I have just come back from London
The situation was that I was prosecuting a case before a Sports Tribunal. An incident occurred a year ago in a sporting competition. My son, Joe, encountered some abuse, as did I, and it had taken a full year and a lot of pressure to get the case to be held. A first rate barrister was questioning me about my motives for so relentlessly pursuing the case. Naturally, I gave my reasons, and then it happened: he smiled and said something like, ‘I see Mr Sale – but doesn’t it seem a little ironic when I look down and see all your emails emanating from an email address with the word ‘motivational’ in it?’ Hmm.
Some years back I remember being at a network meeting and being asked what company I represented, and I said, ‘Motivational Maps Ltd’. To which the response was: ‘Oh, Ra-Ra’. Some of you may remember the very first episode of Black Adder when Peter Cook (as King Richard) looks down the table and waves at Rowan Atkinson in a friendly fashion, hissing the while, ‘The little turd’. I get that feeling sometimes!
There seems to be two implications about anybody who publically states they are in the motivation business: one, is that therefore you are not allowed to prosecute bad behaviour or challenge anybody because that is inconsistent with your motivational value. Two, anyone engaged in motivational matters is some sort of fairy who winds people up only to disappoint – sort of selling beer which ultimately proves to be 100% froth.
The truth is – which I am sure is true for anybody seriously engaged with motivational development – motivation has its own language and its own science. Although it may appear ‘soft’, once understood it’s as hard as any other ‘number’. It may be easier to read the Profit and Loss account to discover whether your business is making progress, but sure as eggs is eggs, reading the motivational quotient of your staff is going to reveal whether you are in business for the long haul.
Yesterday a friend of mine asked me to mentor their son who was having problems being successful in his new job: cold calling in an insurance call centre. He informed me that of the 25 staff that joined 6 weeks ago, he was one of only six left. Now there’s a company thinking it’s being clever; OK when times when any fool can make money – but in this economic environment, I predict they will go to the wall. All the metrics in the world are not going to save them from one hard fact: staff are totally de-motivated and they don’t care.
So, advice please: best reply to, “Aren’t you supposed to be motivating?” and “Oh, Ra-Ra”.
James
The Mapping Motivation Series 