Okay, let’s face it. Throughout the year, your group will appreciate your efforts to encourage them and, therefore, engagement and loyalty will increase. To mix things up, you may want to consider bringing in a “guest coach” to fire up the troops. It is critical that people know that you have their best interest and their career growth at heart, just as any faithful leader would. In addition, when you surprise them by bringing in a motivational speaker or local celebrity to pump them up before the big game, you’ll elevate their level of energy and focus.
Did you know that words can lose their impact when we hear them repeatedly from the same person? This is known as “semantic satiation” - a psychological phenomenon in which repetition causes a word or phrase to temporarily lose meaning for the listener, who then perceives the speech as repeated meaningless sounds.
So while it is important to make sure we are praising those we lead at work, it is also important to be cognizant that we aren’t just spouting the same trite and tired phrases at them again and again. It is important to make sure that the motivation and inspiration your employees receive is fresh, authentic, and sincere.
One way you can provide some unique words of encouragement to your team is by bringing someone else in to motivate and ignite them! After all, motivation at work is critical to individual, team, and department performance because science has found that “the message that someone else believes you can achieve what you want to achieve can be a powerful incentive to try harder.” Additional research has found that “Humans are aspirational. We want to look up to role models and leaders and follow what they ask. Leaders and their words–inspirational quotes–affect us on a primal level.”
This week, I challenge you to check out eSpeakers, the international database for the National Speakers Association to see if there are any motivational speakers in your area who could come in and provide a dose of pep. Perhaps another department head or leader in your organization has an inspirational story they could share with your team. You could even tap into your town or city’s network to see if there is a local celebrity, news anchor, or sports star that would be willing to spend an hour or two dispensing wisdom to your workers.
FUN FACT: There have been some timeless motivational quotes throughout history, including: Thomas Edison’s “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”; Lou Holtz’s “Your talent determines what you can do, your motivation determines how much you are willing to do, your attitude determines how well you do it.”; and “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” from Theodore Roosevelt.