To all my friends, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.

10 simple ways to motivate your team.

You do not need books or psycho babble to work out how to motivate people. Start by thinking about the best boss you have ever worked for. What did the boss do to motivate you so well? Do you do the same things with your team?

In practice, most of us respond to some simple motivational measures. Here are my top ten:

1. Show you care for each member of the team, and for their career. Invest time to understand their hopes, their fears and dreams. Casual time by the coffee machine, not a formal meeting in an office, is the best way to get to know your team members. Create training plans for each of your team members, 99% of your team want to do a better job
2. Say thank you. We all crave recognition: we want to know that we are doing something worthwhile and we are doing it well. Make your praise real, for real achievement. And make it specific.  Avoid the synthetic one minute manager praise (”gee, you typed that email really well…”). Put it in writing really works ( and a copy to your boss would be the icing!
3. Never demean a team member. If you have any criticism, keep it private and make it constructive. Don’t scold your team members like school children: treat them as partners and work together to find a way forward. Discuss the issue, not the person and stick to facts. Praise in public, reprimand in private is the rule.
4. Delegate well: delegate meaningful work, which will stretch and develop your team member. Yes, there is routine rubbish to be delegated, but delegate some of the interesting stuff as well. Be clear and consistent about your expectations.
5. Have a clear vision. Show where your team is going and how each team member can help you all get there. Have a clear vision for each team member: know where they are going and how they can develop their careers.
6. Trust your team. Do not micro manage them. Coach them in what needs doing - not how to do it. Have courage to implement MBWA: Management By Walking Away.
7. Be honest. That means having difficult, but constructive, conversations with struggling team members. Your job is to set standards and help struggles achieve them. Don’t hide or shade the truth. Honesty builds trust and respect.
8. Set clear expectations. Be very clear about promotion prospects, bonuses and the required outcome of each piece of work. Assume you will be misunderstood: people hear what they want to hear. So make it simple and repeat it often and be consistent.
9. Overcommunicate. You have two ears and one mouth: use them in that proportion. Listen twice as much as you speak. Set up regular 1 2 1 meetings with each of your team, so that you can listen to them. Then you will find out what is really going, what drives your team members and you can act accordingly.
10. Don’t try to be friends. It is more important to be respected than liked: trust endures where popularity is fickle and leads to weak compromises. If your team trusts and respects you, they will want to work for you.

As with all things that sound simple, in practice it is very hard to do all of this consistently well. It is high effort, but normally very high reward. A motivated team will climb mountains which unmotivated teams do not even look at.

What motivates your team?

So what do you think of our ways of  motivating the team? What do you do to effectively ensure your team are a success? Please share your thoughts in the comments section as we learn just as much from you as you do from us.  

Tony Fernandes' top 10 tips for entrepreneurs

1) You don’t need to know everything

I came from the music business. I knew nothing about planes. To all the entrepreneurs out there, you don’t need to know everything about what you want to do. It’s all about the idea, it’s about passion, it’s about implementing it.

2) Just do it!

Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. You’ve got one life, so you can’t press the rewind button and say ‘I wished I had done that.’

So I recommend to all of you out there, just do it. Live your life to the utmost, be positive. If you fail, at least you have tried.

I have failed miserably at Formula One, but I have no regrets because I got to stand with the greats from Ferrari, McLaren, and others.

3) Passion is a key problem-solver

Dreams do come true. Don’t worry about failure. You have one life, make the most out of it. Nine times out of 10, if you have the passion, you will find a way to work through it.

4) Invest in marketing

If you have the greatest idea in the world, please, please, please put some money on marketing. This is because if you don’t put money on marketing, nobody is going to hear about your great idea.

There are so many great ideas that never took off because of a lack of marketing.

Marketing is not about the dollars, it is also about public relations (PR). In AirAsia, we had no money. So I ran around with a red cap on and said controversial things so that the press would always take a picture of me. That was our marketing in AirAsia’s early days.

We have been through so many issues, and marketing played a key role in overcoming them.

Remember SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome)? At that time, nobody wanted to fly; we all thought we are going to die.

Everyone cut their advertising, but I told my guys not to cut because this was the best time to build our brand. In fact, we tripled our advertising and everyone looked at me and said, “Are you on drugs?” I said, no, it is the best time because no one else is advertising.

When the first Bali bomb attack happened, everyone cancelled their flights. I said to the guys, we cannot let the Bali route die. We must continue to fly.

So we came up with ‘Love Bali’ campaign, giving away 10,000 free seats, and it worked. All 10,000 seats were snapped up in like under one minute. And all those who got those seats told all their friends about it on social media. Your best advertisement is your customers.

5) Leverage social media

When Malaysians get a good deal, they will tell the whole world about it. So the 10,000 people who went and had a good time in Bali, told 10,000 people that they had a good time. That was the early gestation of AirAsia’s social media.

We realised the power of social media very early on, so when Facebook and Twitter came up, we latched onto them. We were early adopters. We now have 32 million people on our various social media platforms, and 7 per cent of our business comes directly from social media.

The Bali campaign taught us that our best advertisements are our customers.

6) Don’t be scared of complaints

Complaints are actually free market research. Someone took the effort to write to you to tell you where things went wrong and how they should be improved. These are things that companies pay a lot of money for consultants to tell them that same thing.

So we treat every email preciously.

7) Focus on one image when it comes to branding

During the early days, there was the word ‘AirAsia’ and a logo of a bird in our branding.

If you look at the top brands in the world, there’s only one image that comes to your mind. When I say “Shell,” you think of the Shell logo. When I say “Coca-Cola,” you think of the word ‘Coke’ in italics, and when I say “Nike,” you think of the swoosh.

So, back to our earlier AirAsia brand, we said drop the bird – we felt it was facing the wrong way anyway – and we used ‘AirAsia’ as our logo. Just one image. Why spend double the money to promote two images?

We also dropped the blue and the green colours. I tried very hard not to go with red, because everyone thinks that I want to be Richard Branson [the Virgin Group founder and Fernandes’ former boss] ... but it was the best colour, so we picked red.

So yes, the colour does make a big difference!

8) Go on the ground

What I used to do – although I don’t do this anymore – was that once a month, I would carry bags, I would be a cabin crew [member], and also at the check-in counter.

I did this for two reasons. The first is that you can’t be an effective CEO (chief executive officer) unless you go on the ground to experience the real situation.

Here’s a true story. The baggage handling team told me that they needed belt loaders. I told them, “No, we can’t buy that as it’s too expensive.”

So one day when I was tasked to carry bags, they put me on one of the Indonesia flights. People who fly with us generally bring their house with them, but people who fly to Indonesia bring their neighbour’s house as well!

So there was a lot of bags. I broke my back in the process, and I told my team that they were right and I was wrong, and let’s buy the belt loaders.

If I didn’t do that [go on the ground] and just sat comfortably in the office, I would have made a wrong decision, damaged a lot of bags, and probably started a union.

The second reason [for going on the ground] is that I wanted to look for talent. I wasn’t looking for the talents from Oxford or Cambridge, I was looking for the Grade 3 SPM [O Levels equivalent] kind of guys who needed a second chance.

9) Never underestimate the potential of your staff

I broke all the rules in terms of hiring people. To me, as long as you have a dream, you can do anything.

There was an ex-cabin crew member – she came up to me one day and told me that her dream was to become a pilot. I told her to go for it.

Then she called me up one day and asked if she could take part in the Miss Thailand [beauty pageant], and I told her okay, as long as I get to use her photographs in our marketing materials.

She won the [Miss Universe Thailand] pageant and recently became a captain – so we are the only airline in the world with a Miss Thailand flying with us.

The moral of the story is that we have such a flat structure that she was able to tell me what her dreams were, and we were able to make a raw diamond into a diamond.

Another one of my boys, a baggage handler in Kuching, told me he wanted to become a pilot. I told him to go for it. He passed all the exams ... he had the top marks in the flying academy. Today, he is a captain.

We have many of such stories at AirAsia.

Your biggest assets, besides your ideas, are your people – because at the end of the day, it is the people who will deliver your ideas.

10) Data is king

We have a huge amount of data that we don’t know what to do with it, but everyone else wants our data ... so we figured it must be something very valuable and there must be an opportunity there.

We are investing in a few ventures. We plan to launch our own version of TripAdvisor, a travel dongle, a new YouTube-type of channel and more – data will be playing an essential role in these ventures. Data will be king. —

Affirm yourself.

Sales Leadership: Markup v Margin-is it critical your staff know the difference?

Markup vs Margin Differences

Is there a difference between margin vs mark-up? Absolutely. More and more in today’s environment, these two terms are being used interchangeably to mean gross margin, but that misunderstanding may be the menace of the bottom line. Markup and profit are not the same! Also, the accounting for margin vs mark-up are different! A clear understanding and application of the two within a pricing model can have a drastic impact on the bottom line.

Terminology speaking, mark-up percentage is the percentage difference between the actual cost and the selling price, while gross margin percentage is the percentage difference between the selling price and the profit.

So, who rules when seeking effective ways to optimize profitability?. Many mistakenly believe that if a product or service is marked up, say 25%, the result will be a 25% gross margin on the income statement. However, a 25% markup rate produces a gross margin percentage of only 20%.

Markup vs Gross Margin; Which is Preferable?

Though markup is often used by operations or sales departments to set prices it often overstates the profitability of the transaction. Mathematically markup is always a larger number when compared to the gross margin. Consequently, non-financial individuals think they are obtaining a larger profit than is often the case. By calculating sales prices in gross margin terms they can compare the profitability of that transaction to the economics of the financial statements.

Steps to minimize Markup vs Margin mistakes

Terminology and calculations aside, it is very important to remember that there are more factors that affect the selling price than merely cost. What the market will bear, or what the customer is willing to pay, will ultimately impact the selling price. The key is to find the price that optimizes profits while maintaining a competitive advantage. Below are steps you can take to avoid confusion when working with markup rates vs margin rates:

– use a pricing model or pricing tool to quote sales. Have the tool calculate both the markup percentage and the gross margin percentage

– relate gross margin percentage per sales invoice to income statement

– organize your chart of accounts to compare gross margin rate to sales quotes

- educate your sales force on the differences. By targeting the gross margin percentage vs the markup percentage you can throw an additional 2 – 3 percent profit to the bottom line!

Margin vs Markup Chart

15% Markup = 13.0% Gross Profit

20% Markup = 16.7% Gross Profit

25% Markup = 20.0% Gross Profit

30% Markup = 23.0% Gross Profit

33.3% Markup = 25.0% Gross Profit

40% Markup = 28.6% Gross Profit

43% Markup = 30.0% Gross Profit

50% Markup = 33.0% Gross Profit

75% Markup = 42.9% Gross Profit

100% Markup = 50.0% Gross Profit

 So what do you think of our ways of  speaking the common language of finance? What do you do to effectively ensure your staff are educated in finance? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as we learn just as much from you as you do from us.    www.learn4s.com 

How To Build Trust On Your Team?

Old-fashioned management was easy. Back in the Machine Age, all a foreman or boss had to do was stand at the end of the line and make sure everybody was doing their job.

How did they make sure people were working? Threats, of course! It’s easy to manage through fear. All you have to do is let people know that you have the power to fire them.

Now we’ve left the Machine Age. We’re in the Knowledge Economy now, and we need more from our employees than grudging compliance with our standards and procedures.

We need them to care, and to put their heart and mind into their work. Now we see the truth: you can’t get people to give their best by threatening them!

We have to lead in the opposite way — we have to create trust in our environment, and that’s something that is new to plenty of managers.

They grew up as managers leading through fear rather than through trust. Now they have to learn a whole  new way to manage their teams.

They aren’t used to talking openly and honestly with their employees. They aren’t used to saying things like these:

• I need your help.
• I’m not sure how we should proceed. What do you think?
• I so appreciate what you did yesterday to solve that problem. We couldn’t have done it without you.
• What can I do to support you in this assignment?

Managers are learning a new vocabulary. If trust-based leadership is new to you and your team, here is a way to step into it and begin to grow your muscles!

If you haven’t been holding one-on-one meetings with your staff members, now is a great time to start.

A one-on-one meeting is a chance for a manager and a team member to catch up and share ideas. “Have you met your goals?” is a topic for the meeting, but it’s not the primary topic.

The primary subject for your one-on-one meetings is “How are you doing?”

If your employee isn’t hitting his or her goals, you need to know the reason. In the old days, a fear-based manager might say “I don’t want to know the reason — if you don’t hit your goals, you’re history!”

That’s foolish. You won’t learn anything unless you ask questions. Foolish managers say “Under-performing employee? Off with his head!” and let a potentially tremendous employee walk out the door.

Leaders ... empowering others.

Branding, Safety, Concern for the community - Samsung show the way.

Which one are you?

The Seven Attributes of An Effective Sales Leader.

Every salesperson knows the quality of their sales manager will have a profound impact on their own success. A recent study I conducted proves this point. Sixty-nine percent of salespeople who exceeded their annual quota rated their sales manager as being excellent or above average. In addition, the quality of the sales organization is directly associated to the quality of sales leadership. Fifty-six percent of salespeople who rated their sales organization as excellent also rated their sales manager as excellent—compared to only 3% who rated their organization as average.

If the best sales organizations have great sales leaders, what separates high-performing sales leaders who exceed their quota from underperformers who miss their quota by more than 25%?

To find the answer to this question, over 400 sales leaders (vice presidents of sales and frontline sales managers) completed an extensive sales management performance study. Twenty-nine percent of participants met or exceeded their annual quota last year, while 42% achieved between three quarters and all of their quota. Twenty-nine percent achieved less than 75% of their annual quota.

I also interviewed over 1,000 sales leaders to better understand the impact of management styles and personality patterns on sales success. This combination of quantitative and qualitative research provides insights about the attributes of high-performing sales leaders compared to their less successful counterparts. These attributes are described below in order of priority.

Target fixation. The best sales leaders are target and deadline driven. In personality testing, top sales managers scored 19% higher in the self-discipline facet, 20% higher in the success-driven facet, and 27% higher in the priority-focused facet than underperforming sales managers. As a result, they have the natural disposition to fixate their team on achieving their revenue goals at the exclusion of all else. They block out distractions and compartmentalize negative news that might sidetrack their team or cause their department to flounder. They keep their team focused and moving forward with a sense of urgency, regardless of the circumstances.

Command instinct. Great sales leaders establish firm command over their team by exercising the power their title and position entail. For example, they hold their team to a higher level of accountability. Seventy-five percent of high-performing sales managers agreed that their salespeople are consistently measured and held accountable against their quota, compared to 58% of underperforming sales managers. However, their authority is not autocratically administered as you might think. Rather, it is based upon establishing an environment where sales team members continually seek to prove themselves, thereby driving higher overall departmental performance. The leaders establish this culture using a “carrot and stick” psychological approach. Overachievers receive praise and public recognition, while underachievers are admonished or ostracized until they redeem themselves. In essence, the command instinct is responsible for creating the peer-pressure and attention-seeking environment that eliminates complacency.

Hiring ability. The ability to hire quality talent will determine the success or failure of the sales organization. Seventy-two percent of high performing sales managers rated the sales team they manage as excellent or above average, compared to 54% for underperforming sales managers. Conversely, 46% of underperforming sales managers rated their team as average or below average, while only 28% of high performing sales managers thought so. High-performing sales managers focus on hiring salespeople who are skillful builders of relationships, are persuasive, and have a reservoir of experience they use to control sales cycles.

Sales intuition. Sales is a mentorship-based profession, and a key differentiator of great sales leaders is their ability to dispense tactical sales advice and add value during customer meetings. While the average sales experience for both high-performing and underperforming sales managers was 17 years, high-performing sales managers estimated they have achieved their annual quota 88% of the time over the course of their career. Underperforming sales managers indicated they have achieved their quota 75% of the time. This suggests that the depth of a manager’s sales intuition—the practical knowledge gained from the experiences of participating in sales cycles and managing salespeople—is directly associated with their success.

Control orientation. Sales managers who closely monitor and strictly enforce a sales process are more likely to exceed their quotas, and the best sales leaders seek to control the daily behavior of their sales teams. Forty-three percent of high-performing sales managers responded that their sales process was closely monitored, strictly enforced, or automated, compared to 29% of underperforming sales managers. Forty-four percent of underperforming sales managers indicated they had a nonexistent or an informal structured sales process.

Coaching adaptability. Great sales leaders understand that there is a diversity of selling styles by which salespeople can achieve success. Therefore, they don’t employ a one-size-fits-all coaching style. Rather, they adapt their style to suit each individual. The fact that high-performing sales managers had a higher team effectiveness factor than underperforming teams supports these statements.

A team effectiveness factor is calculated by averaging total quota achievement across the number of salespeople on the team. For example, if a team of ten sales reps who each had $1 million quotas sold $8 million in total revenues, the team effectiveness factor would be 80% ($8 million of actual sales divided by $10 million of quota). High performing sales managers averaged an 81% team effectiveness factor, while underperforming sales managers averaged 55%. One explanation for this significant difference is that high-performing sales managers have a wider range of coaching adaptability.

It’s also important to note that high-performing sales managers had higher quota risk pool factors than underperforming sales managers. A sales manager’s quota risk pool factor is calculated by adding together all the quotas of the salespeople who report to the manager and dividing the sum by the manager’s quota. For example, a sales manager with a $10 million quota who manages ten salespeople with $2 million quotas  would have a quota risk pool factor of two.

Strategic leadership. All sales leaders are battlefield commanders who must devise the organization’s sales strategy to defeat the competition. This requires plotting the best course of action to maximize revenue using the most cost-effective sales model. Great sales leaders possess the knowledge to correctly deploy field or inside salespeople, to segment the market into verticals, and to specialize sales teams by product or customer types when necessary. This helps explain why there was a 51% quota performance gap between high-performing and underperforming sales leaders last year. High-performing sales leaders reported an overall average annual quota attainment of 105% compared to 54% for underperforming sales managers.

The sales organization is unique and unlike any other department of a company. The best sales organizations have strong leaders who exercise control and establish the code of behavior that all team members must abide by. They employ their experiences to determine strategic direction and coach team members individually. Most importantly, they know how to keep the team on track and focused on winning.

Before you decide to quit, read this.

One day I decided to quit.... I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality..... I wanted to quit my life. I went to have one last talk with my mentor. I said, "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?"

The answer surprised me..."Look around. What do you see?” I saw a fern and bamboo seeds?"
My mentor replied, "When the fern and the bamboo seeds were planted, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water....

The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.

“In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo.

“In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit.

“In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit.

“Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant. But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive.

Life does not give anyone a challenge they can not handle.

"Did you know that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots? I did not quit on the bamboo. Never quit on yourself.

Don't compare yourself to others. The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern; yet, they both make the forest beautiful.

“Your time will come. You will rise high! How high should you rise? How high will the bamboo rise? ...As high as it can. So you should rise as high as you can.

Never regret a day in your life.”

• Good days give you Happiness.
• Bad days give you Experiences.
• Both are essential to life.
• Happiness keeps you Sweet,
• Trials keep you Strong,
• Sorrows keep you Human,
• Failures keep you Humble,
• Success keeps You Glowing,
• But only your faith keeps you going....

Leadership: Six needs we all have.

Whatever emotion you’re after, whatever vehicle you pursue—building a business, getting married, raising a family, traveling the world—whatever you think your nirvana is, there are six basic, universal needs that make us tick and drive all human behaviour. Combined, they are the force behind the crazy things (other) people do and the great things we do. ;) We all have the same six needs, but how we value those needs and in what order, determines the direction of our life.                                                              

Need 1: Certainty/Comfort

The first human need is the need for Certainty. It’s our need to feel in control and to know what’s coming next so we can feel secure. It’s the need for basic comfort, the need to avoid pain and stress, and also to create pleasure. Our need for certainty is a survival mechanism. It affects how much risk we’re willing to take in life—in our jobs, in our investments, and in our relationships. The higher the need for certainty, the less risk you’ll be willing to take or emotionally bear. By the way, this is where your real “risk tolerance” comes from.                                 

Need 2: Uncertainty/Variety

Let me ask you a question: Do you like surprises? If you answered “yes,” you’re kidding yourself! You like the surprises you want. The ones you don’t want, you call problems! But you still need them to put some muscle in your life. You can’t grow muscle—or character—unless you have something to push back against.                                                                     

Need 3: Significance

We all need to feel important, special, unique, or needed. So how do some of us get significance? You can get it by earning billions of dollars, or collecting academic degrees—distinguishing yourself with a master’s or a PhD. You can build a giant Twitter following. Or you can go on The Bachelor or become the next Real Housewife of Orange County. Some do it by putting tattoos and piercings all over themselves and in places we don’t want to know about. You can get significance by having more or bigger problems than anybody else. “You think your husband’s a dirt bag, take mine for a day!” Of course, you can also get it by being more spiritual (or pretending to be).

Spending a lot of money can make you feel significant, and so can spending very little. We all know people who constantly brag about their bargains, or who feel special because they heat their homes with cow manure and sunlight. Some very wealthy people gain significance by hiding their wealth. Like the late Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart and for a time the richest man in America, who drove around Bentonville, Arkansas, in his old pickup, demonstrating he didn’t need a Bentley—but of course, he did have his own private fleet of jets standing by. Warren Buffet has a similar old car.

Significance is also a money maker—that’s where Steve Wynn has made his fortune. The man who made Las Vegas what it is today knows people will pay for anything they believe is “the best,” anything that makes them feel special, unique or important, anything that makes them stand out from the crowd. He provides the most exclusive, luxurious experiences imaginable in his casinos and hotels—they are truly magnificent and unmatched in the world.                                                                                                                 

Need 4: Love & Connection

The fourth basic need is Love and Connection. Love is the oxygen of life; it’s what we all want and need most. When we love completely we feel alive, but when we lose love, the pain is so great that most people settle on connection, the crumbs of love. You can get that sense of connection or love through intimacy, or friendship, or prayer, or walking in nature. If nothing else works, you can get a dog.

These first four needs are what I call the needs of the personality. We all find ways to meet these—whether by working harder, coming up with a big problem, or creating stories to rationalise them. The last two are the needs of the spirit. These are more rare—not everyone meets these. When these needs are met, we truly feel fulfilled.                                                                       

Need 5: Growth

If you’re not growing, you’re dying. If a relationship is not growing, if a business is not growing, if you’re not growing, it doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank, how many friends you have, how many people love you—you’re not going to experience real fulfilment. And the reason we grow, I believe, is so we have something of value to give.                              

Need 6: Contribution

Corny as it may sound, the secret to living is giving. Life’s not about me; it’s about we. Think about it, what’s the first thing you do when you get good or exciting news? You call somebody you love and share it. Sharing enhances everything you experience.

Life is really about creating meaning. And meaning does not come from what you get, it comes from what you give. Ultimately it’s not what you get that will make you happy long term, but rather who you become and what you contribute will.

Now think about how money can fulfil the six human needs. Can money give us certainty? You bet. Variety? Check. Obviously it can make us feel important or significant. But what about connection and love? In the immortal words of the Beatles, money can’t buy you love. But it can buy you that dog! And it can, unfortunately, give you a false sense of connection because it attracts relationships, although not always the most fulfilling kind. How about growth? Money can fuel growth in business and in learning. And the more money you have, the more you can contribute financially.

But here’s what I truly believe: if you value Significance above all else, money will always leave you empty unless it comes from a contribution you’ve made. And if you’re looking for significance from money, if you are not enjoying your job, it’s a high price to pay. You’re looking for big numbers but it’s unlikely you’ll find big fulfilment.

The ultimate significance in life comes not from something external, but from something internal. It comes from a sense of esteem for ourselves, which is not something we can ever get from someone else. People can tell you you’re beautiful, smart, intelligent, the best, or they can tell you that you are the most horrible human being on earth—but what matters is what you think about yourself. Whether or not you believe that deep inside you are continuing to grow and push yourself, to do and give more than was comfortable or you even thought possible. The wealthiest person on earth is one who appreciates what they have.  Motivation is brittle and all it takes sometimes is for someone to ask questions, learn, and take action on what was learned. Everyone wants to feel motivated but is difficult for some people. This is a challenge a manager should not ignore.

The 3 things that separate a leader from a manager.

A lot of people use the word “manager” as a part of their job title or description, but “leaders” don’t get that label simply by being appointed to a post.

Leadership is earned, and is hard-won, by the folks who prioritize and understand the traits and qualities that come with the unofficial title.

Did you ever wonder what separates the leaders from the managers?

You aren’t alone. Here are some thoughts on the matter, from people who’ve worked to understand and define the key differences.

1. Managers rely on control and leaders inspire trust.

Many of the distinctions between the two come down to this central idea. Managers act like bosses by controlling people that work under them and by administering tasks. On the other hand, leaders guide, innovate, and inspire.

They rely upon the trust they’ve built between themselves and their team members to be a force that motivates and keeps productivity high. It really comes down to leading through control, or managing through fear. In any given workplace example, it’s pretty clear to see whether the mindset of the one-in-charge was based in one or the other.

2. Managers keep an organization functioning and leaders work to build a shared vision.

Management and leadership might not be mutually exclusive. Any organization needs a little management so that quarterly numbers are met, goals are set, projects are completed … it’s just that leaders also go a step beyond that, focusing attention on motivating and inspiring employees, working with teams to build a shared vision of the purpose, and future, of the company.

Managers work through items on a to-do list and keep the system running, while leaders go a little deeper. They have their eye on the big picture as well as the finer details. Leaders are also more focused on change, and the future, than managers.

“If the world is not changing and you are on top, then management is essential but more leadership really is not,” says John Kotter, Konuske Matsushita Professor of leadership at Harvard University. “Leadership is always about change.”

3. Managers manage work and leaders lead people.

It’s all in the way you look at it. Is a senior position about overseeing work that needs to get done, or is it about leading the people who do that work? What comes first, the tasks themselves or the people who work to complete them?

Professionals want, and deserve, a job that doesn’t treat them like a machine. They want to collaborate and they want to innovate, not feel like a cog in the wheel. The most appealing employers, according to millennials (which is now the largest generation in the U.S. labor force) are the companies that hit these marks.

Companies like Google and Microsoft are known to be innovative and they provide opportunities for professional development and growth. The focus is on the people and their ideas, not the to-do list.

Read more at http://www.businessinsider.my/the-3-things-that-separate-a-leader-from-a-manager-2015-7/#MSYbCAMjtQdyghGp.99

Richard Branson

How to motivate and inspire your people in difficult times

These days, if you’re a leader of any type, you can’t simply order people around and expect them to do what you want. They may follow your directions, if you are watching, but once they’re left on their own they’ll go back to doing what they think is important.

Leaders today, more than ever before, have to win people’s cooperation. And there are two main ways of doing so: motivation and inspiration. Although the two words are often used interchangeably, they actually mean quite different things – depending on what you want to achieve.

Motivation is about moving people to act in a way that achieves a specific and immediate goal. When you’re motivating people to do something they may not necessarily want to do, you have to offer them something they want in return.

When coaches give their teams a pep talk during halftime, they are using motivation. They want their players to charge back onto the field or the court with renewed energy and focus, even though they may be too tired or disheartened to try. Their reward? Victory.

To motivate your people:

Tell people exactly what you want them to do. Motivation is all about getting people to take action, so don’t be vague. Avoid generalities like, “I want everyone to do their best.” Say, instead, “I need you to come in over the weekend so we can get this project done on time.”

Limit the amount of time or effort that you’re asking for. It’s easier to ask people to work late work one night or even every night for a week than to expect them to work late indefinitely. Set an end date.

Share in the sacrifice. Leaders don’t ask people to do what they themselves aren’t willing to do. Don’t tell your people to work over the weekend if you’ve got plans for a spa day. Roll up your sleeves and share the load.

Appeal to their emotions. Fear focuses people’s attention and can be an effective motivator. (“If we don’t get this done right now, we’ll all lose our jobs.”) But if you keep resorting to fear, you’ll end up de-motivating people. People are also motivated by-and prefer to be motivated by-positive emotions like excitement, pride, a sense of belonging, and the thrill of achievement.

Give people multiple reasons for doing what you want them to do. You can give your own reason or the organization’s reason for requesting the action. “If we don’t get this project completed on schedule, we’ll lose the contract.” But the best reason of all is always personal. It would be nice if you could give your people extra days off or even a bonus. Or, you may talk about something as intangible as the camaraderie that comes from having achieved something important together. But things being what they are these days, the best you may be able to offer is the hope that no one will lose a job.

Inspiration, on the other hand, involves changing the way people think and feel about themselves so that they want to take positive actions. It taps into people’s values and desires.

Commencement speakers – the best ones, at least – inspire their audiences. They talk about the challenges the graduates will face, either personally or collectively, and the possibilities of making a difference. Inspiration appeals to the best aspirations of people, and its underlying, often unspoken message is “You can become what you want to be.” No reward is promised, other than the reward that comes from within: the sense of personal satisfaction.

As a leader, anytime you talk about values, about identity (either the corporate identity or each person’s identity), and about long-term goals, your intent – whether you know it or not – is to inspire.

To inspire your people:

Be the change you want to inspire. Your reputation, your character, your behavior will inspire people more than anything else. The only way to call the best out of others is to expect the best from yourself.

Tell a story. Stories don’t tell people what to do. They engage people’s imaginations and emotions. They show people what they’re capable of becoming or of doing.

Appeal to people’s value system. Ask them to act in a way that is consistent with the values they themselves profess.

Trust people. When you’re inspiring people, you’re not telling them exactly what to do or giving them precise directions. You’re empowering them to be their best, trusting that they will then do the right thing. And the right thing they do may not be what you were expecting; it may be something beyond your wildest expectations.

Challenge them. People aren’t inspired by doing the ordinary or by meeting expectations. They’re inspired by the exertion, creativity, and sacrifice needed to exceed what they themselves thought possible.

Motivation and inspiration are not the sole province of professional speakers and preachers. They’re tools leaders use all the time – in one-on-one conversations, in meetings and in formal presentations – to bring out the best in their people. It’s just a matter of knowing the right time and the right situation.
When there’s an immediate, short-term and specific goal that you want your people to achieve, you need to motivate them. When you want to shape people’s identity and their long-term aspirations and commitments, you need to inspire them.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the French aviator and author of “The Little Prince”, wrote, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Sometimes you need to do both. You need to enlist and organize people to do a specific task-to build a ship according to specs, on time and on budget-and sometimes you need to activate people’s desires and stand aside. Who knows, you may be surprised by what they do.