I finished the last chapter by stating that many successful man- agers are good at human interactions with their people but sometimes aren’t aware of how they do it. It’s just a factor we have to accept – some people just have a natural talent for human interactions. You might have that talent, or then again you might have a natural talent for doing something else like accountancy, fixing a car engine or playing the violin.
Tiger Woods has a natural talent for playing golf, Al Pacino for acting and John Wooden for basketball coaching.
Now you might not be able to play golf like the Tiger, act like Pacino or coach the Wooden way, but I’m sure that with a bit of training you could improve in all of these areas.
I’m not much of a golfer so I went for some lessons some years ago. The Professional made me hold the club and stand in a way that made me feel really uncomfortable. For a while I hit nothing but huge chunks of turf, but after a bit of practice I started to hit the ball further and more accurately than I’d ever done before.
All I needed was someone to show me what to do and coach me;
however, I don’t think I’ll ever make Tiger nervous.
You might be feeling a bit uncomfortable with all this ‘caring’
and ‘human’ stuff, a bit like me holding the golf club. However, you’re not alone; many managers feel the same way. When I first started as a manager I used to worry that my team would see me as too much ‘Mr Nice Guy’ and maybe a bit of a soft touch, and
The Five Factors of Success
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I’m aware that’s an issue that concerns a lot of managers.
However, to be a Motivational Manager you’re going to have to start thinking about this in a different way. I changed my way of thinking and I started to reap the benefits.
Remember the old saying: ‘If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.’
On one of my recent seminars, we were talking about our human interactions and how our people need to know that we care. One manager said to me, ‘My team know that I care about them.’ So I asked him, ‘What is it you do or say that lets them know that you care about them?’ ‘Oh I don’t do or say anything, they just know,’
was his reply.
Follow that line of thinking into your personal life and think about your relationship with your nearest and dearest. If you don’t do or say anything to let the people in your life know that you care about them, don’t be surprised if they suddenly disappear.
I like the saying: ‘When should you tell your wife that you love her? Before somebody else does.’ And ladies, that’s not just a man thing.
You have to, say or demonstrate behaviour to your team members that lets them know you care about them.
Now I know what you’re thinking.
Do have to tell them I love them?
Should I buy them presents? Somehow I don’t think so; however, you need to do something.
You need to start by breaking some old habits and estab- lishing some new ones; you need to start thinking and acting in a different way.
Caring is a powerful business advantage.
Scott Johnson You have to, say or demonstrate
behaviour to your team members that lets them know
you care about them.
Talk to yourself – they can’t touch you for it
Thinking is all about communicating with yourself; it’s all the little things you say to yourself while you’re awake. I read somewhere that the average human has 12,367 thoughts every day. Now don’t ask me how they worked that one out but let’s just accept that we do a lot of thinking and communicating with ourselves.
The thing is that 70 per cent of these thoughts or internal conver- sations we have with ourselves are negative. If you don’t believe me, consider for a moment what you say to yourself when you hear the following:
From your boss – ‘I need to speak to you in my office.’
Do you think– ‘Oh goody, I’m going to get a raise.’
From the person who shares your life– ‘We need to talk.’
Do you think– ‘I’m about to be told how wonderful I am.’
From the tax office– ‘We need to have a meeting with you.’
Do you think– ‘Great, I’m going to get a tax rebate.’
Of course you don’t. You think that you’re going to get fired, lose the love of your life and be hit by an unexpected tax bill.
Your thoughts will control your emotions and as a result, how you act. And just think how those statements above could affect your emotions and your stress level.
How you think – your relationship with yourself – is what’s going to decide how well you communicate and relate to your team members and your boss. The most
important relationship you’ll ever have is with yourself, so you’ve got to get that right.
Henry Ford (he was the guy who started all the traffic chaos) said, ‘Thinking is the hardest work there is, that’s why so few people do it.’
The most important relationship you’ll ever have is with yourself, so you’ve got to get that right.
Too often we don’t think, and instead just react to how we feel.
The Motivational Manager doesn’t react, he thinks.
You have to get to know this person
For many years I’ve been fascinated by what makes people suc- cessful in their life, whatever it is they do for a living. I’ve read biographies, watched people being interviewed on television, studied newspaper and magazine profiles and spoken to many people who are successful in their fields of activity. I’ve been going on the premise that if I want to be successful then I need to do what successful people do. When these people are asked about success they usually define it as something that’s personal to them; a feeling of contentment, achievement or happiness.
However, what I’m interested in is, how do they get to that state?
The conclusion I’ve come to is that there are five basic character- istics that successful people have. I like to call them –