Leadership Experience

Motivation

The key to motivation lies not in trying to motivate a person, but instead discovering what motivates the individual and constantly reminding them of that thing. This requires detailed discovery of the individual’s personal goals, linking their goals to job performance, and constant follow up.

Discovery

Time and money are often mistaken as goals and motivators. In reality, they are only a means to an end. To get closer to the true motivator, one must discover what the individual would do with more money or time. Once the “what” has been discovered, one can uncover the true motivator…the “why”.

For example, an employee wants more money. For what? To buy a car. Why? What benefits will the car bring, how will it improve their life, and what pains will it alleviate? Will it bring freedom from the restraints of public transportation, or the end of sharing one vehicle with their spouse, or confidence in meeting new people? Drilling down to the core motivator and linking that goal to job performance is the only true way to motivate.

Recognition

Many people are motivated by public recognition. Eric Hiller has created numerous ways to recognize employees based on their contribution to key company metrics. Examples include announcements, multimedia presentations, introduction and testimonials to new hires, newsletter articles, plaques and certificates, hall of fame, titles, jackets, caps, pins, and trophies.

Competition

For some, the joy of competition and the desire to win is a prime motivator. Even those who claim to have no interest in winning can find motivation through contributing to the success of their team.

One low budget contest consisted of taping 100 one dollar bills to the wall, in plain site of everyone. Each time an employee accomplished a specific task, they were allowed to pull one dollar down and keep it. What made this effective was not the reward. The metrics of the contest were structured so that most people would win only one or two dollars, the best would win only five to seven. Instead it was the visual stimulation of the money on the wall, the prestige of being watched by coworkers when pulling one down, and the perceived benefit of instant gratification.

Another example was based on the fact that a large sales staff could not seem to remember their daily and monthly performance numbers as it related to key company metrics. Yet they did seem to know every statistic about every player in the NFL. Consequently, the company metrics were renamed to reflect football performance statistics. The sales staff was divided into teams, a football-season-like schedule was established that culminated in playoffs, and every team fought hard to be in the super bowl. They also now easily remembered not just their own statistics, but those of their colleagues.

Rewards

Created and implemented rewards to fit every budget. For some people, public recognition is reward enough. Other low budget rewards include lunch with an executive, a new parking spot, small improvements in work equipment or location, or a “get out of jail free” card.

The key to effective rewards is that they must present a balance of value and prestige to the majority of contestants. If the reward is something they could purchase themselves, for less effort than winning it, it will not be effective unless there is a high level of prestige associated with winning it.

Team Building

In business and in life, an efficient team is always greater than the sum of its parts.

Communication

Lack of communication breeds gossip, rumors, and separatism. When left to their own devices, people will always suspect the worst. People may not always like the truth, but they do respect it. Trust is essential, and comes only with timely communication. Experience includes daily and weekly briefings, monthly company-wide meetings, an internal newsletter, and of course, an open door policy.

Common Goals

When individuals understand how their actions affect their peers, they are more likely to strive for positive results. By creating and demonstrating how individual performance metrics impact departmental or company wide goals, in basic, easy to understand terms, Eric Hiller has successfully created natural breeding grounds for team building.

Marketing Leadership

Led teams of graphic designers and copywriters in the creation and production of print ads, direct mail campaigns, and newsletter publishing. Directed multimedia artists in producing flash, power point, and digital film projects. Project manager for market research and analysis projects.

IT Leadership

Directed teams of programmers and database designers to create proprietary applications for use in the financial and non-profit industries. Managed both network administrators and help desk staff.

Samples

View all available samples of leadership experience including Motivational Techniques, Team Building, Results, Sales Leadership, Events, Competition, and much more.