Brian B Brown - The Easy Step by Step Guide to Motivating Your Staff for Better Performance

Motivating Your Staff

For

Better Performance

By

Rowmark

Published by Rowmark Limited

65 Rogers Mead

Hayling Island

Hampshire

PO11 0PL

ISBN 0-9532987-7-9

Copyright Brian B. Brown 2000

Reprinted 2006

The right of Brian Brown to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.

Note: The material contained in this book is set out in good faith for general guidance and no liability can be accepted for loss or expense incurred as a result of relying in particular circumstances on statements made in this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd. 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, England W1P 9HE. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

Other Easy Step by Step Guides in the series include:

By Brian Brown

Managing Change

Better Budgeting for your Business

Writing a Business Plan and Making it Work

By Pauline Rowson

Marketing

Telemarketing, Cold Calling and Appointment Making

Building a Positive Media Profile

Being Positive and Staying Positive

Successful Selling

Communicating with More Confidence

Fundraising for Your School

By Brian Lomas

Handling Confrontation

Giving Confident Presentations

Stress and Time Management

Fewer, Shorter, Better Meetings

Plus

Handling Confrontation by Gerry Williams

Recruiting the Right Staff by Chris Dukes

Writing Advertising Copy by Pamela Brooks

Writing Newsletters and Articles by Pamela Brooks

Rowmark Limited

enquiries@rowmark.co.uk

www.rowmark.co.uk

About the author

After a first career during which he held senior general management and executive positions in the engineering, manufacturing and financial services industries, in 1987 Brian became a freelance consultant working with large and small organisations, from private to public sectors, to improve organisation performance through strategic change and training.

Brian is a business graduate, Chartered Secretary, and member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development.

Introduction

During the last few years, the concept of 'learning organisations' and employee empowerment have supported a drive towards less reliance on figurehead bosses telling us what to do, and more on our ability, as individuals, to act positively and effectively.

There have been a number of studies to determine the factors that motivate people at work, including in February 2000 information from the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development about what people want in their job. Over the years, the messages have all been remarkably similar yet during the late 1990s Britain experienced industrial action from white- collar workers in two of the most stable industries, airline and banking. This suggests that the messages and lessons of the past years still are being ignored!

There has never been a better time than now to practice good people motivation and management techniques, because:

downsizing in organisations places greater pressure on senior people so that the help and support of subordinates is of even greater importance

young people entering the world of work have been educated to be project oriented rather than task oriented and are not comfortable with traditional carrot-and-stick management

lack of employment security has reduced the level of employee loyalty and therefore more emphasis has to be placed on building positive relationships with people.

This Easy Step by Step Guide is about helping you to understand the messages from the past, harness them in the dynamic business environments in which you work, and nurture and develop effective people to deliver performance that is probably beyond what they thought themselves capable of!

How to use this guide

This guide is written in a clear step-by-step style to help you to gain the best understanding possible. Some theoretical background is given where relevant to help you to focus on issues that can help you to optimise the performance of your people.

However, this should not over-ride the certain knowledge that every organisation is different (and sometimes departments within organisations are different) from each other. Therefore a good approach to your reading might be for you to consider the issues raised in this book and how they might be used beneficially for your organisation, rather than try to apply any technique in exactly the same way as a sample provided.

Only you will know how to make it work for you.

I recommend that you read through from beginning to end, so as to get a feel for motivating people effectively, and then revisit the sections that will help you to do things better, and to refresh your memory.

The boxes in each chapter contain tips and signposts to focus your attention on important issues. At the end of each chapter is a useful at-a-glance summary of points covered.

This guide is primarily concerned with the ways in which people working in organisations can be effectively managed and motivated to achieve their optimum performance.

The importance of knowing yourself

How to respond to individuals so as to encourage best performance from them

How to build trust and motivate people

Hoe to use delegation and empowerment effectively

How to give feedback

How to handle conflict

Techniques for managing peoples performance