Motivational Managers treat their team the way they expect to be treated

Let me tell you a quick story. A branch manager friend of mine, Jennie, was telling me about a recent meeting she had with her boss. After discussing some day to day issues he said, “Jennie, I have some good news; I’m sending you on another weekend team building event.”

Jennie’s heart sunk, she remembered the previous event where they spent the day swinging thorough the trees, falling in the mud, building rope bridges and generally getting wet through. Jennie isn’t particularly athletic and the aforementioned activities don’t exactly fill her with joy. She also has a husband and young children and she regards her weekends spent with them as very important.
Jennie is a very bright outgoing person however she isn’t keen to do much socialising with her work colleagues. She doesn’t attend social events or the Christmas night out.

She is however a very successful manager. Her team consistently hit their target and her branch is the most successful in the company. She runs a ‘tight ship,’ has a happy team with little absenteeism and is generally regarded as a first class manager.

Her boss believes that weekend team building events are good for morale, team spirit and very motivational. In Jennie’s case, it’s exactly the opposite; it’s totally de-motivational.

The Motivational Manager gets to know each individual member of their team. They are sensitive to how they see things and they know that they think differently than they do.

We all see the world in a different way based on our culture and how we were brought up. It’s very important to understand this, particularly when you give your people feedback, be it good or bad.

Last year I spent several weeks in a particular hotel running seminars and I started to get to know some of the staff. One day I noticed that Carol the conference manager had been named employee of the month and her photograph was displayed in the reception area. When I congratulated her on this honour, I was a bit surprised at her reaction - “I hate it, I’m so embarrassed,” she complained.

Carol didn’t like the attention she was getting and as a result, this recognition by her manager didn’t motivate her. Another member of the team could possibly see this completely differently and regard it as a great honour.

If you have good rapport with your people then you become sensitive to how they see things. The Motivational Manger understands each member of their team and doesn’t reward everyone in the same way.

I’ve often heard managers say - “I treat people the way I expect to be treated.”

The Motivational Manager says -
“I treat people the way THEY expect to be treated.”

Don’t be nervous if you’re nervous.

When was the last time you did some public speaking? Perhaps it was a presentation to a client or your colleagues, or an event in your personal live. Did you feel nervous?
It sometimes surprises people when I tell them I get slightly nervous before a speaking or training event. They seem to think that because I’ve been doing it for years, nervousness would no longer be an issue.

Public speaking is still one of our greatest fears; it turns grown men and women into nervous wrecks. The mere thought of it turns our tongue to cotton wool, causes our internal plumbing to act up and turns our knees to jelly.

However, ‘nerves’ is a normal human emotion and as I often say, “I’d be nervous if I wasn’t nervous!” It’s how you handle the nerves that will determine your success as a speaker.

The great actress Sarah Bernhardt once asked a young actress whether or not she suffered from nerves before she appeared on stage. “Oh no, Madame,” the young actress replied. “Well” Sarah Bernhardt said, “Don’t worry; it will come, along with talent.”

Nervousness is vital, you need nerves. Nerves release a cocktail of chemicals into your blood stream, one of which is adrenaline. This in turn releases glucose into the blood stream. This gives you more energy and your mind becomes sharper.
The thing is, not to overdose on these stress chemicals or you’ll start to shake like a jelly and overheat. You need to work off some of these chemicals.
Murray Walker the ex motor racing commentator used to run on the spot as fast as he could just before he went on air. You could try that or run up and down the stairs. Wave your arms about like a lunatic and get lots of oxygen into your system. Obviously it’s better to do this when no one is looking!!

Speak to as many members of the audience as you can before you stand up to speak. This tricks your brain into thinking you’re talking to lots of your friends.
Speak louder than you’d normally do, that helps the nerves as well. It also keeps the people in the front row awake and makes sure the people at the back get the message.

Have a glass of water handy for that dry mouth. Don’t be afraid to stop and have a drink, it makes you look really professional. However, one word of warning; do not drink alcohol. It might give you Dutch courage but your audience will end up thinking you’re speaking Dutch!

If you’re into creative visualisation, then that’s also a great way to handle the nerves. Spend some time before the event visualising yourself being really successful. And what ever you do, have lots of positive self talk with yourself.


Believe me; once you start to apply this, the butterflies in your stomach will all be flying in formation.

Only make promises you can deliver

Have you ever visited Disney World or Disney Land and stood in line for some of the attractions? In the UK we call it queuing and we’re particularly good at it. We wait patiently, we don’t complain and we certainly wouldn’t think of cutting in. Some people will even join a queue even though they don’t know what it’s for. (You may note a hint of sarcasm here) However some people and certain nationalities don’t like to stand in line or queue at all.

I read recently that a woman in Florida had been charged with beating and kicking another woman she said cut in line at a Walt Disney World attraction!

Perhaps she didn’t need to get so worked up because the lines at Disney may not be as long or as time consuming as you think. Apparently the lines are engineered to go faster than the signs say. The signs are designed to say that a line will take15 minutes longer than it does. It’s a case of ‘under promise and over deliver’

When you’re dealing with a customer, particularly an unhappy one, or a member of your team; you may be tempted to make promises you can’t deliver. You may say things like: “I’ll phone you back in 5 minutes” or “I’ll post that to you today” or “I’ll get this sorted this afternoon and phone you back.” It would be far better to say: “I’ll get this sorted by tomorrow midday.” Then phone them back that afternoon or early the next morning and they’ll think you’re great.

Just some food for thought; before you make a promise to a customer or one of your team, stop for a second and think before you speak. Customers and your team will hold you in high regard if you ‘under promise and over deliver.’

How to run Motivational Manager meetings

How many times have you phoned someone to be told, “They’re in a meeting!”

At least 60 per cent of manager’s time is spent in meetings. Research in one large organisation discovered that the figure could be as high as 90 per cent. And another survey found that many managers consider meetings they attend to be a waste of time.
In fact, some managers say that – “meetings take minutes but waste hours.”
If you are a manager or a team leader then you will have to hold meetings; so here are 4 steps to make them motivational:

Don’t hold a meeting unless you really have to. Be really, really sure that the meeting is needed and that it has a clear objective. By the end of the meeting, however long it takes, the shorter the better; you have to be sure that you’ve achieved that objective.

Start the meeting on time; don’t wait for anyone and don’t go over what’s been discussed for latecomers. Of course, you really shouldn’t have latecomers and if you do, speak to them individually after the meeting and sort it out.

Have a structured agenda showing start time, breaks and finish time. Don’t schedule meetings to start on the hour; say 1.20 rather 1 o’clock. And if it’s a half day meeting, start in the afternoon rather than the morning; people will keep moving if they think they will be late leaving work. Ruthlessly stick to that agenda, don’t allow people to ramble or talk about things not on the agenda. If you want to have chit-chat time – put it on the agenda! Keep people moving and even get them out the door before the finish time on the agenda.

Make meetings fun; supply snacks, drinks, fruit and chocolate. Start the meeting with a fun energiser game or a quiz. Let one of the team chair the meeting occasionally (as long as they control the agenda). Allow people to have a laugh; create energy and enthusiasm.

So there you have it; Motivational managers run structured meetings with clear objectives where people have fun and resultantly contribute and get things done.

A New Venture

This is a new venture; I've produced a blog before but didn't keep it up. Let's see if we can make this one work.