Christmas and Motivation

Christmas time is coming and with all of this we have now time to thank our colleagues for the good job made during the year. Considering that it's a good time to share your feelings and also do some Networking, you may now prepare your next year's way to motivate your team and start working on your objectives.

For this time I want to share some of the different motivation theories that can be used to keep your team working with enthusiasm:

Maslow's Hierarchy Needs: Motivation is defined as the step where we are in the pyramid, this define our needs, that are five: physiological, security, social, esteem and auto realization.

Commonly the employees that are new at your team (6 months or less) is probably because they have been looking for a job during the year. Give your collaborators the assurance that you want to continue working with them the rest of the year, and also, keep the promise that if their outcomes are good, they may stay as long as they want. 

Adams Equity Theory: People compare their rewards and their job outcomes with the rest of the team. With that in mind, they evaluate if they are equal or not, if they think they aren't demotivation and the actions to achieve it will come.

When your team realizes almost the same activities, it's possible that they share information about their salaries, benefits, among other. In many cases the definition of this conditions is not in your hands, as it is my case. But what you could do is distribute in an even way the job responsibilities, the recognition prices, training, job upgrades. Speak with your employees and ask them, what they want to receive in order to feel an equal situation.

Vroom Expectancy Theory: All human effort is done with an expectation of some success. The people trust that if he achieves his full capacity, some other consequences will come. The expectancy that the achievement of the objectives come with some wished consequences is called instrumentality.

In some jobs, the achievement of the goals has a remunerated bonus associated, but in the place where I work this is not a benefit. You will have to innovate and make your team feel motivated to achieve again that goal. Have a breakfast, give them some pizza, make a public recognition is a process that will make you to commit and then to fulfill, giving your team the expectation of a small but significative reward.

McClellan Power, Affiliation, Achievement Approach: What every people search with their performance could be one of this three things. The Achievement, impulse to stand out with the well done job. The Power, control or influence to obtain recognition. And the Affiliation, need to belong to a group.

With the time, keep some good working teams becomes necessary. Since my first big working team at the Academic Direction, when we all agreed how to organize birthday parties, going through Innovation Direction, Global MBA, and now Admissions Direction, all my teams get to know that they could trust each other to the achievement of the objectives. Communication among them, friendship, sense of affiliation, solidarity and support have made my teams stick together.

Following my own personal recommendations, my team and me are preparing a virtual "Posada" to have some time to share a little bit of recreational time and also get to know each other a little bit more. I will share the outcome.

In the meantime, Do you have any suggestion to motivate your people?

Alert Networking

The past week the wind blew in Mexico City, and the alarms went on among different public places; one of them was the university where I work. When we were at the lunch break some canvas flew away and the sports field had some troubles, the security personnel ask us to keep inside the buildings and away from windows or possible flying objects.

Once the people and students were safe, the next request was that everybody has to leave the campus and stop activities for the day. The physical evaluation of the university lead to this activity. So I gather my team and ask them to take their laptops and go directly home. Taking the laptops with them will allow to continue their activities at home and preventing that the alert continues the next day so they could make home office.

Once the strategy was made, we say farewell and also requested the information on each team member arrival to home, so everyone could be sure that we were fine.

Almost everything was going quite well, but at the time I wanted to contact my son Mauricio, I couldn't reach him, the lines were saturated, there was no Whats app service, Internet drop down, I couldn't reach him by messenger, I couldn't communicate with him and give some instructions.

Once I arrive to my car, I found out that he wasn't there and I didn't have a clue if he decided to take a bus to go home, or if he was still at a classroom waiting for me to pick up him. I try for 15 more minutes until I have luck and reach him by phone, he still was at his high school waiting for a parent to pick him up or to a bus arrival. So I asked him to move to our car and he gave his teachers this information.

The next activity was to make contact with Arturo, the second of my sons. It's important to let you know that he has school transport and he has to be delivered to our house. So it wasn't that difficult to find him and ask him that he should not leave the house until we were all together.

This alert made me think about the little training my family has to react to this type of alerts. Where do we have to meet? What to expect the other will do? What to do if communications fail? How long wait to look for each other?

With this learning, I can give you some recommendations to allow the networking in alert states:

1.- Make a plan with your family taking in account your familiar places, the communications you have, time you have to wait for communicate, act in consequence. Of course you have to consider your son's ages and give them responsibilities according to them.

2.- Show some empathy with your team, ask them if they have trouble to move, or if their homes could be in warning zones.

3.- Be sure to prepare a communication line that allow you to know how everybody is doing.

4.- Remember to keep calm, you will achieve nothing by preoccupation.

5.- Make yourself useful by doing some actions that keep you safe and your love ones.

Wedding/Job Networking

When you have an harmonious relation at your work, you can go to social events and have a great deal of fun, I just advise to look out for some details that prevent you for crashing the party.

Javier and Juan wedding went on, the one I told you that we helped on the mask making over. Javier is some of my team mantes and he take special care about the details the wedding was about to have. He and Juan distributed the seatings for the event, for example.

All of my coworkers were sited together at a table, and some others on the next table, so we were a big group at the wedding.

When you have enough trust and a good work environment, you became as a little family and usually begin to get knowledge of some aspects that for the professional environment maybe its not easy to bring on.

Me and my peers did our best to have the time of our lives, we forget about the job responsibilities, and merge at a different space. So much was the fun that we came back to have a little more fun, now we are organizing the "Posada" because we have a great time when we are together. It's really amazing to know that in a job you can have friendship acquaintances, at the end we spend about a third of a day on the job.

Some useful tips for network with your coworkers at party environments:

a) Be respectful, be aware of not crossing the trust limits with your friends.

b) Get to know the date of your friends, most of them will not be acquainted with the rest of the team, but its a perfect opportunity to meet them.

c) Take care of your group, there always be someone that lost his cell phone, or that get a little bit drunk. Do not take pictures or video, never interfere between the trust bond that you created.

d) Have a great time and do networking.

Do you have a wedding experience to share?

Donuts Networking or Job Bulling

The past week I received an email from Fernando, an admissions assessor, we were planning a reunion about the ending of the campaign when he wrote us the following message:

(Hi Team, good night! I want to share that because of the excellent campaign season, I will invite everyone the coffee's and donuts on Monday. Regards!)

I felt really special, and the rest of the girls on the team too. We all thanked him for the detail. On Monday when he had to bring the items he promised he told me that everything was a misunderstood or a Job Bulling process.

It happens that when Fernando moved from his spot for a few minutes, the girls of the team seized the opportunity and "assaulted" his computer. They sent an email from his account and committed him to bring donuts and coffee the meeting day!

The advantage is that Fernando is a very kind person and committed with the team, so he didn't want to skip this networking opportunity. He took as a funny little joke and to bond in a better way with the team.

The following Monday he arrived with the donuts and share with all of us. At this moment he is our favorite person at the team.

I want to share with you my feelings:

1.- Take care of your things and never leave your computer without a password, it will prevent you to be "bullied"

2.- If you are going to make a practical joke as this, you have to make sure you can take some of them too.

3.- If you are the one that gets the joke, take it easy, don't make it personal and have some fun with your coworkers.

Do you have a similar anecdote to tell?

Networking politness in business appointments

Some days ago, one of my friends was visibly upset, he told me that it was his second time that had been dumped at a business appointment. He had planned the meeting, now for a second time, and asked some people to be at the restaurant and without any explanation his date didn't show up, neither she sent a message. How would you reacted?

Communication in this type of situations is really important, everyone can have a mishap, but there are some politeness rules that you should not forget to follow, it doesn't matter the environment you are, either business or social.

Rule 1: If you think that your date is not going to be interesting, don't make a commitment in the first place. Is possible that the person is really interested in asking you to go the meeting, have you being asked to those presentations of vacation share times? Did anyone want you to buy an insurance? Maybe you understand my point. You shall say no to this type of commitments, but if you have given your word and accepted the appointment, you have to be there. Then you will find a way to retract or not buy the product, but you have to be there.

Rule 2: If you have an alibi, like you have a flat tire, or a minor accident, then take a little time and tell your contact that you will be late. There are some cultures around the world that don't accept delays, like the Germans. Latins are really flexible on times, but an hour delay its considered disrespectful.

Rule 3: If you have canceled a first appointment, a second one is seen like a totally lack of interest. If a customer cancels you on the first time, and you are interested in the selling, you will be tempted to ask for a second date, but if your customer misses the second appointment, then you should consider that maybe he will be not as good customer as you think, probably he is not into the product, maybe he is a "bad payer" or maybe he is just a not commiter. Don't give your suppliers this idea, always take your phone and take care of the situation. Leave behind a professional image.

Remember the courtesy and networking are fundamental pillars to personal relations, job or social. Consider always the people you are interacting with, when you have to cancel a date. Can you share some experience on this matter?

Networking at moments of truth

Have you experienced a bad attitude when you ask for some information? The past week one of our candidates left visibly upset after having interaction at one of our service points. We couldn't help him at that moment, and the next day I have to take care about the situation. The conflict management is one tough but excellent opportunity to do Networking:

First: Get all the evidence and information about the client you are about to contact. The most information on when he arrived, from where, by which mean he attended our service point, what information he was seeking, everything that can help to give your potential customer information.

Second: You have to plan a strategy, if the information is about your products, maybe you have just to translate the message to be appealing to the candidate and then explain him the information.

Third: Do the contact, by phone or asking for a personal meeting. I wouldn't recommend to send an email, because your customer is angry and now it's your opportunity to repair the damage. Maybe ask him for a 15 minutes call so he can explain his doubts.

Fourth: Before you ask him about why it made him upset, tell him that you noticed there where some aspects of the information given that kept without an answer, and that the call is to explain a little bit more the information.

Our candidate wasn't that much upset, and he showed a little surprised and thankful for the follow up. He told me that there were some questions that haven't been answered and gave me some recommendations on how to train people to avoid this type of incidents on the future.

And you, have you had some of this moments of truth solved in a different way?

Networking and Collaboration

Nowadays when you think about innovation, collaboration schemes are used to enhance ideas, products, services or just to create something new. For me it's a way to do intentional networking.

I'm going to present some examples on how collaboration has promoted or changed some of everyday activities and so different in the past.

Musical Collaboration: For sure you have listened singers that have made different musical collaborations, this mixes have taken them to explore rhythms, musical tendencies, and then they came back with a different proposal that works. Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull, Shakira, Ricky Martin had made their carriers by doing important collaborations that lead them to reach different audiences.

Food Collaboration: Maybe you are familiarized with Gaston Acurio proposal, he is a well known chef with 34 restaurants among 11 different countries. His popularity increased when he collaborated with colleagues and cooks to improve the taste of the food he was offering to his customers. He had a TV show and share with the people his recipes, sometimes he had feedback and improved them. Thanks to this collaboration, Peruvian food is now worldwide recognized among the best.

Entrepreneurship Collaboration: Do you have a good idea, but lack of the monetary funds to put it on practice? Use collaboration, there are a lot of well-intended people that are interested in changing this world, invest their money towards progress and have a little fun on the side. Kickstarter its a web page that allows entrepreneurs to post their projects and share them. If you are a regular people you may invest on a project that you found interesting. When the project gets the requested funds, it became an obligation to make true the project, some of them have gained and surpassed the money that they have assured their product sales for the rest of the year.

So when you have a good idea, consider to share it with more people, maybe transform your idea in a joint project. And don't forget to change to a Networking Mindset attitude.

Interview Tips

Have you done a job interview and feel you were not well prepared? Here I share some activities that you may do to cover some mayor aspects on your dressing, personal arrange or performance, so you may feel that you have done well no matter the job you are asking for:

At my job I had the opportunity to interview a lot of candidates to fill out positions of different types and in different cities, most of the times a good resume is the key, but when I have to choose between some different candidates here are some activities that I always watch:

Common non verbal mistakes:

1.- Avoid eye contact. When the people doesn't look back, you loose confidence on the candidate, in my case I think there is something that doesn't want to be shared.

2.- Not knowing the company. You may review some important information on the Internet, there are some basic aspects like divisions, markets, cities or sites that have presence. It's really easy nowadays to be prepared. 

3.- Don't smile. Having people with a sad face is not a well sign of organizational behavior, if you are not in a good mood, think of something funny before you get into the interview. Remember to bring the best out of you.

4.- Have a bad posture. Like the previous tip, a bad posture sells boring and tedious, no one would like to hire someone that lacks of enthusiasm on the activity is being offered. 

5.- Fidget too much. When people moves too much on their chair, they are sending the message that are nervous or that they want to get out of there fast, don´t give your interviewer the option to let you go outside fast, the more time you have to present yourself the best.

6.- Have a weak handshake. This also means lack of confidence, practice if you think you need a harder grab.

7.- Play with the hair or touch your face. Everything that has to do with movement implies nervousness, remember that you are selling your own person at the interview your skills and your knowledge, don't let a nervous hands get on your way.

8.- Cross your arms. In ontological language means closure, if you are in an interview send the correct message that you want to share your experiences with the company.

Consider also to pay attention to the following activities:

The interviewers look up for the dressing, acting and walking when the people cross the door. Then they pay attention to your voice quality, grammar and confidence and third they look up for your word selection when speaking.

Last, but not least, if you are not on the fashion industry, very trendy or stylized people is not very good seen by interviewers. In many cases interviewers choose the people to hire when reviewing their clothes.