Motivating employees  is like building fireworks; if you do it right, everyone will be happy, properly entertained, and you will make a profit; if you do it wrong, it can very easily kill you.

The only reason I am writing this is because I wanted to bring a different perspective to the issue. I am not and have not been a heavy hitting manager with 1000+ people under my control, but what I have been is a  person on both sides of the coin; bottom, top, and bottom again.

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions about employee motivation that people believe and practice everyday. Some of these have originated from partial truth, because they live in such a gray area that it’s hard to distinguish between truth and fiction. The other thing that continues these poor practices is the fact that it is what we have been told our entire lives. For example, did you know bats are not blind? In fact, they have fairly normal eyesight for the animal kingdom. I found that out the other day and felt like an idiot. I’ve seen and even held bats up close and it is obvious that they have fairly normal eyes in their heads, but if you had asked me what animal is most commonly associated with being blind, I would have answered bat all day. The problem with that scenario is that being “blind as a bat” has been so deeply ingrained into our psyche that we believe it even if it is obviously not true.

There are several of these same scenarios that play themselves out each day in our offices, stores, and warehouses across the globe. As I said in the beginning, the value I bring is one from the perspective of a person that has been on both sides of the motivation machine; I was looking up, then looking down, and now back up again and this is how I see it.

Myths and Misconceptions

1. Fear

This one dates back to the dawn of man.

“If my employees suck, I will yell at them and then they improve.”

No…. I can’t even express how wrong that statement is other than I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul. Seriously though, fear is a terrible motivator. If you think fear works well, you are either in one of two positions; you think the performance it brings is the highest achievable (IE. you have low expectations) or you employ a group of masochists. Period.

Using fear as a motivator is like using gun power as charcoal fuel; sure it will burn like crazy, but only for a second. All that said, if you yell at your employees more than once a year, reevaluate your method and/or punch yourself in the face.

2. Money

Wait a second, money is a great motivator!

That is almost true, money can be a great motivation tool if used correctly, but many times it is throw out above the crowd and the same highest hands catch it every time. The reason money is a poor motivator is because most of the time it works directly against proper job placement and structure and even more so because it is directly related to the #1 motivation myth, fear. Money rewards everyone the same way for doing the same thing and that is retarded. Just because Tommy doesn’t bring the company $1mil revenue a year doesn’t mean he is worth less than the guy who does. Does Tommy treat his clients honestly and fairly? How many complaints have you had about Tommy compared to the people in the top 5%? The thing about rewarding people with money is that if you are going to do it, you need to be dynamic with your distribution.

3. Conflict

Don’t ignore conflict.

If people in your organization are fighting, take initiative to step in and stop it. There are few things more damaging than letting a simple argument expand into something that will divide a team or even an organization. There is no

doubt that being an effective manager means you must walk a fine line between boss and friend, but this is the time to step up and take charge of the situation. Set everyone down and get the entire story, make a decision, act on it, and stick to it. You will have more respect from you employees and your organization will be stronger because of it.

4. Recognition

Recognition, like money can be one of the most effective motivators if executed properly.

The problem with recognition is that, like money, if it is not distributed effectively, then it will do more harm than good. Recognition can quickly turn to alienation if only one aspect of an employees performance is rewarded.

I AM IN NO WAY SAYING EVERYONE SHOULD GET A PARTICIPATION RIBBON.

That is bullshit. You shouldn’t “create” awards or recognitions for employees just because they clock in with a pulse, you are wasting everyone’s time. What I am saying is that you should evaluate performance on multiple levels and reward accordingly. If Chuck closes a $500k account, he should not receive any more or less recognition than Tommy who brought an innovation or idea to the table that saved the company $500k.

Be dynamic be be dynamic. I don’t care if you have 2 or 2000 employees, you need to be dynamic across the board. Blanket policies are great and completely necessary, but if you are in a position where you can make a difference in the structure of recognition, you need to do so.

5. You can’t Motivate Everyone

What a hock of crap. Everyone that is in average physical and mental condition is motivated. The problem is that they are not all motivated by the same things.

I once knew a guy who most would consider a giant pile of crap. He spent his days sitting on his bed playing Call of Duty and getting pissed because there were hundreds of 13 year olds across the nation that were better than him at it. I couldn’t help but think to myself that he was a pathetic piece of crap every day that I walked in and saw this same scene. Then it hit me, he is not a piece of crap, he is just motivated by different things than I am. If you could take him and let him manage a CoD forum or put him in a position to further develop the game or communities surrounding it, he could skyrocket.

The main point out of these five issues is that you should not treat every employee the same, because we are all different. The guy who is struggling in the customer service department might be your next CFO or the girl in the mail room who spends half of her day talking to her co-workers could possibly be your top producing salesperson.

Motivators that Work

1. Transparency

There is nothing that people love more than furthering  the collective. In order for people to truly feel like they are doing this though, they have to feel like they are involved in the decision making processes. The best way to do this is to lay it all out on the table. WHAT?!? We can’t tell people what is actually going on, they will blab it all over or gossip or they might actually know how much money we are making off of them.

Who cares? Let them blab, you can spin it into a marketing/PR move and you’ve already got signatures on a solid non-compete, so let them try to do what you do, your one letter away from putting a stop to any attempt. What you will most likely find is that instead of opening yourself up to an undefinable liability, you will actually give everyone a sense of involvement that will lead to an increase in your bottom line.

Managers tend to have very narrow thinking because they are stuck between the owners and the workers. The owners are always looking at the “big picture” and the workers are always seeing the little problems. The key to success here is to bring everyone together and get them on the same page. If you can do this, you will keep all parties active in the process and motivated to bring ideas to the table.

2.  Education

Education is a motivator because it gives employees tools to improve what they do. Amazing innovation and performance comes from people who are given proper tools to capitalize on opportunities that present themselves.

I’m not saying that every employee should be given free tuition for a 4 year degree, but I am saying that every employee should be up to date with the current technologies and atmospheres of their given occupation. I have seen and continue to see people who continue to grind their flour with two rocks when they could be providing 100 times the output with another device. If that same person had only been given the education that was needed to look up and realize that they could do the same thing in a tenth of the time and half the cost with only a little innovation, then they could focus on something much greater.

3. Accountability

This one is huge. If someone messes up they should be accountable for it no matter who they are or what they have done.

Accountability equals fairness and fairness equals happy and prosperous employees. There are few things that motivate workers like seeing a “high ranking” and “seasoned” employee with the same title as them reprimanded for something they did wrong. It not only brings everyone to the same plane, it legitimizes the entire process.

Letting worker A slide on an issue because he produces 30% more than worker B is a slippery slope that will end in disaster. However, if worker A is properly punished for his or her actions, then worker B will improve on two levels; they will further understand that they must legitimize their actions no matter the situation and by bringing worker A back down to the same level as worker B, you will remove the alienation factor that worker B might be feeling for their lower production.

4. Placement

Properly positioned employees are motivated employees.

This argument goes back to the thought that you can’t motivate everyone which we have already established as being a myth. Proper job placement can be the biggest motivating factor of them all. If an employee is in a position that truly fits their life, then they will need no outside motivation.

The real key is recognizing the fact that people change and that you can’t always properly place people with two interviews and a resume. If you can recognize that a person has changed or was never meant to be in the position they current reside, then you can not only keep a solid employee long-term, you can turn them into a self-motivated production machine.

5. Expectations*

I added an asterisk to expectations for a very specific reason.

If you do not set realistic expectations, a positive motivator will turn into a negative motivator.

Giving people a realistic benchmark of achievement will not only push them to do better, it will create a healthy sense of self competition in which they push themselves at a target. This one is tricky simply for the fact that it takes fine tuning and is harder to set dynamic goals and not seem as though you are playing favoritism. However, it can and should be done. Make a board or a graph and show realistic goals and make people reach just a touch for them, I think you will be shocked at the positive results. However, pay very close attention to this goal setting, because it can turn quickly. Setting goals that cannot be achieved will end in a small percentage achieving greatness and a large majority shutting down mentally out of frustration.

Long story short: Be dynamic, recognize differences in people and manage accordingly and  you will succeed.

So I have to start by confessing the truth about my feelings for Twitter. I hate(d) Twitter for the longest time. I remember distinctly a conversation between my roommate and I about the type of person that actively participated on Twitter. It consisted of talking about how big of tools they were and mostly promising that we would never fall victim to the curse.

Well, I am a hypocrite. It started with reg’ing my personal name and Johnny Wednesday, which led to a single post so “they wouldn’t close my account” and now it’s something that I look at 7 times a day. I have friends and followers and I am the same person I spoke so poorly of only a few months ago. It’s sad, but I don’t feel like I have lowered myself by using the service, I have actually made some great connections and I have connection to some great real-time information from people that I feel are relevant.

A couple of weeks ago when Twitter started their lists, I jumped right on board. I had created some groups with tweetdeck, but I really felt that the service was lacking a personal organizational structure. I did some experimenting with real estate, co-workers, relevant, friends, ect., but the one that I worked up that I look at and read every day is my entrepreneur list.

The following group is not in any way supposed to represent the complete list of the top CEO’s or business leaders on Twitter. However, this group represents a list of people who truly are leaders on this social platform. Tony Robbins might not be generally associated with fortune 500 companies, (many beg to differ), but, he provides a great deal of legitimate, relevant, and useful information to all of his followers.

To get onto this list, you had to fall into a few categories. 1. you have to be a CEO/President/Founder/Forward Thinker of some sort 2. You have to have/had shown some “success” or brought some improvement/innovation to your industry 3. You have to consistently post new content to your account that consists of more than just spam for your organization.

The easiest way to follow them is to follow my list: JohnnyWednesday

If you want info about each entrepreneur listed below, please follow them, Google them, or whatever it takes, because you should be familiar with each of these individuals.

They are in (”"(!”(NO)”")!”) particular order of any sort. There is no rank or preference to them in any way, except for maybe Richard Branson (he is amazing), so you can save the breath of complaint.

Richard Branson \ Virgin

Song Update: I had to swoop in and make a swap today. I decided that Dolly’s 9 to 5 didn’t really motivate me like I wanted this list to. That said, time for Dolly to bounce and time for Rick Ross to roll in.

I promise this is not going to be a trend, but I’m adding another list.

Once again, this is mostly for my own motivational purposes, but if you like it, great, if not, keep it to yourself.

We’ve all heard them and we all love them, but many times I find myself searching for a song that fits a certain situation. For instance, in our office, there is a guy that plays “Make it Rain” by Fat Joe every time he closes a big transaction. Myself, I personally went a different route and chose “Opportunities” by The Pet Shop Boys for my own theme song.

Drum-roll Please………………………

10. All About the Benjamins – Puff Daddy

Puff Piff poppin po dog daddy dip dog diddy dap Sean Combs starts our list with a CLASSIC beat that exemplifies why we get up and go to work each day. It’s all about the Benjamins  is a classic representation of hip-hop finance. What more can you say than, “thank you Sean for bringing such joy to my life.” Even though it sounds little like it was recorded in the back of an alley, we still love it.

9. Hustlin’ – Rick Ross

“Everyday I’m hustlin’ everyday I’m hustlin” I have to say, I agree with you Rick, it is the only way we are going to make it. “Jose Canseco just snitchin’ because he’s finish” Truer words have not been spoken. There is nothing worse than getting knocked on by people that are jealous that they are no longer in the game. Forget them and just remember is your going to make it, you have to keep telling yourself: “Everyday I’m Hustlin’ Everyday I’m Hustlin Everyday Everyday Everyday I’m Hustlin’….

8. Money Money Money – ABBA

Oh Sweden, what can I say? You’ve given us so much over the years, the Volvo, tax havens, great watches, and of course ABBA! The 80’s were the time to be alive and Abba is the true definition of the era. Money Money Money always sunny in the rich mans world. Oh yeah.

7. Take the Money and Run – The Steve Miller Band

This song is a little more serious than the previous 3. The Steve Miller Band lay out a solid ballad about Billie Joe and Bobby Sue who set on an adventure that ends in Billie Joe shooting a man and Bobby Sue taking the money, making like a tree, and getting the hell out of Dodge….?….

6. Ride with Me – Nelly

“Why do I live this way?” “It must be the money.” Straight off of one of the greatest hip-hop albums to ever hit the airwaves, Nelly lays down a classic track with Ride with Me. Plus, you know that Nelly is legit, he’s from St. Louis! The city where gangsters and soccer moms are both armed and will both gladly kill you over a parking spot.

5. Money for Nothing – Dire Straits

Two words: Neon Drumsticks. If  you don’t recognize and love this song, then you should probably move back and re-join the red-army because you are definitely a communist. I mean come on, they have color TV’s.

4. Bright Future in Sales – Fountains of Wayne

There are very few people that I know that have heard this song, but as soon as they do, most of them love it.If you can get around the super-pop sound of the Fountains of Wayne the song is hilarious. “I’m gonna get my shit together ’cause I can’t live like this forever” It’s like every night in the life of a salesman.

3. Money – Barret Strong

“the best things in life are free, but you can give them to the birds and bees, I need money”

The song may have been written 2 generations before I was born, but someone I feel like it was written directly for and about me.

2. Make it Rain – Fat Joe

Make it rain is the true anthem of the close. There are few things more motivating than hearing an colleague crank Fat Joe after he or she has just closed a big deal. To add to it, we all know that there are few people that represent business success like Fat Joe and I mean come on, he successfully uses the word “dividends” in a hip-hop song.

1. Opportunities – Pet Shop Boys

This is my anthem.

“I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks, lets make lots of money.”

Enjoy.

It’s finally here!

I know I know, everyone makes a list of some sort, but this list is different. This list is much less for you and much more for me. Think of it as a motivational aggregate for my own person.

Far and wide I have searched for what I felt was a proper list of the best sales movies of all time with no avail. There have been many attempts on forums and blogs and Amazon® lists, but nothing ever came close. Don’t get me wrong, I love Tommy Boy, it’s one of the greatest comedies of all time. Therein lies that problem that I have with those lists; movies like Tommy Boy are comedies and not sales movies. Yes, we can all probably take a sales lesson or two about persistence and about what not to do in a sales meeting, but I was looking for drama, I want scenes that are patterned on sales events that I can relate with. So, I decided to take the step the just do it myself. If you don’t like the list, you can comment, but keep in mind, the list is not for you……..

Without further ado:

10. Suckers

Have you ever bought a new car? More importantly, have you ever had the pleasure of speaking with an absolutely over the top car salesman? Well whether you have or have not, Suckers is the ultimate snapshot into what truly happens at a dealership. Ever wonder what happens when the salesman goes to “confirm” a sales price with his boss? The movie is a truly merciless snapshot into the world of car sales.

9. Thank you for Smoking

“That’s the beauty of argument, if you argue correctly, you’re never wrong.”  This line defines Nick Naylor and within the standards of moral and legal acceptability, it is a phrase that I wish to define me. I truly debated on adding this movie to the list because it is not a true sales drama. However, even though it is a satire, it does not mean that the movie is not fully focused on sales.

PS. I quit smoking 2 months ago and I still love this movie.

8. Cadillac Man

I can’t stand Robin Williams. Listening to him speak makes me want to stab myself and I mean that in the most literal sense that I can. That said, Cadillac Man is an excellent sales movie. Robin Williams is the true definition of the stereotypical salesman. He’s completely driven by testosterone, his life is in turmoil, he is desperate, and if he doesn’t pull of some miraculous sales, he is going to be on the street. Cadillac Man is a great movie for all of those sales men and women out there that are hanging on the end of their ropes.

7. Lord of War

This is not your typical sales movie. However, Lord of War is a sales movie. In fact, it should probably be further down this list and the only reason it is not is because of the subject line. It’s not finance and it’s my list. Nicolas Cage does an amazing job portraying an on the edge gun runner who travels the world taking advantage of the conflicts and struggles of countries and people of the world. He’s not saint, but he is a hustle to the ground pig-dog capitalist……my kind of guy.

6. Barbarians at the Gate

Yes, this movie is a comedy and I know I directly prohibited Tommy Boy because of that in the beginning of this article, but this is not a normal comedy, it is a corporate buyout comedy. The fact that is says comedy is to be blamed on the classification system on Amazon and nothing more, it is a satire if nothing else. Anyway, this is a great movie because it is based on a true occurrence that took place in the heart of the 80’s over a buyout with the Nabisco corporation. Starched suits and big hair abound.

5. Tin Men

Cruise back to Baltimore 1963, to the time and turf of a rare American breed: the “tin man”. Two hard as steel rivals in the tin game meet in a fender bender, but their bruised egos turn the minor accident into a major vendetta against each other’s success — their Cadillacs. In what would seem to be a end all diss, Dreyfuss decides to seduce DeVito’s wife, but this ends up throwing the story into a tail spin. Should probably be #8 or 9, but I’m not switching them.

4. Wall Street

“Greed is good.”     Enough said.

Wall Street is the end-all representation of shady negotiation tactics and pressure sales. No one else could have ever been as great of a jerk as Michael Douglas playing Gordon Gekko. We can all argue how awful the tactics used in this movie were, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t want to be Gordon Gekko.

3. Rogue Trader

I fell in love with this movie because I did a small research paper concerning this event. One guy, my age, brought down the oldest most well established bank in Europe with loses accrued in one Quarter. It shows just how much power a general employee can carry and just how volatile the financial markets really are. If you don’t know the story, type Barring Bank into Google and read the story.

2. Boiler Room

This movie goes to show that Ben Afflec and Vin Diesel are not complete failures. If you haven’t seen this movie, then you should drop whatever your doing right now and watch it. The movie surrounds a stock brokerage firm that is selling hot and heavy. This firm brings in the best young, energetic, and naive salesmen it can get it’s hands on and turns them into sales animals. “the best part, I’m liquid.” Words to live by.

1. Glengarry Glen Ross

It’s real estate, it’s phones, it’s knock-down-drag-out sales and the reason it’s number 1 is because this is what I do……..well on a much more ethical and legal level. Glengarry Glen Ross is a movie made in the heart of the 80’s and is an adaptation from a play written decades earlier. I won’t lie, the movie drags on a bit, but take into consideration that it was a play and it will make much more sense. This movie has sparked countless arguments and discussions on topics such as: “Where are the Glengarry leads?”, “Coffee is for closers.”, and “It takes brass balls to sell real estate.”

Thanks for checking out the article, “I’d wish you luck but you wouldnt know what to do with it if you got it.”

Bonus Clip-Badger Salesman

I thought I would throw this in to lighten the mood a bit. I had this sent to me the other day and pooped a little bit when I watched it the first time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Today while sitting and pondering my odd mood, I noticed an interesting coincidence in the marketplace. I felt really unmotivated to make any market decision that even hinted at being risky and the market seemed to follow. I know this is my super-nerdom coming out, but my thoughts spun into an idea; Are there documented “global” mood shifts? If so, could I predict market movement by them?

Tonight when I got home from work I came straight to the computer where I started doing a bit of research about “global” or regional mood shifts and patterns. I came across some research that had been done by Sally M. Weinstein, Robin J. Mermelstein, Benjamin L. Hankin, Donald Hedeker, and Brian R. Flay concerning what they refer to as Longitudinal Patters of Mood Affect during adolescence. For those of you in the Midwest today, you can go ahead and forget about the rainy day syndrome, this goes way beyond that. Yes, the rain probably had an affect on my mood today, but there have been many perfectly pleasant days that I have noticed these patterns for no apparent weather-related reason.

There is a solid chance that this thought is some sort of variation on the Truman Show syndrome that seems to follow me, but I am hoping that there might be real science behind it. After doing more research, I found a lot of information about the affects of the moon, tides, seasons, and many others that witchdoctors and crazies preach everywhere have massive affects on mood and behavioral patterns, but none of these have ever been proven through any sort of legitimate testing.

My theory is a combination of the science and the crazy. There have been some studies showing the affects of gravitational waves on peoples equilibrium and I believe that it directly affects our overall mood. The study I first mentioned focused on longitudinal patters of change, which could play directly into the way gravitational waves flow across our earth.

Long-story-short, if there is any research or evidence out there that points to this theorem, please point it out to me. If not, lets work on something. Because predicting the markets based on moods is easy; Predicting moods based on random (and possibly insane) theorems about gravitational affects on the human body, not so easy.

But if I could:

The sky is the limit.

The topic of this post was born 3 days ago after I began rebuilding this site. After months and months of neglect, I decided that it was time to bring this site live again for nothing more than an outlet. In trying to do so, I accidentally dumped my database backup and lost the few posts that I had. That said, I decided to go to the one place I knew nothing ever posted could run from, the “wayback machine”.

Ah yes, The Wayback Machine, where even Glen Beck can’t dispute the things he has typed. Looking back at the 10 or 15 posts that I had typed some years ago brought me to the realization of a few things. One, it is amazing to see how far I have personally progressed concerning my views of the web and the business that is conducted within. Two, my gramatical skills have not depleted over time, I sucked then too. Three, made for adsense pages should not exist, but if they do, they should be stand alone pages and not hosted within another site (more to follow later). Finally, although none of the posts went into great detail about my feelings concerning politics and/or religion, you can definately see the influence of both in my posts.

Growing up in the Ozarks brought me some of my personal characteristics that I hold most dear. That said, it also brought me to originally believe many things that were not so.These range in topics from race to religion, but one of the ones that has changed most drastically is my view of the hierarchical structure of world business.  I once thought that to reach the pinacal of success, you needed to become an executive at one of the large highly-publicised companies of the world. Now I realize that is the lottery mentality; “If I can just keep trying, I will make it to the top.” The next scratchers ticket will not bring me fortune and fame. Quite the contrary, I will make my own way. If a world renound brand is what brings me to the top, it will be my own. I pray that this thought never leaves me.