Do you remember when you were studying and you received a good mark? Remember how it made you feel, proud, excited, and smart and it motivated you to continue and to achieve more? Conversely, when you receive bad marks it can make you frustrated, despondent and like you’re putting in more than you’re getting back.
This is similar to the professional environment, if you feel you’re succeeding and getting the ‘marks’ you deserve it motivates you to strive for more, when you’re not seeing achievement it makes you lethargic, unmotivated and toxic.
What can you do to deal with this?
- List your accomplishments – look back over your day or your week, what did you achieve, what feedback did you receive?
- Ask – seek feedback from managers, colleagues, stakeholders, check that you are meeting expectations
- Find something tangible – often in ‘knowledge work’ we don’t see the outcomes unless we look for them, look for what you’ve actually achieved.
- Branch out – if your role isn’t satisfying you see if there are projects you can join or look for improvements and suggest a project
If you’re a manager –
- Talk to people – let people know that they’re doing well
- Reward – some rewards are companywide others can be just in your team, buy a trophy & reward someone each week, yes, it’s lame but it is something tangible
- Mix it up – Look to people’s strengths, have people in roles that suit them, don’t try quashing someone into a role that doesn’t fit they won’t feel they’re achieving
- Embrace change – if your people are presenting ideas or solutions, work with them, see what can be implemented, let people be creative
We all want to feel like we’re doing well; sometimes you just have to look a bit harder to see the results.
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