"Everything rises or falls on leadership."
John Maxwell
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"The scope and scale of the ability to Lead is defined by the demonstration of the commitment to Serve."
J E Garr III


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'The leader of the past was a person who told,’ Peter Drucker once said. ‘The leader of the future will be a person who asks.’
Robert Kramer, director, exec ed programs, American University

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"Leadership is about change. It’s about taking people from where they are now to where they need to be. The best way to get people to venture into unknown terrain is to make it desirable by taking them there in their imaginations.”
Noel Tichy, "The Leadership Engine"

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Input....What Makes you Tick?

I've been deluging you with some of my thoughts for a few weeks now....it's time to see who is paying attention and who is willing to contribute. See the little area at the end of this blog called "comments"....here is your chance to speak up.

My questions for are : 1) What do you think is the biggest motivating factor for most people in the work place today? and 2) What is YOUR number one motivating factor...the one that motivates you the most? (they could be different). You are welcome to choose the anonymous reply button too....just looking for some thoughts.

I'll allow a few days for the comments to be added and then I'll blog about motivation, my thoughts and even a few "outsider" thoughts on the subject. Even thoughts as extreme as, "the workplace shouldn't have to care what motivates you, that's your problem...."

TAFN

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

1) The biggest motivating factor for the majority of people today is challenging and varied work. I think knowing they may experience a new challenge or get to work with something new motivates them the most. 2) The number one motivating factor for me is new and challenging work. I want to learn and experience something new, and accomplish something for the organization in the process.

Unknown said...

I think that, for the most part, 80% of the working people are still motivated mostly by money. What can I get for my skills? That is the primary motivation. The secondary motivation is the "challenging and varied work." I think this will change as you move down the work force by age or by type of job. The older people are motivated more by the paycheck and the younger ones by the types of challenges that they are offered within their jobs. People in more technically oriented or professional positions are motivated by new and varied challenges than by the money, whereas the "blue collar worker" ( I don't like that term but I don't know of a different one to describe the section I am talking about!) puts in their time and gets paid at the end of the week. Some people who are in the "money-motivation" group would dearly love to be able to have new challenges and think of different ways to do a taks, but the cultural restrictions (there are cultures within the work force) don't allow that type of expansion.

Personally, I have not been motivated by money since I was in college. I learned that it doesn't matter how much money you make, if you still don't like what you do, you will be miserable. And I don't like being miserable for a third or better of my life!

I have stated many times that I don't care what you pay me, but don't restrict what I am allowed to do. Don't make me work within the confines of my job description. I have been mostly lucky in my supervisors in the department. They have always challenged me and allowed me to do tasks way outside of my position level. So, I guess my main motivation is the "new and varied challenges." What I get a kick out of now is having someone who I have fixed a problem for, come back to me to ask me to fix another one!

Anonymous said...

I think that for most people it is the money. If you took the money away, how many people would stay for exciting jobs?

I certainly enjoy my job, but my mortgage does not pay itself with my job satisfaction.