by Matthew Marotti | Jul 24, 2014 | The Mindfield Blog
In order to receive the best work from your employees, you must foster an atmosphere where their motivation and subsequent satisfaction will come from within. In an earlier blog we discussed finding your own motivation, and tailoring it to your job so it can lead you to greater productivity and satisfaction. In this blog, we’ll discuss being the catalyst that brings that mindset out in others. While the fact remains that the most compelling satisfaction comes from within, that’s not to say you can’t help your employees reach that conclusion. This is where coaching comes can help, a crucial part of every manager’s job (whether it’s acknowledged or not!) is driving satisfaction through coaching. Monique Valcour from HBR provides us with a proven blueprint on the matter: Effective managers: 1. Listen Deeply 2. Ask, Don’t tell 3. Create and Sustain a Developmental Alliance 4. Focus on Moving Forward Positively 5. Build Accountability Through attentiveness, support, progress, and accountability a coach/manager helps an employee grow into a professional that can identify both what they want out of their jobs and out of...
by Matthew Marotti | Jul 23, 2014 | The Mindfield Blog
You’ve got to answer to yourself first and foremost to fulfill your internal values, motivation and satisfaction. No matter the success you find at your place of work, whether it’s monetary or authoritative success, if it doesn’t fulfill your internal values it’ll leave you with the feeling that something is missing. If you become passionate about what you produce you’re going to do a better job. A can-do attitude and a little extra effort will soon be second nature! In Drake Baer’s article on Business Insider, he discusses the dichotomy between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. He highlights three key aspects of an individual’s capacity for satisfaction. • Autonomy: feeling in control of behavior and goals • Competence: gaining mastery of tasks or skills • Relatedness: feeling a sense of belonging or attachment to others These are traits that are cultivated from within and can remain throughout your life. Of course, chasing extrinsic money and power isn’t a bad thing, but as rewards these external goals are fleeting, constantly needing to be topped. If the basis of your determination comes from within, you’ll never be without a reason and a route towards...
by Carlo Sicoli | Jul 18, 2014 | The Mindfield Blog
“Can you wrap my shortcomings with a whole bunch of the great things I do? Thanks” In the absence of preparation and critical thinking, delivering feedback can be even more emotionally complex. Its impact is dependent on a myriad of emotional variables and conditions that seem uncontrollable, specifically to leaders who often have to deliver the feedback. To avoid the emotionally charged unpredictable possibilities of giving someone negative feedback, leaders often admit to using the “sandwich” approach and smother their negative feedback with positive feedback. In the HBR blog titled “The Sandwich Approach Undermines Your Feedback”. Roger Schwarz identifies 3 key reasons leaders use sandwich feedback: 1. They think it’s easier for people to hear negative when it comes with positive 2. They assume the sandwich approach provides balanced feedback 3. They believe that giving positive feedback with negative reduces discomfort Rogers points out that transparency is critical in delivering feedback because: 1. Employees know they are being “sandwiched”, particularly if a leader has delivered “sandwich” feedback before 2. Trying to ease people into negative feedback creates more anxiety 3. The “sandwich” feedback approach is a unilateral control strategy that can undermine employees 4. The positive feedback, no matter how accurate, may be discounted entirely or the only feedback that’s acknowledged You can read Roger Schwarz’s blog at...
by Matthew Marotti | Jul 9, 2014 | The Mindfield Blog
It’s no surprise that failure isn’t sought out, but it’s all too often that an inherent fear of failure hinders the potential to succeed. A willingness to fail is one of the key factors in determining the probability of success. This is not to suggest that an attitude of indifference has much merit, but careful and considered risk taking is a wholly different scheme. Of course, it’s common to hear a mistake followed by misguided attempts at reassurance, “Don’t worry about it!” or “Just keep moving forward!” While ostensibly well meaning, these idioms essentially propagate misinformation. Don’t forget your mistakes, make a note of them! Use them as landmarks to piece together the proper route. In an article from Business Insider, entrepreneur Dan Pickett talks about the ins and outs of positioning yourself in relation to failure, honing in on 6 pieces of advice that detail the trajectory of those who fail. He helps reveal the difference between negative, knee jerk reactions and positive, considered responses—ultimately creating a blueprint for graceful recoveries on the road to success. Try – You can neither fail nor succeed without effort; don’t let the chance of failure stop you, because in that case you’ve already lost! Own – If you were involved in a failure, you’ve got a stake in it—denying that fact or displacing blame is a dangerous way to cope that could easily end up alienating others. Forgive – Many people find themselves on the opposite side of the spectrum, unable to forgive themselves, thus placing an inordinate amount of weight on both themselves and the situation. Give yourself a break,...
by Matthew Marotti | Jul 7, 2014 | The Mindfield Blog
Let’s face it, a lot of us have trouble starting the day—whether the culprit is the wrong side of the bed or merely the wrong foot, a good-morning person is hard to find! Each morning has the potential to be repetitive sequence of commute, coffee, and checking e-mail before you really hit your productive stride. It’s a dangerous habit to let take hold. The first few hours of your day will always set the tone for the rest. As Ron Friedman over at HBR points out, answering your e-mails places you in a reactive state, which is to start your day at a substantial disadvantage. So will you begin a sluggish descent into an overflow of e-mails or will you rise above the clutter and achieve your goals? The path to productivity starts with a plan! It takes no more than five minutes at the end of the day to outline the following day. Simply listing and ranking your tasks in order of importance for the following day is an activity that will pay off in dividends—it allows you to hit the ground running each and every morning. There’s no better way to maximize your efficiency than by becoming familiar with your responsibilities, having something to refer back to when things get hectic is invaluable. It’s the same reason we still utilize grocery lists, to-do lists, and New Year’s Resolutions. Furthermore, you’ll almost certainly be sidetracked by one task or another. Distractions will always occur in the workplace, unforeseen problems need solving too! Yet, with a daily plan in place, it’s much easier to put a pin in your...
by Matthew Marotti | Jul 4, 2014 | The Mindfield Blog
The Mindfield Game places a group in a situation with a clear objective, any hint of strategy on the other hand is decidedly absent: you must cross the Mindfield, but it’s up to you find out how. This task serves to illuminate a great deal of information about the participants, both individually and collectively—strategy, teamwork, and observation to name just a few. One particularly significant behavior that’s observed is the sharing of ‘best practices.’ Are theories and tips being exchanged? Or are the participants more closed off, embracing a more competitive mindset? Let’s look at Elon Musk of Tesla and his recent announcement that its patented technology is to be opened up to competitors. From one angle, it’s as if Musk is tipping his hand to his own detriment—why would he so amicably give up a leg up? Nunes and Bellin from HBR tell us that Tesla is actually embracing its intellectual property as an “essential and indispensable function within the broader ecosystem.” So, viewed through this lens, Elon Musk is playing at something greater, namely the strengthening of his industry. What’s good for the industry is good for Tesla. While this development is undoubtedly happening on a larger scale, it does well to illustrate the concept of sharing best practices within an office. If one employee uncovers an effective strategy, it’s beneficial to propagate the idea. If this certain business practice can bolster an overarching system, logic would dictate that it should be communicated. When each player is operating on an even keel, it promotes an atmosphere of pervasive positivity, leading towards widespread...
