I have read an article in Business Week recently titled “Keeping Your People Pumped.” It’s writted by Jack and Suzy Welch and they have some great points to make. Within the article, they cite that there are four important factors to keep you motivated within the workplace, aside from financial.
Recognition
Celebration
A Clear Mission
Balancing Achievement and Challenge.
Recently, before reading the article, I had identified that within my own workplace, one of the things which was missing from my own personal experience was recognition. Being recognised for not just what i do, but how i feel about a particular subject, progression, ideas and the workload that is placed upon me.
“How’s it all going?”
“You’re doing an excellent job!”
But there really doesn’t seem to be any of that. In fact I think there is more piss taking, dilly-dallying about and general concentration on or distractions from the work at hand.
So it got me thinking about whether the other things are present in motivating me at work.
Celebration comes around once in a while in the form of a meal, trip to London or a Christmas party. In fact all three of the celebratory events to which I have been have been excellent. It’s a great chance to get to know other members of staff, see something new and have a good time also. Also, there’s usually some sort of gathering soon after pay-day!
A Clear Mission. Now this sounds difficult. For a recent Personal Development Review I was asked to look at the groups business plan, and state how I was helping to achieve this plan. Now, that would have been great, apart from the missing business plan! I guess that there isn’t really a clear mission statement either. In terms of the work I do, it is often confusing as to what I am actually doing, a lot of the time people ask for things on a step by step basis, instead of telling me exactly what I need to do and when they want it by. This doesn’t help for my organisation, or timing and preparation.
The final item, balancing achievement and challenge. I do find my work a little challenging, although I often realise that my learning has peaked. The challenge is in the time the work is done, more than the quality of the work (although that also improves slightly). Achievement. I guess i achieve quite a lot, in a short space of time and for a lot of different people and their multitude of projects.
So that’s my pumping situation. Definately room for improvement, or should i say, more motivation.
