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Motivation Comes From More Than Money

Taylor Stauffer Leave a comment



So much of our lives are spent working and, of course, you can pull together a good team if you offer very high salaries, but what you’ll find over the long term is that there are other ways to motivate your team, beyond the dollars and cents. These motivators are often quoted as being more important than money in deciding whether or not to remain in a position.

Like what?

1. Praise your team

Praise them as a group, praise them individually, but always be generous with your kudos. A pat on the back might seem trite and silly compared to an extra $5k, but on exit interviews with many major corporations, a lack of praise is often mentioned as a motivation for leaving.

People need to feel like their contributions to the team matter and you can’t assume that your good feelings about them come through on the paycheck. Your team needs to hear from you, collectively and one on one, to know that they are valued.

How you praise them will be different from person to person: one might prefer a bonus; another might prefer some extra time off. Even just taking the time to sit down with a cup of coffee, phones on mute, to tell them that they’re doing a great job can be a huge bonus for an employee who has been giving it their all.

2. Don’t take advantage of the hard workers

It can be tempting, in a project crunch, to set your sights on the team member who is naturally adept at getting things done, but you could be inadvertently overworking them at best, and at worst, taking advantage of them unfairly.

Unless you plan to give them a new title, with new responsibilities and more pay, you can’t keep looking to a small subset of individuals. They will quickly realize that their effectiveness in their role is also their downfall and there’s no faster way to lose motivation than to realize that you are being taken for granted. Ask any married person who does all the housework while holding down a job too!

3. Remember that no one is essential

I don’t mean that you shouldn’t value your team members because you can replace them. It’s never easy to replace a productive, valuable team member. But you also can’t hold onto them because you’re afraid you won’t be able to replace them. While someone new might not have quite the same skill set, that doesn’t mean that they won’t eventually rise to the task you set for them. Don’t stand in the way of a good employee moving onwards and upwards: it won’t work in the long run, and in the short term, it can do a lot of damage to their motivation.

Instead, be supportive of their goals and remind yourself that no one, not even you, are essential. It’s the best way to stay grounded and focused.

4. Skip the fear tactics

Sure, people work hard when they’re worried about losing their job, but they don’t work well. Nobody can function for long in an environment where they are afraid for their future, or even afraid of being berated publicly.

Inasmuch as no one is essential, people should never be made to feel disposable, as if what they do doesn’t matter. If mistakes are made, deal with the individual privately and with generosity and in the spirit of learning. Instead of feeling like their job is at stake, they’ll feel like you’ve got their back and want to help them gain the right footing. When it comes to motivating your team, choosing the right styles can make all the difference in how they feel about working better, harder and more conscientiously.


A good leader is someone for whom others want to work, want to do their best for, and want to create something with. If your team doesn’t feel that way about you, it’s says more about you than it does about them, so find ways to motivate them so that they are happy. You will be too!

business women in mentor meeting

6 Mentorship Myths That Need To Go Away

Taylor Stauffer Leave a comment

Whether you are a mentor or a mentee, the whole relationship of mentorship can be fraught with myths and misconceptions. Here are six myths that you should dispel from your thought processes right away.

Myth #1 — The best mentors work at other companies and make more than you do

While you are likely to look for a mentor who is more seasoned than you are, which means they likely at are a higher pay grade than you, that shouldn’t be the determining factor. For example, if you’re new to a certain type of business model, working with someone who may in fact be relatively junior but who has been doing the job for a while could be very helpful to give you the ground level intelligence that you need to move forward.

And as to the location of the mentor, that also should not matter. You are looking for someone who can guide you and provide you with a certain level of information. That person may be at another company, or they might be in the management ranks at your company. There is no hard and fast rule and some would argue that ‘keeping it in the family’ makes more sense, from a group dynamic and information sharing point of view.

Myth #2 — The mentor / mentee you have now is your first, last and only

Wrong! As you evolve, whether that is as a mentor or a mentee, the person you will want to work with will evolve too. Either you will outgrow your mentor, or you will change disciplines, making their experience less relevant to your current needs. If you are a mentor, you might find that you’ve reached the top range of what you can offer your mentee and it’s time that they move on to someone who can expand on that breadth of knowledge in a different direction. Either way, it’s absolutely normal and expected that you will have different mentors / mentees over time.

Further, you might have different mentors for different aspects of what you want to learn. No one can be all things to another person, nor does anyone have ALL the knowledge.

Myth #3 — The mentor chooses the mentee, not the other way around

The best person to decide what they need to know is the person who is looking for the knowledge. That is, the mentee. They are uniquely positioned in their own minds to understand what it is that they require to move forward. It’s therefore not only acceptable for a mentee to approach a mentor first, but it’s actually preferable. That mentee will be more engaged and more committed if they are the ones who have put down the stakes and asked for your help.

Myth #4 — Mentees will only leverage the relationship in order to get a better job

There are so many reasons that mentees and mentors choose to enter into a relationship with one another and finding the next great role is not high on that list. Yes, the point of being mentored is to further your skill set and grow, but the mentor benefits from this as well, often learning along with their mentee. It’s a dynamic that goes beyond a ‘lunch and learn’ scenario but one where both people can grow. It’s also not a short term, quick turnaround situation. Mentor / mentee relationships take time to develop and to show results that are satisfactory to both parties. It’s about exploration, not gain.

Myth #5 — Mentoring doesn’t help the mentor in any way

As mentioned in Myth #4, that’s false and if it is what’s occurring, then the pairing isn’t a true mentor / mentee relationship. Like all teachers, there are things to be learned from the process, from the interaction. We all grow and learn from working with others, even if that person is not yet at your level of expertise or experience. It’s definitely not a one-sided relationship. As a mentor, seeing the opportunity to learn is an important step. If you are just looking to pontificate and have a younger mentee genuflect at your feet, you’re not seeing the power of symbiotic learning that can happen when two people drop their guard and open their minds.

Myth #6 — Mentoring is teaching and the relationship should be viewed in that formal construct in order to see a return on investment

No. Mentoring is guiding. It’s helping a mentee to understand and see a path for themselves. It’s sharing knowledge and experience so that the mentee can develop their own understanding of how to apply that knowledge in their own work and career path. There return on investment is there but it’s not as directly measurable as you might find in a teaching or coaching environment. A mentor doesn’t teach a class in a specific area of knowledge, give a test and calculate the mentee’s understanding of the material. It’s not as formal as that, nor should it be. The point of mentoring is to help a mentee grow at their pace and within their needs.

Starting a mentoring program is not difficult but sometimes it’s made easier by the participation of a neutral third party with strong experience in building mentoring programs. From the initial consultation to the final implementation, bridge between can assist any company to connect potential to performance!

team of business people meeting with female leader manager project colleague coworker

Why You Need to Let Your Team Go

Taylor Stauffer Leave a comment

Unless you’ve been living under a rock these last years, you’ll have heard about the phenomenon known as ‘helicopter parenting’. These are parents who won’t let their children experience failure of any kind.

In the business world, this is known as micro-managing. “Micromanagement is a management style whereby a manager closely observes and/or controls the work of his/her subordinates or employees.”

In fact, leading a team isn’t all that different from parenting. Not that team members are children nor should they be treated as such, but stick with my analogy for a moment and you’ll see where I’m going.

Avoiding being a bottleneck requires some planning

CEOs and top flight managers are often concerned with two issues:

  1. The amount of time they have to get tasks done that don’t relate to people management (which is often not enough!)—an issue every parent can relate to particularly when fights among siblings are a daily occurrence.
  2. Not becoming a bottleneck to work getting done.

The result is that in the aim of not becoming the bottleneck, they become too available to their team. Like the parent who is forever picking up after the older child who should know better, the analogic results for a leader or manager is that is that they a) don’t have enough time for point 1 and b) the team doesn’t learn to operate on their own.

Your team members must be set up to make decisions on their own, and fail if necessary. That is a far more valuable learning process than constantly stepping in to help them avoid all the pitfalls. Mentoring a team doesn’t necessarily mean making all the decisions for them and simply expecting them to execute; it means helping them find a way to making those decisions on their own.

Setting team members up to decide, not to fail

The previous point isn’t meant to say that you as a leader should set team members up to fail. Rather, you need to equip them with all the necessary tools and information so that they can make decisions without you. Non-helicopter parents do it all the time: they give their kids a certain level of freedom and the rules that surround that and let them go to it. As a leader, you need to think the same way with your team.

This means:

  • Clearly establishing the parameters and scope of their authority;
  • Encouraging creative solutions, even if they ultimately don’t work out, by not punishing failures;
  • Reviewing decisions on a regular basis as a team and seeing where improvements can be made, so that the review becomes a learning process for all.

Give team members some free range

The opposite to being a helicopter parent is being a free range parent. That is: “… raising children in the spirit of encouraging them to function independently and with limited parental supervision, in accordance of their age of development and with a reasonable acceptance of realistic personal risks”

Apply that to your team too: block off time to be available to your team but also block off time where you’re not. Whether that’s because you’re in conference or otherwise occupied, there are teams that will gravitate to always asking for your input because they don’t feel comfortable making decisions or have simply fallen into the habit.

Like the parent who wants their kids to be more independent over time, your team needs to be more independent and get into the habit of making a judgment call as to whether you really need to be brought into the decision in advance or whether it would be enough to fill you in later, at a pre-scheduled meeting.

A little trial and error where the errors don’t result in punishment will help your team to function on their own a little more, freeing up some of your time to focus on other priorities.

If you think about it, looking at the development of your team as a work in progress, as parents do with their children, you will be able to clearly see when they need a little boosting and encouragement and when they should be allowed to fly on their own. Giving your team independence is good for their development and feeling of accomplishment and it’s also good for your own satisfaction in your role. You can rest easy knowing that you’ve equipped them for the job you’re asking them to perform.

Sources: Wikipedia ;Wikipedia ; Wikipedia

business communication toxic culture dignity leadership

How to Get Rid of Your Toxic Work Culture

Taylor Stauffer Leave a comment

The recipe for a productive, happy team isn’t complicated. Like actual food recipes, it’s all about working with real, authentic ingredients. No fake elements, no aggressive attitudes!

Toxic work cultures aren’t new but they all tend to operate the same way. A culture of ‘motivation by fear’ works, but only in the short term. If you want a team that is inspired, that sticks together and works well as a unit, you need do everything you can to avoid a toxic style and bring dignity to the table, instead.

Give praise as well as feedback

Have you ever noticed how often people speak up when it’s to complain about something but how they will speak up less often to offer praise for a job well done? If a team member feels appreciated and is actively told they’re doing something right, despite constructive feedback that might seek to improve their performance, they will be happier in their roles.

Even if they are not performing as you would like them to, from their point of view, they may be doing their best. A manager or leader who doesn’t recognize that will lose their confidence.

Use their strengths

A team member who feels their skills are being underutilized will never be happy. If, however, you are using their skills to the best of your ability, they not only feel more fulfilled but you are clearly demonstrating that you see them for what skills they have and what they can add to the team as a whole. It’s important for people to have that recognition, to know that those above see them for who they are and what they can accomplish.

Lead by example

This is basic: if you want people to behave a certain way or work a certain way, you have to do it too. Walk the walk, as the saying goes, instead of standing on a pulpit issuing orders. That also means that you need the skills to do the work too. You won’t gain respect of your team if they feel that you can’t do the job alongside them.

Akin to this is leading with authority. It’s difficult to lead a team if you don’t really understand what you’re doing. You need to come from a position of knowledge in order to get people to listen to and follow you. That said, you can’t know everything and being honest about what you don’t know is an opportunity for the team to see you as human, rather than an authority figure. That’s important for their own validation but also for you to be able to relate to one another.

Listen to your team

Do you want team members to step up with new ideas? Do you want them to offer suggestions and find new ways of working? You need to listen to them. This doesn’t mean that you have to do what they ask every time, but you have to at least take their opinions under consideration. Nothing will cause a group of people to stagnate faster than a management team that doesn’t care what they think.

This needs to happen as a group, but also on a one-on-one basis, so that your team always feels that they can speak to you about concerns they might have, whether they are personal or professional. Do you have a single mom who is struggling to manage her home and professional life? Let her work from home on a regular basis, so that she can gain some control.

Add a dash of dignity

While respect is earned, dignity is something everyone should receive, without having to qualify for it in any way. Treating people with dignity is a minimum requirement for all successful teams. This comes back to the notion of controlling people with fear, as a toxic work environment will do. This management method strips away people’s dignity because they don’t feel safe. The ability to make your team members feel safe at work is an essential step to building a superior, effective and efficient team.

You want your time to feel inspired, safe, valued and appreciated. From there, you’ve got what it takes to build a solid team that will help you grow a project, a business, or an entire industry!

How to Conquer Your Fear of Public Speaking in Just 6 Steps

Taylor Stauffer Leave a comment

In real estate, the mantra is: ‘location, location, location’. In public speaking? It’s ‘practice, practice, practice’.

 

Ask some actors and they’ll tell you that they never get over the stage fright, the butterflies that come before the cameras roll or the curtains part. One thing they will all tell you is that they beat back those fears with rehearsal. Not so that a piece will sound rehearsed as it comes out of their mouths but so that they know it backwards and forwards, inside and out.

 

Similarly for nervous public speaker, the comfort derived from a good level of preparation is the key to giving a good speech.

 

Here are six steps to help you get to the public speaking promised land!

 

Find the sweet spot on your material

 

Engaging an audience is half the battle: if you feel like they’re with you, that they’re listening, that they’re engaged, you’ll be more successful. So how can you ensure that they are with you? Make sure that there is a connection between what you want to talk about and what they are interested in. This is about knowing your audience and ensuring that your material is relevant to them. If you want to talk about the perils of entrepreneurship to a group of mental health workers, your sweet spot is going to be talking about stress, depression and other mental health issues, with anecdotes and stories that are specific to entrepreneurs.

 

Find a sweet title for your speech

 

Just like the first line of a novel, your speech title is what will spark interest… or not. Your audience will be drawn in by a great title and they will at least start out engaged. That interest factor applies to you too! If you’ve given the same speech twelve times, tweak it by changing up the title and a little of the speech. It’s important that what you’re saying feel fresh and interesting to you as well.

 

What should any speech include, aside from a great title?

 

Start with a story, if you can. The level of engagement that you will get will be higher and that will put you on a good footing to continue. If not a story, then ask the audience a question. Something that challenges them or makes them laugh. You want to capture their attention. Then what?

 

  • Point out the relevance of your speech to this particular audience, if it’s not already crystal clear. Your premise, or the ultimate point you want to make, should come right up front.

 

  • Give information that clearly demonstrates your expertise or knowledge in the subject matter. Without getting bogged down in too many stats, jargon or esoteric information, you can wow an audience and keep them engaged because you’re able to back up the premise you made earlier.

 

  • Opinions matter if you are a subject matter expert, so don’t be afraid to give them. You want to provide something to your audience that they can’t get by watching a series of YouTube videos!

 

Edit… and then edit some more

 

Write your speech out and then edit it. Give the speech in front of your dog, to hear it out loud. Then edit it. Give it to a camera so you can watch yourself and your various arm movements or nervous tics. Then edit it again. You want to have practiced enough to know the speech well but not so much as to sound like an over-rehearsed machine.

 

Keep your language simple and clear. Multisyllabic words may sound impressive on paper but if half your audience is asking SIRI what something means in the middle of your speech, you’ve lost them.

 

You want to see how fast you are speaking, what filler words you over use and whether or not you’re laughing inappropriately. It’s all a part of the overall image you’re going to project. When you feel like you’ve got the right image, you’ll feel more confident about giving the speech.

 

What are three known speech killers?

  1. People who blather instead of staying on point.
  2. People who use sarcasm.
  3. People who talk in platitudes and trite phrases. If you sound like a bumper sticker, you’re going to lose your audience!

 

Get some presence!

 

Walking on to a stage or up to a podium is your moment to really capture everyone. Even before you’ve said a word, you can lose them if you’re fidgeting or engaging in other nonverbal behavior that turns your audience off. Like what?

  • Not looking at your entire audience, no eye contact.
  • Staring at cue cards or at slides.
  • Talking quickly or mumbling. By practicing your speech, you can adopt a strong cadence that your audience will enjoy listening to.

 

What to do if you feel you’re losing your audience?

 

Be prepared with some humor. Without a doubt, humor is the ideal way to regain their attention and refocus it on you. Quotes, anecdotes, jokes about yourself… whatever you’re comfortable with.

 

If you want people to hear what you have to say but you’re nervous about saying it, it’s best if it feels as if you are having a conversation with them. If it feels to each audience member as if you’re speaking directly to them, you will have their attention. If you feel that way, you’ll be calmer, more collected and more effective in your speech. Good luck!