Life from the Heart

Here is a long list of effective and simple incentives for your team.

At the conclusion of an incentive program, it is important to assess how successful it was. Did you get the results you wanted? One of the best ways to judge the program’s effectiveness, besides considering your own observations, is to get feedback from the reps and administrators involved. You want to be sure that your directions were communicated clearly and at the right intervals, that the rewards were appealing and sparked interest and drive, that your team members felt supported and prepared to take on the challenges being presented, that the program boosted morale, team effort, energy and creativity, etc.

What were the weaknesses, if any? Did the program meet or fall short of participants’ expectations? And of course, you must consider the bottom line impact on sales. Another important thing that cannot be overlooked is whether there may have been any outside influence that you did not have any control over. For example, has the industry experienced an increase in pricing? Was the product or service new, or has there been longstanding consumer awareness and recognition of it? Have there been any fluctuations in the company’s marketing campaigns? All of these questions can basically be broken down into different areas, such as goals, budget or administration. In each area, identify what worked and what didn’t so you have concrete information to help you develop your next incentive program.

Group Building

Movie day – bring popcornWater-skiing/Lake tripJoin the city softball teamGo watch a professional team sportMiniature golfVolunteer opportunitiesCold-calling contestWork-at-home weekHave the CEO address the sales staffRacecar contestBring in a comedian for sales trainingFun, harmless practical jokesJoke of the day to start a meetingBring in take-out for reps staying lateLaser tagRopes courseBowlingFree lunch for the first sale of the dayVM broadcast about someone’s personal successCompany Olympics

Company Socials

LuauFiestaIce cream socialBarbequePizza partyCustomer appreciation dayFour-day weekendBring in donutsCompany newsletter about the success of the weekDress up like Santa and hand out giftsThanksgiving or other holiday party

Esteem Building/Awards

Best phone demeanorBest dresserMost creative closeBest sales weekMost improvedBest team playerMost cold callsMost new clientsBest customer serviceTop attitudeSpecial note or emailTelegramFedEx special noteThank-you cardPersonal pat on backLead part of a training meetingPersonal goal-setting meetingSuggestion box Personal call from CEO

Simple compliments like:

You’re incredible.You’re a good:I believe in you.Great job!You made my day.Hug.Thank you for :I’m proud of you.Perfect.You’re awesome!Well Done.Great!Excellent!I knew you could do it.I trust you.Spectacular!Outstanding!I’m your biggest fan.

Friendly gestures like…

SmileWarm handshakePat on the back

Individual Building

Daily contact with praiseLet them off to take their children to school on the first dayFree calls on company cell phonesMotivational plaqueHealth club membershipLotto wheelDrive CEO’s car for the weekShirt/Hat with logoSpecial parking spotPhoto with CEORemodel officeDisneyland tripPorsche for weekend

Personal Development

Books

As a Man Thinketh
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Swim With the Sharks
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Maximum Influence
The Power of Your Subconscious Mind
Think and Grow Rich
Psycho-Cybernetics
The Magic of Thinking Big
Learned Optimism

Videos

Remember the Titans
Miracle
Rocky
Chariots of Fire
Apollo 13
Field of Dreams
Mr. Holland’s Opus
Seabiscuit
The Right Stuff
The Rookie

Audios

The Secrets to Manifesting Your Destiny
Lead the Field
Unleash the Power Within
The Psychology of Selling
Magnetic Persuasion
Present with Power
The Strangest Secret
Exponential Success
The Science of Personal Achievement
The Psychology of Winning

Travel Incentives

Hawaii

Upgrade to first class

Local hotel with dinner

Limo to airport

Las Vegas

Bermuda

Cancun

Caribbean cruise

Free miles to fly

Tahiti

Hotel suite upgrade

Australia

Monetary Rewards
Large-screen TV Computer DVD player $100 bill Lottery tickets Restaurant gift certificates Cashews Take the rep’s family to dinner Department store gift certificate Movie rental gift certificate Costco certificate Bookstore gift certificate New suit

Scientific Breakthrough Gives You The Power To Control Minds And Change Behaviors

Eating healthy is something that we all know is important to our well-being yet, instead of preparing healthy meals, we stop at the drive-thru or we eat packaged foods or fried foods that are high in saturated fat and carbohydrates.

If we indulged every once in awhile it probably wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but too many of us indulge in these foods all the time and we are paying for it in the way of declining health and weight gain. Poor diet has even been linked to depression, so eating healthy really is important. Healthy affirmations can help your eating habit improve and can lead to a healthy lifestyle starting today!

Health Affirmations Pick up Where Will Power Leaves Off

Will power is not something that you can rely on alone when you are trying to make a positive lifestyle change. Everywhere you go there will be temptations to eat foods that aren’t all that good for you and it can be hard to resist every time. Instead of relying on will power alone, strive to have the support of loved ones or a personal coach. You can also begin using positive affirmations to stay focused on your goals.

Affirmations are statements of your ideal behavior, feeling, response, and actions. You can use these health affirmations as a personal mantra to get you to where you want to be where your diet is concerned.

Your health affirmations could be something as simple as, “When I eat well, I feel well.” Other people need to establish their power over food so something such as, “I have the power to choose the foods that will nourish my body. I am in control of my choices!”

As you can see, these are very straight-forward statements and when you believe in them they give you the power to change your life by making the right dietary choices. You can use your health affirmations as a sort of backup, so if your will power wanes, you’ll still be able to make the right food choices between your support network and your positive affirmations!

The problem that a lot of people have when it comes to eating healthy is that we say to ourselves, “one piece won’t hurt” or “I already messed up today so it doesn’t matter” but these are negative thoughts that actually work against your goal to feed your body the food it needs to nourish and energize you.

When you use positive affirmations, you can avoid temptation and turn negative thoughts or thoughts of defeat into positive ones. When you use free positive affirmations or affirmations that you create yourself, you give yourself power over the temptation that you likely have never had before.

Health affirmations work, so long as you believe in them. When looking for free positive affirmations that you will use, make sure you believe them. If you can say them genuinely, you are more likely to follow through in both thoughts and actions.

Remember that even with affirmations you may not always be perfect, and that’s what your support network is for. With the help of positive affirmations and your loving support system, you have the power to change your life, one food choice at a time.

Developing Intimacy

Why would a sales team need motivating when they should be the ones who have all the skills required to convince others to buy products and services? In other words they are motivators to others to do something, so why should they having problems selling? Rest assured, the need to motivate is ever present in all we do.

The answer to having these problems is that some time or another “the steam” just gets fizzled out even from the best of us. And, the absence of this sales “steam” would require some rejuvenation by some other means.

So, how do we go about rejuvenating this “new head of steam” to bring up motivation levels? We need to motivate, motivate one another to be the best we can be. In this case the problem is attacked this way.

The traditional way is to hire another specialist in human behavior studies, a psychologist perhaps, and hold a series of seminars and “focus groups” sessions. Since this a done with budget constraints in mind, the employee -sales associate etc., is trained to a point that makes him ready to produce enough sales to boost revenues in his company. It is a self interest method to the company’s benefit for the most part.

But, true motivation, for the long term benefit of the person is not achieved through seminars and focus groups but rather in a more comprehensive way that involves the person’s whole self.

Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist said it best when he indicated that it is better to develop a person’s basic potential rather than using other “cookie cutter” methods to motivate him. More long term benefits can accrue this way for the person.

This idea was developed into a theory called: “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” It is a five tier model, demonstrated by an equilateral triangle. The bottom tier begins with satisfying basic human needs -food, water, shelter etc., and as these needs are met he progresses to a higher level tier until he reaches a level of “self actualization,” the highest level, the level of enlightenment.

Deficiency, in needs not satisfied, in any of these Tiers will result in loss of motivation. In fact, Maslow’s, first four needs are viewed as deficiency needs. In other words, Motivation stops working once these needs are satisfied. But, it is the self actualization level that drives us throughout our entire lives to achieve more… So, if a business provides a setting for each employee to achieve more, the company as well as the employee will be drive to be the best there is.

But, self actualization is something you never can realize fully some would argue. It requires constant effort on our part to be our best and to achieve our highest potential in life. Yet another thought is that self actualization is goal specific. This means that once the goal set is achieved, as human nature is, we will strive to achieve another higher goal -so we are constantly battling with this “self actualization’ concept. High achievers find this a very exciting level.

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But again, this is not the whole picture. There is more to it than just this.
The other thought is to look at your whole self. Once you address the whole self, more can be achieve and will be more meaningful. As the theory says:” The whole a greater than the sum of its parts”. To learn about the entire process of motivation and more–from the ground up involving your entire self, follow the link in my bio-box below. You will be amazed at the number of things you can do to motivate your self to achieve anything you want in life. So, in essence, we need to motivate one another to become the best in our lives.

Developing Intimacy

The word motivation is used to describe the reason why a person engages in a certain form of behaviour. According to Geen “motivation refers to the initiation, direction, intensity and persistence of human behaviour”. Motivation can also be described with words like – stimulus and incentive. Simply put motivation is the reason or reasons for an individual to behave in a certain way.

Motivation has been variously studies in psychological and neuropsychological studies to understand human conduct. It is always desirable to motivate a child towards his well- being, in an intelligent way. The three instincts of sex, preservation and the need to be social; dominates the life of human beings. It is important to acknowledge the fact that children also look for personal gains in what they do. The same can be healthily channalized through right motivation.

A teacher’s guide called “the Master Teacher” has listed nine motivators for healthy growth in children. These are – Love, personal gain, imitation, pleasure, security, the need to avoid fear, the need to experience new things and convenience or the tendency to do things which are simple and easy.

From the above, one can easily see, that it is best to motivate children towards things which will make them feel good about themselves. These are also the things we want them to do.

The age old reward and punishment strategy of motivating children is actually short lived and makes then greedy and fearful. Powerful motivators are always emotional in nature. The focus has to be on the real long term needs of the child. While doing the assigned task the child should feel that he is gaining from it personally.

Self enhancement or boosting of self esteem can be a very powerful motivating factor to make children behave in a certain way. Thus praise and appreciation can be very good motivators. Being like others makes them feel accepted and comfortable. Making them feel that doing something will make them like everyone or like some one who they admire, can be a very good motivator. Providing variety of experience and stimulus in the fun way can be excellent triggers to get little ones to work.

The new age fun way of learning, is based on this theory, as pleasure is the greatest motivator for human beings to perform. It is important to think of all the above listed inducements, to work in a creative manner with children.

The Forgotten Laws

Our self-esteem is the internal knowledge that we are capable of handling anything that life throws at us. Self-esteem is a feeling of self-worth and an understanding that we are capable human beings that are strong and resilient. People with a high level of self esteem are confident in their abilities; handle stress and problems well and are able to hold their heads up high and feel good about them even when they screw up.

People with low self-esteem are the complete opposite. They often sport a negative outlook on life and themselves; tend to fear new experiences because they lack the feeling that they can accomplish or handle anything outside of their normal routine; use a lot of energy to maintain a false positive image of themselves; and tend to worry excessively and be overly sensitive to criticism,

Our self-esteem is how we feel about our abilities and ourselves. It can have a drastic effect on our motivations, attitudes and behaviors with those around us. It built from an early age), often toddler hood, when a baby tries something new like standing or walking and either succeeds or fails.

It really doesn’t matter as much whether the child continually succeeds as it does how the people around the react to them. A child who manages to do everything right the first time, but who is not praised for their accomplishments or are belittled in some way may grow to have a very low self esteem; while a child who rarely succeeds but is praised for their effort may have a high level of self esteem.

This is an important fact for parents to remember when dealing with children of all ages. Healthy self-esteem is reached when the right balance is attained between the child’s ability and the parent’s interaction.

Our self-esteem can fluctuate as we grow and experience new hurdles in life. Teenagers are more apt to suffer low self-esteem as they struggles to handle changes in their bodies, world and even personality. This is a time when these young adults are struggling to figure out if they are capable enough to handle what life will throw at them in the future.

Adults may experience bouts of low self-esteem when faced with unexpected obstacles or hurdles they don’t know how to handle. New parenthood is a common time for adults to find themselves questioning their abilities as caregivers. The goal here is admit that you are finding a new situation more challenging than you can handle; accept your limitations; and ask for help.

Those with too much self esteem can become arrogant, believing that their way is the only way and that everything they do is perfect, while those who suffer low self esteem may find it difficult to conquer new challenges and find themselves stuck in unhappy jobs and relationships because they lack the courage and strength to move on to something better.

Finding the right balance is essential to becoming a well-rounded person who feels good about themselves, their abilities and exudes the power to succeed in every aspect of their lives.

Drop The Addiction