Motivating your staff A Toolkit Of ideas, Stories & Activities

Motivating Your Staff: Quotes “Leadership is like an iceberg: Ninety percent of it is hidden below the surface.” Michael Feiner “Education is the most important profession…through the hands of educators pass all professions.” Diane Hodges “Courage is being willing to fight for a cause even when you are sure of losing. Look deeply at life and you will finid that there are many victories worse than defeat.” George Eliot “Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” Dwight Eisenhower “Don’t tell people how to do things; tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” George S. Patton “I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.” Woodrow Wilson “Action is eloquence.” William Shakespeare “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” Sam Walton “When life demands more of people than they demand of life—as is ordinarily the case—what results is a resentment of life almost as deep-seated as the fear of death.” Tom Robbins “Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself.” Thomas J. Watson “Love is always creative and fear is always destructive. If you could only love enough, you would be the most powerful person in the world.” Emmet Fox “Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.” Dwight D Eisenhower “No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.” Helen Keller “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.” George Bernard Shaw “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Whoever looks outside only dreams, whoever looks inside also awakens.” Carl Jung “Fail to honor people, and they will fail to honor you.” Lao Tzo “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” Ambrose Redmoon “If everything is under control, you’re going too slow.” Mario Andretti

Motivating Your Staff: Specific Ways to Reward

Remember, little things go a long way. You can motivate staff on a shoestring budget, or no budget at all.

Allow pet lovers to “bring a pet to work”

Give a staff member a VIP parking spot

Allow a staff member to leave work early

Give a packet of “gift certificates” that allow staff members to get a free lunch, come

in 30 minutes late, get to dress casually, etc.

Give staff members a thank you card

Offer a comp day

Create a bulletin board with staff achievements

Give a staff member a magazine subscription

Buy a staff member a cup of coffee on the way to work

Bring in some donuts or cookies for your staff

Send an e-mail to your boss praising a staff member. Cc them on the e-mail

When attending a board meeting, bring along a staff member

Start every staff meeting by recognizing someone in the department

Let your staff members take a half-day on a Friday after they have completed a large

project

Give staff members performance-based award certificates

Design an “Employee of the Month” program

Give a staff member tickets to a ball game or theater event

If one of your staff members has been putting in a lot of extra hours, send flowers and

a note of thanks home to his/her spouse.

“Huddle Up” your staff. Stop working, gather everyone together, and give one or

more of your staff members a pat on the back about something they’ve accomplished

lately.

In your calendar or day planner, write the name of one employee a week to recognize.

On that particular employee’s week, pay close attention to their work and take all

opportunities to sing their praises.

Play Hooky! Choose a day to close the office early and take your entire staff to a movie

or ball game.

Remember to say “Please” and “Thank You.”

Motivating Your Staff: Find Out What They Want

Adapted from The Big Book of Leadership Games, by Vasudha K. Deming

Rewards and Recognition Survey

Name: _________________________________________________________________ Date: __________________________________________________________________ Following are questions about what types of rewards and recognition are most meaningful to you. Answer the questions honestly and completely. Nobody but your manager will see your answers. What are some of your favorite hobbies and interests? ______________________ What are some of your favorite retail stores and online retail sites? ___________ If you had a day off to spend where and how you wanted, what would you do? What types of rewards are most meaningful to you? _______________________ What are some “small” rewards you would be delighted to receive? ___________ What are some “large” rewards that you would enjoy? _____________________ Outside of tangible awards, how do you like to be recognized for your hard work?

Motivating Your Staff: Four Sample Staff Meeting Activities

Adapted from The Big Book of Leadership Games, by Vasudha K. Deming Secret Pals

Give each staff member an index card at the beginning of the staff meeting, and ask them to write their name at the top of.

Collect all the cards, shuffle them, and then re-distribute the cards to your team. Make sure no one gets a card with their own name on it.

Explain that they will now become the secret pal of the person whose name is on their card.

Let them know that for the entire week, their job is to secretly observe their pal, and write down positive traits, characteristics, or other observations on the index card.

At the next staff meeting, bring in donuts and bagels, and during breakfast have each staff member take turns standing up, facing their “secret buddy,” and reading all of the positive things they have written down about them throughout the week.

Option: Staff members can also do nice things for their secret pal throughout the week, such as putting a flower on their desk, leaving a bag of cookies for them, etc. 10 Minutes to Success

On the first of a month, ask your staff members to come up with one action that, if they did it for 10 minutes per day, would have a positive effect on their productivity. Ex: respond to e-mail messages, mediate, file paperwork, do exercises, read articles.

Challenge your staff to implement that action every day for the next month.

On the last day of the month, re-convene and ask your staff to share their experiences. Ask them how those ten minutes have helped their productivity.

At that point you can decide whether they should continue, stop, or change to a new 10 minute activity for the following month.

Motivating Your Staff: Four Sample Staff Meeting Activities, Continued Energizing Envelopes

At the beginning of a staff meeting, give everyone an envelope. Hand out markers and have each person write their name on the outside of the envelope. If time allows, give them the opportunity to decorate the envelope with stickers or markers.

Next, give each person as many index cards as there are people at the meeting. (Ex: 10 people = 10 index cards each).

Have each person pass their envelope to the person to their right. Ask the group to write one positive thing about the person whose envelope they have on an index card, and then put that index card in the envelope.

After everyone has completed their index cards, ask everyone to pass the envelopes once again to the right, and repeat the process.

Continue until the envelopes return to the original owner, filled with positive statements from their colleagues. Grid Luck

Before work, draw a large grid on a flip chart, with as many squares as there are staff members (Ex: 10 staff members = 10 squares) Ex:

Draw an identical but smaller grid on a separate piece of paper that you keep

to yourself. On that grid, randomly assign prizes in about one third of the boxes. Ex:

Movie passes

Barnes and Noble Gift Certificate

As the work day begins, tell your staff that today is a lottery day. Ask each of

them to identify one goal for the day. Explain to them that once they complete their goal, they should write their

name in one of the squares in the grid on the flipchart. At the end of the day, once everyone has completed their goal and written

their name on the flipchart, reveal your prize grid, and award the prizes to the staff members whose names are in the corresponding boxes.

Motivating Your Staff: The Bricklayers, a Story

Adapted from Managing Workplace Chaos, by Patricia J. Hutchings

There is an old story about three bricklayers. One day, a curious child approaches the bricklayers to see what they are doing. When the child reaches the first bricklayer and asks, “What are you doing?,” the bricklayer groans, spits, and wipes his brow as he glances up from his work and says with a grunt, “I’m layin’ brick, what does it look like, kid!” The child says, “Oh,” and moves on to the next bricklayer. When the child asks the second bricklayer about what he is doing, the bricklayer moans and says with a downcast sigh, “I’m earning a living.” The child thanks him and moves on to the third bricklayer. The third bricklayer springs up with a sparkle in his eye and excitement in his voice and says, “I’m building a cathedral!” As the child listens, the bricklayer goes on, with great enthusiasm, to describe the vision that he is a part of. Which bricklayer are you? When you get up in the morning do you prepare to lay brick in your life and suffer? Or do you feel victimized by the way you earn your living? Or, like the third bricklayer, are you building a cathedral out of your life? The choice is yours. It is a matter of how you approach it.

Motivating Your Staff: Building Cathedrals Training Activity

Remember the story of The Three Bricklayers

Three bricklayers were working side by side. When asked, “What are you doing?”, the first bricklayer replied, “I’m laying bricks.” The second bricklayer was asked. He answered, “Feeding my family.” The third bricklayer when asked the question, “What are you doing?”, responded, “I’m building a cathedral.” It is important to remember that you are all building a cathedral. It is also important to remember that to build the cathedral, you have to lay one brick at a time. “Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” (unknown)

As Oprah says: “Every choice gives you a chance to pave your own road. Keep moving. Full speed ahead.”

What is your cathedral? (Examples: I am trying to create a model program at my site; I am trying to expand and grow my company and serve more sites; I am trying to create an environment of learning, growth, and creativity for our staff”)

Brick by brick: What are three “bricks” that you can lay toward building that cathedral? What are two “bricks” that someone else can help you with? 1. 2. 3. ____________________

4. 5.

Motivating Your Staff: Heart Dreams Training Activity

From The Other 90%: How to Unlock Your Vast Untapped Potential for Leadership and Life, by Robert K. Cooper

“Even when big dreams don’t come true—and many of them don’t, at least not literally—they almost always change us for the better. They focus our daily actions and stretch us to learn, grow, and serve.”

1. Keep Clearing Your Mind to See the Big Picture

What thoughts, ideas, or concerns are running around in your head?

Is this concern truly important?

If so, what can you do to finish it, and by when?

2. Start with the Extreme

My Biggest, Boldest Wish Is… I Can’t Because

3. When I imagine making the two biggest contributions to my family, they are… 4. When I imagine my two greatest contributions to the neighborhood or community, they are… 5. My skills and passions could change the world if… “We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly

impossible to become a reality.” Vaclav Havel

Motivating Your Staff: Power Verbs Training Activity

Adapted from The Big Book of Leadership Games, by Vasudha K. Deming The list below represents ten of the most powerful and positive verbs in the English language. The success of any organization lies in its ability to achieve these goals. Come up with ways in which your work achieves these aims.

Elevate Inspire Motivate Impact Accomplish Create Boost Contribute Delight Serve

Motivating Your Staff: Helpful Resources 100 Ways To Motivate Others: How Great Leaders Can Produce Insane Results Without Driving People Crazy, by Steve Chandler 101 Ways to Make Meetings Active: Surefire Ideas to Engage Your Group, by Mel Silberman 1001 Ways to Energize Employees, by Bob Nelson A Carrot A Day: A Daily Dose of Recognition for Your Employees, by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton Creative Whack Pack, by Roger Von Oech Looking Forward to Monday Morning: Ideas for Recognition and Appreciation Activities and Fun Things to Do at Work for Educators, by Diane Hodges Managing With Carrots: Using Recognition to Attract and Retain the Best People, by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton Motivating & Inspiring Teachers: The Educational Leader’s Guide for Building Staff Morale, by Todd Whitaker, Beth Whitaker, and Dale Lumpa Priceless Motivation: Quick Tips to Excite and Inspire Your Most Valuable Asset… People!, by Baudville, Inc. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work & Life, by David Allen The Big Book of Icebreakers, by Edie West The Big Book of Leadership Games, by Vasudha K. Deming The Big Book of Meeting Games, by Marlene Caroselli The Feiner Points of Leadership: The 50 Basic Laws That Will Make People Want to Perform Better For You, by Michael Feiner The Other 90%: How to Unlock Your Vast Untapped Potential for Leadership and Life, by Robert K. Cooper

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