What if I told you that people don’t work for money!

Research all over the world carried out across many different industry sectors, ages, genders, races and cultures consistently indicates that people are primarily not motivated by how much they get paid.

The most important factors that determine how happy an employee is in a  job and how effective and productive they are are as follows:

1. Do they feel they have  the opportunity to do what hey do best, every day?
2. Do they feel they have opportunity to get even better in their different areas of strength?
3. Do they  know what is expected of them each day at work , every day?
4. Do  immediate supervisor have regular, structured, meaningful interaction that incorporates constructive feedback and acknowledgement?

Other research into management styles and developments in the field of “positive psychology” indicate that people develop certain distinct, innate talents, early in life. These talents become strengths as they grow older and more experienced. Other areas don’t develop as talents and because of that they don’t ever become strengths. No matter how much training and practicing you do in those areas, the best you can ever hope for is that you learn some skills, and learn to “get by”.

Small business owners
Tareas, and how do we get them to really excel and stick around for the long haul.

To have a workplace where staff love to work and perform at excellence all the time you need to start at the beginning:

1. What comes naturally to you, what are your strengths, your talents? Be as specific as you can be. Write it down.
2. What do you always struggle with? Specific and detailed. Write it down.
3. Now put all the jobs that are part of your role in two columns, called talent (strengths) and non-talent (non-strengths).
4. Detail the talents and strengths you need for the jobs in your non-talent column. Again, get as specific as possible, don’t be tempted with HR jargon; “People skills” for example is not a useful descriptor.
5. Now find someone strong in those talents specifically. (someone who already works for you or when hiring a new employee) Look for indicators of their strengths, not their experience. Passion for something is a good indicator for example, as is willingness to learn. If someone has a talent for something they will learn very quickly. Hire for talent.
6. Give them the role, and make sure they can use their strengths as much as possible.
7. Spend time with them to help them develop those strengths further and further.
8. Don’t waste time training them up in areas of their “non-talents” it will make them feel unmotivated and you frustrated. (obviously there is some room for flexibility in this rule)