mappingmotivation

Being a pilgrim

For those of you who haven't read it, or seen it, my latest collection of poetry is called To Be a Pilgrim and is available on Amazon. I won't bore you with self-eulogies – I'd like to say it's sensational, but hey: you be judge. What I will say is sensational, however, is my wife'sContinue reading “Being a pilgrim”

Increasing billable hours

For those in the service industry – accountants, lawyers, consultants, trainers and coaches, yes coaches – one of the most important aspects of their business is selling their service. And after that, the second most important thing, if they want to stay in business, is increasing their billable hours. Now let's be clear here:Continue reading “Increasing billable hours”

Windsurfer, the beach, the baby

Last Thursday morning Linda and I decided to take a long walk through King's Park, across to the Woodland Walk and then down to the beach, from where we could walk onto the centre of Bournemouth. Quite beautiful. As we hit the beach at Boscombe we realised there was – what technically might be calledContinue reading “Windsurfer, the beach, the baby”

Building unshakeable optimism 2

Step 3 is to recall past achievements and better performances. Many people have problems recalling good events and high achievements. I once coached a young man whose only recollection of success was being able to recall winning a swimming race when he was ten! Clearly, this is wholly debilitating. One secret to overcoming this handicapContinue reading “Building unshakeable optimism 2”

Building unshakeable optimism 1

Optimism is one of those prerequisites for a successful life. Why? Because fundamentally it is about our belief system: the belief that things will turn out well. To those who believe, as Jesus himself said, all things are possible. And the well known law of attraction also informs us that what we don't want willContinue reading “Building unshakeable optimism 1”

Performance, Motivation and What Else?

We have long held at Motivational Maps that performance is down to three core components: direction, skills (including knowledge), and motivation. So far as the operational work goes at middle and technical levels, then we are really concerned with two aspects: skills and motivation, and this since the direction – strategy, plans, goals, objectivesContinue reading “Performance, Motivation and What Else?”

What is difficult about Motivational Maps?

Every product, service and system has its difficulties, ranging from the sublime difficulty to the easy and the awkward. Awkward is the one we dislike the most; easy we can deal with, and sublime can throw us a challenge, so that when we prevail we feel good about ourselves. But awkward? Hmm, that's justContinue reading “What is difficult about Motivational Maps?”

Touched by death on a Monday morning

Sometimes highly inconsequential things affect one deeply. Death, of course, is not inconsequential or even consequential to the one to whom it happens, for as Wittgenstein famously said, “Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death”; but for those of us who remain it is another 'object' that weContinue reading “Touched by death on a Monday morning”

Getting success clear in your mind

"What's your definition of success"? – a question I was asked recently by someone who claimed that "no one I know has a satisfactory answer". Curious how others would answer this. Anyone? There is a tendency to regard this as an entirely personal matter, as if by simply defining what you want means that thereforeContinue reading “Getting success clear in your mind”

Thinking about appraisal 2

What then is appraisal? A good starting point for this is to understand what psychological principles performance appraisal is based on. William James, the founding father of American psychology, discovered that there were three conditions that always led to enhanced performance. The first was that people always performed better when they had or were givenContinue reading “Thinking about appraisal 2”