In the closing part of this year there seems to be an ever increasing barrage of bad news and highlighting of difficulties, coming from the media in general and from organisations who are finding the current economic climate difficult to cope with. This bad news is rubbing off and many managers I am talking to are commenting that motivating individuals and teams seems to be getting harder.
On a recent visit to the United Nation’s administration office in Geneva, this very subject came up. My colleague and I made comment to a senior UN manager, that in a world where there are so many serious challenges how does the UN motivate their staff to keep going, when despite the huge efforts made, wars, famine and sickness still prevail.
His response to our question was surprising. He reached for his wallet and pulled out a small credit card sized card. On one side it says ‘Every Day the United Nations works to solve global challenges’. On the reverse of the card there was a list of ten statements, for example:
- Provides food for 108 million people in 74 countries
- Vaccinates 40% of the world’s children, saving 2 million lives a year
- Assists over 34 million refugees and others fleeing war, famine or persecution
The list goes on. We were taken aback, not just because of the staggering achievements made by the UN, but also by this simple method of reminding people of what has been achieved. This shifts the emphasis away from the negative and helps to motivate people. Many organisation’s in this current economic climate may not be achieving the sales and profit targets they planned for. However, many are working well against all odds to achieve great things. For some organisations, even survival is a major achievement.
By Kasmin Cooney OBE | Righttrack’s Managing Director