You know how bad they look.

Now let's take a look at a MY slide:

Okay . . . it's not as colorful. And it's not 3D. But it presents a number of elements that make the information clearer and easier to find:

• You are not inundated with a barrage of colors and shapes. It's simple and allows you to SEE the information quickly.
• You don't need the proverbial info bars at the top and bottom of the slide (I will go into this in successive posts - just trust me for now).
• You don't need a legend — legends force you to search for the information and turn it into a 'treasure hunt'.
• The data labels and percentages are placed right onto the pie chart — no searching.
• Why use colors? You don't really need them. Yes, they look nice - but they muddle the message.
• 3D? This isn't Star Wars — the more simple the image, the easier it is to absorb the information.
• The best part? This slide can easily be printed — and the viewer can also take notes on it.

Now you might say "I like the colorful slide". And that's fine. But here's a little test I want you to take:

Look at both slides and see how hard it is to compare the total percentages between North America and the lowest five areas on the pie chart. You'll find yourself easily adding up the red numbers on my slide AND visually aggregating the slices. On the blue slide you'll be zipping back and forth between the legend and the image to make your calculations.

Just imagine what your audience is thinking. Are they bedazzled by the colors or absorbing your information?

Next up . . . Bar Charts!

Top Posts for April 2012.

Okay, I posted one day early this month, so sue me. In case you missed them, here are my top ten posts for April 2012:

1. How To Stop Working So Late – Part One. 789 views
2. The Ten Commandments Of Leadership. 549 views
3. Two Questions That Will Change Your Life In A Powerful Way. 478 views
4. How To Stop Working So Late – Part Two. 441 views
5. Three Secrets Presentation Pros Keep To Themselves. 428 views
6. 4 Tips To Say “NO” and Make It Stick. 330 views
7. 3 Simple Rules In Life. 243 views
8. Top Five Regrets of the Dying. 235 views
9. Two People To Keep Your Eye On At Work. 231 views
10. When Your Company Throws You A Left Hook To The Chin. 210 views

I want to thank all of my readers who made April the biggest (most visited) month ever for my site. I really appreciate all of the visits and most of all telling other people about my site. It means a lot to me.

If you get a chance, please forward your favorite to someone else you know. Thank you!

Which post really resonated with you?

Stay in touch — I love your feedback! Keep it coming. Regards - Rich

It's Friday The 13th - The Most Popular Posts.

Today I just hit 400 posts on my site. It's especially momentous when it happens on Friday the 13th. (Oh my!) Here are some of my most popular posts over the past three years:

3 Powerful Tips To Energize Your Team

It’s Friday. It’s been a hard week and you’re looking forward to the weekend. Doesn’t your team feel the same way? Here are some quick leadership tips to energize your troops and make them feel like a million bucks.

3 Critical Skills of Effective Leaders

Great leaders translate vision into decisive action — a skill that’s especially vital in tough times. But what are those skills? Do you have a blind spot? Should you be doing more?

Micromanagement Is Bad For You

If you’re a micromanager and want to change, you need to understand why you’re micromanaging and develop skills to allow your team to produce while you focus on leading.

Leadership Blind Spot: Recognizing Your Team

We all forget to do it. You focus on work, meetings, reports, etc. and ignore the most powerful leadership tool you have in our arsenal – recognition and acknowledgment.

10 Simple Tips To Attract The Best Clients

Getting clients is easy, hard, fun, frustrating, energizing and enervating. Most of all, you never know what to expect — one day no one is saying yes and the next, you close five clients. Here are my ten top strategies I use every day to make clients knock on my door.