Supercharge your day... Create powerful reactions in the workplace
Social Learning Theory suggests that we learn and develop based on rewards and punishment. Reinforcements for behaviour provide us with the motivation to duplicate the behaviour, because we expect positive outcomes.
Motivation is extremely important in the workplace, although motivators are very personal, they include, praise, recognition (as often employees feel that they get noticed only for the things they do wrong, not for the things they do right), job security and the opportunity to advance and gain new experiences, communication with their employers and to feel involved in the Company; it is not simply reward that motivates.
The workplace should feel like a community, when the Company is perceived to feel that their employees are a valuable asset and the employees themselves feel they are being treated as such, productivity increases. When employees don’t feel valued, they will not be motivated to work. Everybody seeks recognition for successful behaviour.
Quality is also very important at work, there is no point in rushing through a series of multiple tasks poorly if you could have done one of them perfectly. Quality and motivation of staff is recognised by clients, eg. a phone should always be answered after the same number of rings, perhaps 2-3, as this shows consistency, and gives a professional and efficient service (and, of course, smile as you speak, it really does make a difference).
When you wake up tomorrow morning, choose to have a good day. Life is all about choices, we can choose to wake up happy, and we can choose whether to let others dampen our mood; if you believe you will have a bad day, you really will have a bad day! If one is having a bad day – and it happens to all of us on occasion - the worst thing you can do is to carry on with a stressful task - move on to a different task, or just have a short break. Otherwise the work will continuously be associated with a negative mood, which will only reinforce your mood and approach. Our mood, in turn affects others’ mood, and it is so easy to put problems onto others, especially in the work place.
Most importantly, we should have a time for work and a time for play, scheduled hours in which we work, and time with which we can spend how we wish. The work/life balance can seem extremely hard to achieve, but letting one run into the other only causes problems long-term. One must be able to ‘switch-off’ from ‘work mode’ and take time to relax, you are allowed to be a different person at work than you are at home.
Next time somebody asks ‘how are you?’, instead of replying, ‘okay’, or ‘not too bad’, why not try ‘brilliant thanks, how are you?’. Notice how their body language and response to you changes. Instead of using a neutral or negative response, try a positive one and you will see others grasp that positivity from you. Personal optimism correlates strongly with self esteem, physical and mental health!
Our minds want reality and belief to match, so be one of the ‘brilliant’ people today…
