I am writing because I wanted to share two major things I have been thinking about lately in terms of getting the most out people at the workplace. Workplace… Is that not an incredibly boring word… I would prefer to call it – Well Paid Hobby or ‘WPH’! Trust you concur, or at least with what it should be called? If you cannot call your job, ‘WPH’ right now, change your workplace… 🙂

Anyway, I digress. So on to the two things:

1. You must ensure that there is enough room for your team members to do what they love. Be it something they truly enjoy in their Well Paid Hobby or privately. Investing time and efforts into this is crucial as there will be tremendous ROI here in terms of motivation, efficiency, energy and loyalty. I just need to look at myself. When I am paying extra attention to what I love doing I get more energy and I most definitely feel more motivated. Let me give you a couple of examples. For me, what I truly enjoy in my ‘WPH’ is to lead others. To help others become better, to help people excel and reach their professional goals. I get great personal satisfaction from this. I also, truly enjoy public speaking. I enjoy to inspire people to see their own potential and by seeing/understanding this they lead better lives…. WOW! And on the personal arena I draw great motivation and joy from playing Golf. To be able to compete with yourself and your own psyche is fabulous. Walking in beautiful surroundings for 4-5 hours in absolute tranquility charges me up for hectic business days ahead. Traveling with my family is another motivator for me. To be able to experience new things with the people who are closest to me makes me proud and happy… if only for a few days. You as a Boss, Leader or Manager must ensure that your people have enough time to do what they LOVE. Tremendous pay-back on this, trust me! So what can you do? Well, your imagination is as good as mine I guess… Since this is a free forum I cannot share it all… € 1,000/hour is what I normally charge for consulting in these matters… But hey… It does not have to be that difficult or expensive, it is mostly common sense.

Next point:

2. Move away from being less than you are! I see too many people doing all in their might to fit in to the organizations they work for. They anticipate that the organization have expectations on them in terms of how they act, talk and dress, and maybe many organizations have… That´s beside the point. Organizations who aim to kill individuality you should stay well away from. Conformity is boring, outdated and far from dynamic. I applaud differences and strong personalities! Needless to say… There is a chain of command and there must be, that may never waver, that´s not the point. The point is that you as an employee no matter how high you climb must never loose sight of who you are… I mean deep inside. That´s the best you. Don’t conform to what others expect you to be – You will only be the best version of yourself if you truly are you… Get my point? For leaders, this is a must to promote and instill in your team, departments or organizations. Individuality will set you a part, it will create innovation and creativity which you are in such dire need of to succeed.

We are now descending and after several hours with my ear-phones on listening to Harry Belafonte, Sheena Easton, Chopin and Bruce ‘the Boss’ it is time to close my laptop. I do, as always, wish you all the best in all your endeavors and if you have comments or disagreements with my thoughts… WRITE!

God Bless!