Motivation: unlocking the hidden potential

Motivation: Unlocking the Hidden Potential
Victory is only achieved when a team plays together

Ana McGinn March 2009

Introduction “There is an old saying you can take a horse to the water but you cannot force it to drink; it will drink only if it's thirsty - so with people. They will do what they want to do or otherwise motivated to do. Whether it is to excel on the workshop floor or in the 'ivory tower' they must be motivated or driven to it, either by themselves or through external stimulus.” (Unknown) With the new mentality adopted by companies to focus on sales, it is important to ensure that the employees feel motivated by the new challenges and not threatened by them. The projects presented here will promote personal and professional growth, new experiences and skills; better attributes and behaviors, socialization and wisdom. Those factors will directly affect employees’ role, increasing their performance and productivity. The projects are: The Reading Club, from the Agent’s Point of View, The Connection – Quiz of the Week; Good calls, Good moments; and Great Ideas, Great Sales. They are based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which says that human’s motivation comes from their needs. If humans are unsuccessful satisfying those needs, they tend to perform poorly, both in their personal and professional life. He divided those needs in five levels: 1. biological and physiological needs, 2. safety needs, 3. belonging and love needs, 4. esteem needs and 5. self-actualization needs (Abraham Maslow 1940-50). Objective Many studies show that money is not a prime motivator and that employees need to be driven not only monetarily, but also by other needs. Therefore, the purpose of these projects is to motivate employees to achieve their ultimate potential by fulfilling their needs of being inserted and accepted in a work group (belonging and love needs); self-esteem, achievement, recognition (esteem needs) and realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment,