Random thoughts on self motivation

A chat with an acquaintance of mine regarding his plans brought up an interesting thought about motivation in employees. This blog is about two issues. One, motivation by the organisation and two, self-motivation.

The person was demoralised about the lack of incentives or other forms of motivation in the organisation. It would be pertinent to mention here that he has been with the organisation for over six years now. This was the time when the market was on the rise. It was a seller's market. The real estate industry was booming. The sales team did not have to pitch aggressively to sell. There was a queue of customers with the booking amount!!

Change to late 2008 and early 2009. We all know the state of the economy then and the real estate sector too. Walk-ins were very hard to come-by. The developers tried every incentive from modular kitchens to foreign junkets to lure the customers. Selling was a very difficult task.

How do you think a salesperson and team leader who has seen only good times throughout his working career of six odd years would respond to the changed conditions? He can either adapt himself to the change or withdraw into a shell. Become non-communicative. New initiatives by the other team members were stifled.The morale of the team suffered.

The management on its part was too busy monitoring the cash flow, to keep its projects going, to pay adequate attention to the aspect of team motivation. And now when the market is picking up, the team leader has reached the point of total disillusionment.

He blames the management for not motivating (read incentivising) people. The management is of the view that even in difficult times it did not relieve anybody. From their perspective they are right. It is the sign of a good organisation to stand by its employees when others in the industry were downsizing. So who is at fault? Is it the organisation for not overtly taking motivational steps. Or the team-member for not possessing enough drive to keep himself motivated.

The person has a very impressive knowledge of the real estate industry "Pranavji, I want to start my own concern but people will say that I am a broker".

I said "Look friend. You have to focus on what you want. If you give services like a broker, you will be called a broker. But if you project and approach the client as an advisor, you can position yourself in a totally different league. It is not the work which is good or bad, but what quality we bring to the work,which is good or bad." " You will need to improve your communication and presentation skills, choose your clients with great care and focus on building trust rather than business. Business follows behaviour".

It is my mission to help him overcome his inhibitions and his utter lack of belief in himself resulting in disillusionment.

The bottom line is, do what makes you happy. If you cannot do that, find happiness in what you are doing.

The theme for a forthcoming conference of some elite schools of the country is "The power within you". I found it to be very apt and pertinent especially in an age when children are increasingly relying on "guides" and "refreshers" to get through school. And is that the reason why while the literacy levels have gone up, employability has come down.
How is this linked to the theme for the conference? When we were young, we were encouraged to think on our own. We had the liberty of asking weird questions and giving even more weird answers. Our teachers had the width and depth to cope with our runaway imagination. We were allowed to delve deep into ourselves, bring out these thoughts and get patient answers. This built our confidence and we are not afraid to take on anything new.
I think if the conference is able to ignite this spirit of inquiry in the children and the commitment in the teachers to help the child discover his/her inner self, the aim would be achieved.
The child would no longer be relying on guides/refreshers. She would approach academics as a means to broaden her perspective rather than as a chore that has to be done with and get back to Cartoon Network or Hannah Montana.
Encourage the child to discover the power within, to question the status quo, to become free-thinking citizens of tomorrow who cannot be swayed by skewed logic of bigots. Then our nation will see true progress. Progress that is driven from within.

Recently I read a news item ( ET Nov16,Delhi, Nandini Sen Gupta & Sumit Chaturvedi) “Auto Cos feel parts pinch/ Component makers unable to cope with sales overdrive”. The news item brings out how the "country's top car makers are struggling to meet an unexpected spurt in year end demand with component makers failing to match a sustained surge in sales since August."
We recall that an year back,the companies were in an overdrive to cut down their inventory and manpower levels. As a result, their vendors had to cut down production. Further down the supply chain, the smaller OEM and material providers were badly hit. Some could manage to stay afloat. Others could’nt.
Now the auto companies will have to go back to reviving these vendors or develop new ones to meet the upsurge. Both options will probably cost more than what they saved in the last financial by withdrawing support.
Reading the news item I had a sense of déjà vu. I remember reading the draft of a talk Prof Eliyahu Goldratt had with the top managers of a Japanese electronic OEM in January this year.

He had advised them that to capitalize on the recovery in the market, a company had to take two actions. First, do not cut capacity. Reducing manpower is painful and hiring, many times involved the long process of training. Companies that laid off people then will most likely be slow to respond to the sales picking up now.
Secondly, he advised them, to help the material suppliers. Those companies were hit the hardest and they will be the last to feel the recovery.
One needs to only study the lead times required at each stage in the supply chain of auto parts to predict how soon will the auto companies be able to bridge the demand-supply gap and capitalize on the recovery. Perhaps Mr Karl Slym, the President & MD of GM India would do well to introspect and examine his company’s actions in the light of Dr Goldratt’s views. Then he would not lay the blame entirely on the doorstep of the component makers.