Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin was a great character.
He is regarded as the ultimate in "comdey" as there was not one before him and there is yet no one who comes as close, and that makes him an 'All Time Great.'

Though comedy was the area in which he excelled and made his mark, beneath that seemingly simple exterior, he was, they say a sad, but a very wise man. The evidence of that can be seen in these 3 Heart touching statements he once made:-

1st - Nothing is permanent in this world, not even our Troubles..

2nd - I like walking in the rain, because nobody can see my tears..

And 3rd - the most wasted day in life, is the day, in which, we have not laughed..

Keep Smiling and pass your smile to everyone, and see them smiling.:)

Just take a little time to THINK
When you aren't well, whent here is somehitng seriously wrong with your health, you decide and go to a doctor, who meets you. After a little chat with you to understand what is the problem with your health, the doctor asks for a few pathological tests, to possibly figure out the illness. On submiting these reports the doctor concludes, and also pronounces the illness - saying it can be treated, or spells out the criticality. Tells and explains to you as to what he sees is wrong with you and then either start the treatment, or tell you about the next course of action. During this time the mental agony, the pain of the suffering and your wanting to get rid of the illness makes you believe everything that the doctor says as being the 'gospel truth.' You do not even for a second suspect that what he is saying could be debatable or needs another viewpoint. Should you decide to consult another doctor and take another opinion, possiblities are that the conlusions might be the same, or different or radically different to what what you heard from the doctor you met earlier. You are in a dliemma, you don't know who is 'right' or 'wrong.' Here again you ponder over it and take a decision. You might not want to take a chance, you might take the advice of both the doctors and surrender yourself to the treatment of both,if it is not critical, but if it is you might use your gut feel, which could be right or wrong. The fact is that you take them to be 'professionals' who know about our body more than we know about it. So more than anything else you give credence to his qualificatin, experience and judgement as final. We say then by-and-large, that there is 'crediblity' in the profession of the practice of medicine.

When we look around we find it would be the same as other professionals too such as that of the Legal practice, Accountants, Teachers etc.

Yet the same people are a part of a society, and those who stay with us either in the same locality, apartment or colony. And when there is a 'common issue' that bothers all of us we meet everyone in the society to arrive at solutions, and when the same people whose advise on professional issues you take seriously, when they make their points here, why is it that they get under scrutiny if their opinions don't match yours.

The answer is pretty simple, professions stand to be credible, humans are not yet.

What can we do to add credibility to ourselves as 'human beings?'

How to Reduce Employees Attrition Rate

                                            TSK. RAMAN
 Read this through with "patience" and you will get a lot of information. In the end you also have a lot of questions that you need to ask of yourself and answer. if you think you can do this and then share your thoughts, it's quite passible that you many get solutions to stem the "rot of attrition" in your growing company which seems to be already offering some exciting inducements to make people get engaged.

A little bit of history - before we try solving the mystery
Attrition is an age old phenomena. I've had several opportunities in my career especially in IT dating back to 1987. Companies as everyone knows starts off small, and so it's called "start-up." The period that I am talking about didn't pose serious competition domestically, but to earn a break-through into companies in the US and the lure to earn foreign exchange and $ was the challenge. People would do everything to earn this break. And some companies were there at the right time, with the right people doing the right thing and so there is very little doubt as to why they succeeded. The rush for talent was there but not so much as it increased world over nearer to the Y2K and immediately after till the emergence of the DOT.COM boom and subsequently the burst of the "bubble" and then the down turn. Industry was more cautious in their approach in all aspects - recruitment, finance etc., and naturally therefore people were beginning to pick and choose people whom they could bet on rely on going forward. On the other side, technical people also started picking and choosing - some went dream companies, technical growth, some were bent on only on-site assignments etc., so the cat-and-mouse game started.

Sadly though it is still prevalent, but the struggle for start-up's have been more or less the same. You need to sell the company a lot more harder than say you have to sell a better known company, where you need to concentrate in this sequence - only on the role, technology, growth and compensation (the prospect would like to hear this though the prospects priority and sequence may be the difference). After a round or two of talks this deal is concluded and engagement gets going, assured for at least three years, which is when the resource would might plan the next move. If the company has assignments that can take people overseas on on-site assignments then this mantra is used for extending the careers.

On the other side "start-up" may only have to rely on the "Integrity" and reputation of the promoters working on the latest technologies along with some solid techies handling the leadership positions, and also having some projects in the pipeline, gets the company going. If one gets this combination then it is the effort of everyone, not alone the HR to get more people excited and interested in joining the company to work for. And mind you everyone who comes to meet you as a prospect will give the start-up company a feeling that he/she is doing the company a favor by risking his/her career in joining a relatively unknown company, despite having a market for himself/herself. This is a reality with which you have to live with it and contend, I see no escape. Once the resource decides to come on-board the first motivator is - compensation, rest all are not major factors. Exceptions are thee in this regard, but they are very few. This doesn't end here, you need to be consistent with your policy statements, employee relations policies, etc., to keep the system moving which means you in HR is often under scrutiny by the promoters and the management on the one side and on the other the employees' enjoy the upper hand as they only need to raise the voice to see that the leadership is alerted. Without going into too many details things will get aligned in a manner that HR will have to play the "subjugated" role, taking instructions all the way, and may be also deemed as not so good, not so effective or worst to be deemed as "useless." In fact, people are also known to make a sweeping comment that "Oh! these HR People are all like that, hopeless people, who don't understand the reality etc.,"

What then might be the prime reasons why people leave
Some of the prime reasons why people leave is their inability to handle stress, monotonous work, company policies, lack of career growth, problems with senior people, no on-site possibilities, not enough money, not enough increments, unfair/biased treatment, too much of micro-management, rigid rules and regulations, lack of trust on the management, leadership and may be colleagues too, inconsistent interpretation of policies, the list can go on... There can be multiple reasons for leaving whether it's a well known company or a start-up.

What then are the "Drivers of Engagement" specifically to smaller start-up companies
It's important that the company work in laser sharp/latest technologies, if there is a "bouquet of the latest technologies" even better for instance Mobile - Android, IPhone, windows /JEE/.Net/PHP/Oracle, and with clients who can assure reasonably good quantity of work, ensuring that no one gets sidelined on to the bench.
Regular on the job training programs be it on technology/managerial/leadership, behavioral or whatever, depending on the need of the company to meet the present demand or preparing for the future. All of this should enable the employee make his/her profile seeming good and rich.

The other aspects that follow
Market equivalent salary, without too many deductions but with a bucketful of benefits
Sizably good increments annually after review
Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors
Recognition and Rewards on a regular basis to keep them engaged

These are aspects that you will want them to understand and know but the employees might not think so
Employee perceptions of job importance
Employee clarity of job expectations
Career advancement/improvement opportunities
Quality of working relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates
Perceptions of the ethos and values of the organization
Effective Internal Employee Communications

If these are the realities then, now for the encouraging factors which is what you need to find out how it is in your present organization

1. Are you suitably qualified with a relevant degree in the subject, and are experienced enough to stand up and talk for yourself
2. Do you enjoy the support of the promoters, leadership and the management
3. Are you sufficiently equipped with the right resources - to handle your responsibility - even basic things like a neat work place, a system with the right software, adequate support systems in terms of administration, accounts and house-keeping (or are you one in all)
4. How do people perceive you as an individual
5. How good an influencer are you
6. Are you well read - especially on contemporary managements/industry subjects etc
7. Does the office have a professional look and atmosphere
8. What is the management-style - participatory or what else
9 Is the company engaged in the latest technologies and do they have the right people in the right places, doing the right thing for the right customers
10. What would the USP (Unique Selling Point) of your organization be?
11. What would be your EVP (Employee Value Proposition) to attract new talent
12. What do the current employees think about the organization and what would they want it to be like.
13. Were you able to get any useful information from any of the employees leaving the company, so that you can examine what can be done to address the issue.
14. Lastly are you confident of hanging on despite the carnage around you.
15. Also ask yourself whether you will be able to do his alone or you would want some professional HR Advisors from external sources, and whether the management would be open to seeking advise from specialist's to redeem the future of the company.
I'd also like to add a thing about the mind-set of the Promoters/Entrepreneurs/Technopreneurs, and the people at the top in leadership positions, and this is coming out of hard/rock, and raw experience.

Everyone - be it technical/marketing/finance or whatever, think that they are the one's who are ultimately responsible for the growth/profitability/sustenance of the company and take it that it is their prerogative give directions/suggestions/advice to the one's handling HR.

To be brutally frank, in the initial stages in every organization I held a responsible position, I applied cautious restraint in letting go my thoughts. I would simply say, "thanks your in-puts, I'll give it a thought and get back." Invariably I would do a deep study and tell them about the fall-outs or breaches in what they suggested, and suggest ways in which this could be addressed. Slowly and surely things panned out well and when I did make them realize the value I could add I started putting forth my thoughts in no uncertain terms. When you do so you should be careful as you might not get a buy-in straight away, but you need to make your thoughts, be willing to receive new in-puts, and then amend suitably to get the organization work like a team for a common purpose. Speak just that much, and observe silence in order to listen to what others are saying and then move ahead. You gain this only through experience and getting beaten at first, but you must have a lot of confidence in your self, and tremendous belief in your potential. You should also be lucky enough to have an energetic team which will go all out to implement plans and programs.


Professionals in HR must think of themselves as Strategists going forward.

One give your best and trying changing the situation for the better
Two quit and look for comfort zones to park yourself.

You'll be ill-advised to dwell in a comfort zone. This is a thought that I have been talking about to a lot many people for a long time now. It's about seeking a change of the situation that we are in.

A change which we conveniently postpone blaming everything but ourselves. We need a through changes in the way manage ourselves - we need to think, act and utilize our potential.
A change leadership thinking as well and action which supports their talk.
A change in environment which only sees things monetarily.

C = Communicate, Clearly, Consistently, openly and often
H = Hear to what all others are saying and help folks through the transition
A = Assess and your core values/principles/process and align it with your mission in life
N = Non-negotiable action - navigate from the "Where you are" to the "where you want to be"
G = Get everything you planned, into movement
E = Educate, excite, empower and engage employees

It's incredibly hard for anyone of us on this planet to predict the future with any degree of certainty. But I am convinced that with failures and success, reading, experience, thinking, change and effort you can create the future you desire.

What we need to do is to be changing, be it ourselves or organizations, is a visit on the future.

V = Visualize the much talked of aspect of self-leadership which is desired and acquire it
I = Invest in a learning and development culture
S = Seriously assess the current situation prevailing around you
I = Influence, incremental but continuous improvement-based living
T = Take the bull by the horns, take on hard and difficult task, target areas for betterment/improvement

A = And act on a plans aligned to the aims for a

F = Fruitful
U = Ultimate
T = Totally
U = Unique
R = Rewarding
E = Engagement

With a positive visit a future you desire, can be create with a high voltage energy to make it happen in your organization.

That's it for now.

It'll make you very productive

It'll make you very productive

Work four days a week 10 hours a working day and take off a mid-week holiday on Wednesday.

I have a different take on this all together. In recent times we did have a day off on Wednesday, the last I remember was Gandhi Jayanti Oct. 2, 2013. We always have a lot of work on a daily basis, however, I felt the week with a Wednesday off in the middle went past quickly and I also noticed that it was one of the most productive weeks for a very long time. I experimented with deciding to say back at home yet another Wednesday, which I again found was not only refreshing, but the week was productive once again.

We work more than the scheduled 8 hours a day easily say about 10 hours daily and add to this the travel time of a minimum of two hours (one hour up and one hour down), effectively making it twelve hours to work. Add to this one hour preparation in the morning to get to work and about the same time to unwind after returning back in the evening. So this makes it 14 hours. This leaves us with about 10 hours of which about 7 accounts for the night sleep, leaving us with just three hours with the family, Children, Society, community, TV, Friends, Calls etc. And we seem to wait for the weekend by postponing all activities. When we get to the weekend, most times we are summoned back for some urgent deliverable or if there isn't anything, there is hardly any energy left for anything so we try catching up with the family and relax at home, which again doesn't happen. Groceries, Social outing's, temple visit then to a movie. followed to a dinner at a restaurant, fills the weekend, and back again the grind starts all over again beginning Monday.

I'm being given to understand many of our counterparts from the other side of the globe are pretty precise with their check-in (perhaps 8.00 AM or 8.30 AM) and check-out (@5.00 PM or 5.30 PM) with their lunch packed in between, which I am told they wrap up pretty quickly and are at the desk to resume work. They will never invest their weekends for anything other than family.

So what we are driving ourselves crazy for.

This brings me back to the same point a mid-week off on Wednesday, and the usual 10 hours accounted for work instead of 8, and so in effect for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday anyway we clock 40 hours. There should be no billing hitch. I am quite convinced this will work. It will need some gut for the managements to adopt this proposal first and then communicate to their clients. If the workforce in the country decides that this will be the way it shall go, I am sure there will be no one who would want to challenge a nation such as ours that boasts of high quality young talent. We need to take a firm resolve and say that's it. We shall work 10 hours for four days in a week and take a day off in the middle of the week on Wednesday.

I have been circulating this message through a few blogs now and this has been received with great interest and is gaining support as well. This could quite become a reality before too long.

I was on a long distance call, with a friend of mine dating back to the mid-70’-80’s. He was thrilled at the reconnection and was sharing memories of our times together. Among several things we shared, he reminded me about the humorous things I used to say and that used to be the stand out most of the times we gathered as friends. I reflected back for a moment and said, yes, I was one, and now for a long time I seemed to have forgotten that. Anyway going back to what my friend of yester years said and also believing that I still have that streak in me, I decided I’ll pen this just for fun.
Read this and please let me know even if you haven’t enjoyed it.

So Much Ado About Absolutely Nothing...
by TSK. Raman

People are hard of hearing these days, and that’s nothing to do with the latest technologies. They just want to hold stage and speak about themselves. Most conversations are centered around themselves and just themselves. For a change they will bring in their family – spouse, son, daughter, etc., when they speak.

They hardly think. There is no time even to think if they are thinking. There is no defined process to define this process. In the midst of this chaos, I'm trying to find a thought, and that's a lot of hard work you see, this is what it must be like being an archaeologist.
‘Archaeologists’ uncover the unknown and diplomats cover the known. I'm neither, am therefore not sure if what I am going to say is unknown to the known, or known to the unknown.

Honestly, whose got the time to teach anyone how to 'fish' in today's world. You want to live you've got do anything or everything for your fish. Doesn’t that sound a little ‘fishy.’

I like nothing free, except things nature gave me. There is an old saying the best things in life are free - mothers for instance, the air that we breathe, but how many realize this, as everyone is in a desperate hurry running after more and more and doing airy-fairy things. How else would you describe the mad-rush or people driving on the roads (sorry – no one drives, at least not in a place like Hyderabad, they just fill the gaps, in front of them). Everyone around wants to 'win' everything, and no one knows which race they are in. In the midst of this desperation and cacophony, I am still trying to be happy participating in life. Doing something I feel good, the way I think best possible. I expected to be farther down life's road by now, but I just skidded off the learning curve, because I did not have that aim in life that most seem to have, and now I have just enough ammunition to see my days through. Every action has an overreaction these days, so the best thing to do would be is to be a ‘Director,’ of non-action.

The really scary part of middle age is you know you're going to grow out of it. I didn't much care about it then and now I don't care a bit about my age, you see I didn’t dye my hair, neither do I stop it from falling. I'm not getting old I'm becoming a classic. In me still resides a 'kid' but not the one who would love to go to school. I didn’t enjoy schooling even as a kid, so there is no way I’ll enjoy it now, for workplaces have taken the shape of schools, tasks, performance, appraisal’s, increments, pink-slips etc. It’s now I realized going to school and that too to the class isn't going to make me a 'classic,' I turned to become one and I don’t know how. It may be because I learnt more when I got out of school and on the road to life. Anyway for me it’s ‘vintage’ stuff.

As a kid, I was pretty light meaning fleet footed, and skinny to the extent that if someone saw me from the side, I was invisible. That apart I really loved playing, among which I enjoyed flying kites as it soars into the sky and I felt as if I was flying with it. I remember people telling me to be careful as the weight of the kite and the lift it gets with the wind, might lift me along with it. Nothing like that happened because I used a rope which bound me to a pole, to keep me secure and bound to the ground. I had a competitor around me there too and that was a mischievous cow which our neighbor milkman always tied to the pole, because he had no other place to tie it. This kept me on my toes always, a slight lapse of concentration would mean a knock on my backside by the cow. It had to take it’s anger out on someone you see. And I was not keen on becoming it’s victim. This lesson helps me even to this day. Whenever I feel I am involved in something I can see a lot of bulls around me, who are mentally tied down, and are physically 'milked' out of energy, and I refuse being cowed down. That’s the secret of my ‘energy.’

Now that I am a senior citizen, while flying kites people say I've leased it for a walk, I enjoy it even more if it is downhill, I'm then paragliding. Whatever be it, I enjoy myself, I get to run, fly, and walk, all of which adds to keep me fit.
So that's it from me for now.??

Moral: Subtlety is the art of saying what you think and getting out of the way before it's understood.

THE RAT RACE

“I don’t want to join the rat race.
Not be enslaved by machines,
bureaucracies, boredom, ugliness.
I don’t want to be a moron, robot, commuter.
I don’t want to become a fragment of a person.

I want to do my own thing.
I want to live (relatively simply).
I want to deal with people, not with masks.
People matter. Nature matters.
Beauty matters. Wholeness matters.
I want to be able to care.”

~ E. F. Schumacher in Small Is Beautiful.

How about having a holiday mid-day of the week on Wednesday's and extend our work timings each of the other working days Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

  

　

Pawel Brodzinski on Software Project Management


Dealing with software projects in real life

http://brodzinski.com/2010/05/motivate-people.html
 What Motivates People

by Pawel Brodzinski on May 31, 2010

Today I attended a training session where we were learning about motivation. I’ve heard pretty poor opinions about the session before, but I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t check by myself. And if you need to know these opinions were crap – training was pretty good.

Anyway, we had a very small and very open group which was cool. I think I should thank here those who didn’t show up, since the session was planned for a bigger audience. The best thing about the group was each of us works in different team and we are on different levels in organizational structure. This means our perception of the organization itself and tools we have to motivate ourselves and our people differ vastly.

This is kind of cool because otherwise we would barely have a chance to confront our points of view. And it appeared every single one of us pointed different things as our main motivators. This is basically the lesson I want to share with you. If you want to know what motivates people working for you, move your fat ass from your damn throne and learn what drives every individual in your team, instead of asking for universal recipes.

Yes, you will hear all sorts of answers from "more money" up to "my cellar is cool actually; just don’t interrupt me when I’m in THE flow." On a side note, money isn’t a tool you can use to motivate people.

Motivation is a very individual thing. I remember sharing a really fat bonus with one of my former PMs after she completed one those hard core projects. Since we were getting on well I asked if that motivated her for further effort. The answer was "no, not at all." I can’t say I was surprised much, since I’d moved my fat ass from my throne to learn what had driven my team. If you asked me why the fat bonus then, well, she’d still earned that money.

Don’t expect simple answer for a question about motivating people. The subject is just too complex. And if you still believe there is a simple and universal solution for the problem you may want to reconsider predisposition to be a manager.

In case you were curious my biggest motivators are learning opportunities and having things under control.

Tomek Dabrowski May 31, 2010 at 1:03 pm

Pawel,

I share your point of view around motivation. As you notice, this is indvidual thing and you, as PM/team leader, should try to find out the way of "keeping people happy". Motivation is especially issue with long-term project (but not only) when your team is doing mostly maintenance work. One tip that I can think of is to empower people – they should feel that they can change the process, that someone is listening their ideas and can help to introduce them. Additionally, PM should make people essential part of project, i.e you can engage them into estimation & planning session, ask for technical advice etc.

Pawel Brodzinski May 31, 2010 at 1:04 pm

Martin,

I haven’t yet had a chance to read this one. Thanks for recommendation.

Pawel Brodzinski May 31, 2010 at 1:12 pm

Tomek,

You’re right – tasks people perform strongly affect people. If you have to focus on mundane goals you are probably hardly motivated by tasks themselves. And yes, wise delegation of decision-making process can be a great motivator in many cases.

Delegation is also a typical problem of many managers – they just don’t feel comfortable when they aren’t in full control of things.

Well, I must add that when I say that having things under control motivates me I don’t think about making every single decision by myself, but rather about being able to spread the decision-making power among the team.

Geoff Snyder June 1, 2010 at 1:12 am

Hey Pawel,

Great article! You’re right, it is a complex topic and so much of it get overlooked when trying to collaborate on it. To me, what gets me helps me get motived is: truth. Knowing that what it is that I need be motivated on needs to be honest and truthful. So many times I’ve sat in on a conference (or even a small meeting) only to be razzed up by some ridiculous ‘speech’. If one can keep it simple, keep it real and honest…motivation is sure to follow.

Regards,
Geoff

Pawel Brodzinski June 1, 2010 at 1:21 am

Geoff,

I always considered transparency as an important thing when leading teams. I agree it is one of important motivation factors in general. I mean people feel when they’re told some bullshit when they expect some hones and straightforward message. And being honest with them is a win-win, not only some of them (most of them?) will be motivated but you also cut a lot of gossips out. After all if something was openly announced it doesn’t work as a news during water cooler chit-chat.

Vicky Stamatopoulou June 1, 2010 at 3:18 am

Sure, there is a lot of theory about such things. Internet and wikipedia is full of it… (even through me, I meta blogged on it) but here a direct link to YouTube for a very interesting presentation created by Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce
called ‘RSA Animate – Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us’
http://bit.ly/bQepg7
Cheers.

Pawel Brodzinski June 1, 2010 at 3:59 am

Well, that’s a part of truth. We do a lot of things because of purpose, not because of money. But many of these things are happening outside our workplaces.

I mean, if someone asked me to do a coaching session near the place where I live I’d probably willingly do it it for free. At least now when I’m still not a highly over-paid independent consultant.

But it doesn’t change my situation at work where I expect to earn some cash since I have to pay my mortgage. Pretty much the same model you can map on other people. They do a lot of interesting stuff and no one pays them for it. But at the same time these people can honestly say their main motivator at their workplace is money. If they get more of it they would work longer/harder/smarter.

Motivation to co-creating Wikipedia is vastly different than motivation to build yet another dull web app for yet another business client. Motivation to clean up the house is completely different than to have another beer.

What I focused on in the post is motivation in the workplace. And I assume that not everyone in the workplace just loves their job and would work for free if someone else paid their rent, because it is never truth. In every, but tiny, organization there are people who aren’t fully satisfied with what they do and what they get in exchange. And sometimes giving them power to do whatever they want for 24 hours solves the problem but sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes a handful of bucks can work miracles and sometimes it just boosts frustration.

After all it is totally individual thing.

Vicky Stamatopoulou June 1, 2010 at 12:56 pm

"…Sometimes a handful of bucks can work miracles and sometimes it just boosts frustration.
After all it is totally individual thing."
Absolute true! I now exactly what you are talking about.

Ron Rosenhead June 9, 2010 at 9:02 am

Pawel, good reading!

Some of the people I meet would like the basics; recognition, feedback and a thank you…..

As I say, the basics and it does not take that much to do…..

Ron Rosenhead

Pawel Brodzinski June 9, 2010 at 10:05 am

Ron,

People often laugh at infamous "handshake with CEO" but these things work as long as they are genuine and not just another trick to avoid paying people more money.

Recently I’ve been told that even a perspective of working with someone you respect may be a reason to stay for someone who actively seeks the job since she’s frustrated.

Basics do the job.

Lglass June 9, 2010 at 12:54 pm

Great post. Since "Drive" was mentioned I’d like to offer up another point of view on motivation, from a true scientific perspective. http://aubreydanielsblog.com/2010/01/26/drive-me-crazy/

Kathleen Lisson June 10, 2010 at 1:22 pm

I would also add that the things that motivated an employee in the past may not still motivate them today. All the more reason to continually get off the throne and talk to the team.

Pawel Brodzinski June 10, 2010 at 1:33 pm

Yes, you got the point Kathleen. We change over time. Things which drive us do too. Our managers can’t base on good old recipes which worked when we were fresh graduates.

Besides that there are also temporary factors which affects our motivation strongly. I may need more money at the moment or my spouse can by pretty pissed off with my long working hours. As long as no one talks with me, they can’t know how my typical motivation drivers are affected at the moment.

Jeff Edwards June 13, 2010 at 7:51 pm

I love the "get of your throne" comment. I am going to have to use that one.

I couldn’t agree more. I have long wondered why many managers don’t take the time to get to know their staff. Are they too busy creating schedules, monitoring progress, or eliminating risks? Motivating staff is a big part of a manager’s job, but it is sometimes little-discussed and often ignored.

I have found that most of my managers have not heard of Frederick Herzberg (see http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/herzberg/). He found some elements of work keep a person from being dissatisfied, while others satisfy or motivate. Some managers adjust those components that keep a person from being dissatisfied and expect motivation to increase. There are many other theories of motivation, of course.

Pawel Brodzinski June 14, 2010 at 12:56 am

Jeff,

We just aren’t taught what this all management thing is all about. As IT industry is fairly young and its growth was very rapid we just lack good manager on all levels of the hierarchy. And if you, as a line worker, have a manager who believes the only motivator is money, after promotion you’d likely believe in the same pattern.

Besides it’s easier for a manager to run their knowledge workers as they were a herd of hogs. Oh, they will leave eventually, but so what? Others will come to fill the places.

The funny thing is, unlike many other changes in organizations, changing people management patterns works almost exclusively when it is top-down and not bottom-up process.

TSK. Raman January 11, 2011 at 8:17 am

Pawel Brodzinski ,
This is a pretty old topic, am respoding because I felt I should even if it so late. It’s never a dead issue anyway..

Money isn’t the biggest motivating factor
Sometimes I think we make things more complex than we have to. Definitely, though in an indirect way money may be the biggest motivator in that it leads to being able to provide for yourself and your family. If it were not for money, we would not be able to pay for the basics of life, it isn’t the top motivator all the time. Peoplecan have different motivations at different times in their life, money isn’t the common factor in most cases. It may just be an important piece in the big jig-saw puzzle of life.
Let me repeat, money is not the only motivator, in fact, it’s not even the best one, it may be at the top of other factors like recognization to a good work, getting a continous feed back for a good job done, or helping to learn or to get guidance on a path. There are many people are motivated by competition. Pride in their work, a feeling that what you have contributed by way of your work has added value and has made a huge contribution to the place where you work or your contribution to society in a meaningful way, supporting team members (or not wanting to let them down), helping people, receiving a genuine gratitude and praise, all of these would be intrinsic motivators that can trump monetary rewards.

Pawel Brodzinski January 11, 2011 at 2:57 pm

Well, I agree with what you have to say about the role of money. The only difference is I don’t call it motivation. Yes, we work (among others) for money. Yes, there are industries where people work for money in the first place as it’s hard to make ends meet. But IT isn’t one of them.

But then it is still about some minimal acceptable level of salary which in IT is bigger only because, well, in IT we’re paid just better.

The more we get, the more we want, right?

TSK. Raman January 12, 2011 at 2:33 am

I agree with you entirely, that money makes people to go to work to make them meet ends and to make a living, especially the workers in industries. To motivate workers you have to know what they want. They also might get some fringe benefits therefore money isn’t the only thing that motivates them. Businesses need to have a well motivated workforce or otherwise they will not function properly and to their full potential. Well motivated workers, work harder, are happier, produce more, help a business improve the quality of its products, make your company remain competitive and can mean bigger profits and keep costs down. So it is very important to motivate workers.
Henry Thoreau who said "The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it."
Whether or not money is a motivator, depends where on falls in Maslow’s hierarchy.
1) Physiological Needs: – Money is massive motivator
2) Safety & Security: Money may be a solid motivator
3) Belonginess and Love: Money to some extent is a motivator
4) Esteem Need : Money might play a small part as a motivator
5) Cognitive: Money is less and less of a motivator
6) Aesthetic Needs: Money is not at all a motivation
7) Self-actualization: Money most likely not a motivator at all
8) Transcendence: Money is not a motivator at all.

Pawel Brodzinski January 14, 2011 at 5:08 pm

We think about the same things, we just call them a bit differently. Lower levels of Maslow’s pyramid (and some parts of higher levels as well) fall are those which are covered with some expected minimum salary. I know I simplify here, but I don’t try to make it about theories: Hertzberg, Maslow, whoever you choose.

By the way the interesting thing is all those theories have a common point, which we can apply to the situation in IT industry and it would always end the same: "money doesn’t motivate." Yet it is still treated as the main and the only motivator managers have.

james idylford September 25, 2011 at 10:24 pm

But people always after the money not the work itself. They just want to earn money as much as they wanted to have with.