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Twelve-year-old Alyssa is a very precocious and unique child. She learned how to read at the age of four and was into Shakespeare by the time she was seven. Academically, she excels and is currently top one in her gifted students’ class. Because she is the best, she is always sent to student competitions. Alyssa is also musically inclined and plays various instruments such as the piano, violin and the flute. She is in the local orchestra and performs with them in concerts. In addition she ballets, tap dances, acts and sings and naturally is a member of the village theater group. She is physically very agile and outruns all the boys in her class. In fact she represents her school in triathlons. One would think that because of all the things that Alyssa does, she would feel pressured and miserable. In reality though, she feels the opposite. She is bubbly, happy and very positive. When people ask her what her secret is, she tells them that her genes may have given her skills and talents but her happiness and positive thinking is all because of Abraham Maslow and his hierarchy of needs.
So who is Maslow and what is this needs hierarchy? Abraham Maslow was a psychologist who created a series of human needs that according to him had to be accomplished by people in order for them to reach self-actualization. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is depicted as a five-leveled pyramid. The lowest levels of the pyramid are the most basic needs while the top holds the more complex needs. The hierarchy means that people must fulfill the basic needs before they move up to the other ones.
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I walked in on Dino doing the craziest thing I have ever seen—saying HI to the sun! When Dino caught me staring at him aghast, he blurted out, “What? This is my self-esteem activity for the day!”
I would have thought Dino was just getting in touch with his schizophrenic tendencies. But when Dino began explaining to me about his so-called self esteem activities, I began to think that maybe I am the one with schizophrenic tendencies for not knowing about them. According to Dino, self esteem activities are simple activities that help individuals build self-esteem in just an hour a day. They help reaffirm one’s worth and increase self-confidence. Here are a few daily activities Dino sneaks in his everyday schedule to help him boost his self-esteem:
• Write down five things you’re good at and tack it on the ceiling. Give at least five minutes to read the words before starting the day.
• Keep a thought for a day calendar – you get a mouthful of uplifting messages along with your daily dosage of caffeine.
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The moment Bob stepped out of the administration office with a brand on his head saying “new team leader of the production team”, he knew that he had two choices: Either he fires the current employees who were not exactly producing quality work and who have cost the company large quantities of greens in losses and feel bad about it or he gets sacked for retaining them. While reviewing information about the production team in the hopes of finding a good reason for keeping them, Bob was astounded when he discovered that all of them were above average individuals, the best in their fields in fact! So why in the world were these people not doing the work that they were hired to do? Bob got his answer when he read the final report on who the previous team leader was. It was none other than the company’s Mr. Scrooge. Suddenly realization hit him and he saw that the problem was not the production force. Rather, it was the lack of motivation in the workplace.
Are you a team leader, head, manager, or supervisor who has also discovered that there is a dismally low quantity of motivation in the workplace? If you are, then like Bob you realize that what you have at hand is a monster of a problem. The fate of a business or a company is sealed by the competence and efficiency of its work force. In fact, the greatest asset of a business is not technology or equipment. Rather, it is competent, efficient and motivated employees.
Motivation in the workplace has drastic effects on quantitative and qualitative output. If there is abysmally low motivation in the workplace, the products manufactured will not meet the quality demands and will surely have appalling consequences. As a manager or leader, it is your duty to steer the company away from this path by increasing motivation.
Motivation is the spark that lights a burning bush of passion to achieve goals despite obstacles. It’s the upshot that individuals need so that there is inspiration to complete a task. To increase motivation in the workplace i.e. to increase production and quality, well, that needs some serious piece of advice, right? So, what’s a manager or leader to do? Here are a few ideas:
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Alessandra is a pretty name and it suits its owner well because Alessandra, who is my cousin, is definitely a looker. Her startling blue eyes complement her heart-shaped face, sufficiently aquiline nose, rosy lips, high cheekbones and long chocolate brown hair. She is also slender and tall and has an incredibly clear olive skin. Yep, Alessandra fits perfection to a T – physically anyway.
Her personality on the other hand is an entirely different story. Imagine a brown-haired Venus who keeps mostly to herself because no matter how pretty she is and no matter how many times you remind her of the fact, she thinks otherwise. This description basically summarizes my cousin. She believes that she is inferior compared to many people and lacks self confidence.
Whenever she looks at the mirror, all she sees is someone whose beauty and abilities are as brilliant as a rustic old nail. The result is that she only has a few friends, no boyfriend and a social life that would shame Rip van Winkle’s state of inactivity. Why Alessandra perceives herself this way, I really do not understand. Fortunately, I do not have to be a genius to realize that what my cousin needs is a dose of the confidence that I have been born with in abundance.
Hey, I may not be Paris Hilton but I definitely am made up of the stuff that she is (minus the heiress title). So, with these thoughts in my mind, I gave Alessandra lessons on how to improve self confidence. Since generosity is my middle name, I have also decided to share them with you (yes, YOU! my faithful reader) here.
