(Time to read this Blog is about 4 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:
   “Don’t try to build your business success on the backs of underpaid employees. Build success through the enthusiastic contribution of well-trained, well-paid, empowered and engaged Team members.” 
   …Donald Cooper.
    
2. Quick Biz Tip:
   Your Team Members ARE your Brand!
    
   My friend and fellow biz speaker / coach, Jeff Mowatt, is retiring after 34 years in the Biz. In his final Blog last week, he left us with an important insight.
    
   One of his clients recounted a recent shopping experience at a business that sold high-end technology. This company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their buildings, equipment, inventory, salaries and advertising across the chain.
    
   However, the employee who interacted with him was indifferent, dismissive and unhelpful. The company invested all that money building a brand and a ‘stage’ on which to deliver it…but one employee, hired in error, or not trained properly, meant all that money and effort was wasted.
    
   The simple lesson: your Team members ARE your brand. It takes only one untrained employee, or an employee that never should have been hired in the first place, to sabotage your brand. What are you doing to make sure that this never happens in your business?
    
3. Fun Fact: A new Survey, released by TD Bank, found that 52% of Gen Z (age 20 to 29) want their partner to sign a pre-nup before marriage or common-law cohabitation.  This is well above the national average for all age groups of 31%. 
    
   65% of Gen Zs also said that a person’s net worth is an important consideration in choosing a prospective partner. This reminds me of an old expression, “Don’t marry for money…marry where money is.”
    
4. Canadian Tire agrees to pay a $1,287,000 settlement, plus costs in Quebec. The settlement relates to 74 counts of false advertising in 3 Montreal area stores…and online. Not a good look for Canadian Tire, that promotes itself as ‘Canada’s Store’.
    
   If you’re doing any shady, deceptive or illegal stuff…stop it now!
    
5. The future is here. Amazon is currently operating 1 million industrial robots.
    
6. AI Update: The world’s ‘Big 4’ Consulting Firms report that the fastest growing part of their business is implementing AI tools and processes for their clients.   Regardless of what industry or business you’re in, AI will have a major impact. What are you doing to find and partner with an AI leader in your field?
    
7. Now, to this week’s important topic:

4 important insights on motivation and business culture:

Simply put, ‘motivation’ is whatever causes people to act.  It involves the biological, emotional, social, financial and cognitive forces that activate behavior.  It will be different for everyone…and it will be different for each person at different times and phases of their lives.

In business, if our staff choose the behaviours we like, we say that they’re motivated.  If they choose behaviours we don’t like, we say that they’re NOT motivated.

So, as managers or leaders, our job is to find employees who are motivated by the behaviours that will move our business forward and then give them good reasons, the right ‘tools’ and the business culture that encourages them to continue to choose the behaviours that we want them to exhibit.

Here are 4 Tips to help make that happen:

1. Give your employees meaningful work. Meaningful to the business and meaningful to them.
    
   First, explain to them, and constantly reinforce, why their job, performed excellently, is meaningful and important to customers, to the business, to the rest of the team and to the planet or community, if those last two elements are involved in their job.  Surveys show that the #1 reason that employees stop trying is that they believe they don’t make a difference.  So, make sure they know that they do make a difference…and ‘thank’ them for making a difference every day.
    
   Then, make their job meaningful to them. Make it part of their journey. What do they want from work and from life?  The answer will be different for everyone.  You need to know why your staff comes to work and what’s important to them.  Take time to have these conversations with each team member.  What do they want their career and their life to look like in 3 to 5 years and how can you help them get there?  Does this take some time to do?  Absolutely!  Is it worth the time?  Absolutely!
    
   In my experience, people who don’t want to grow their lives, also don’t want to help you grow the business.  They’re just not into growth.  Can they be motivated and ‘rescued’?  Perhaps, but it will take many courageous conversations and a lot of coaching…and may, ultimately, end in heartbreak.  If you want to ‘rescue’ something, get a pound puppy.
    
   Or, you may have put them in a job that they’re just not ‘wlred’ for.  You’ve set them up to fail…and you need to fix that.  Years ago at Cooper Canada, our family business, we had a guy in the shipping room who talked all day and didn’t get shipments out the door.  Rather than fire him, we moved him into Customer Service, where he talked with customers on the phone all day to solve problems.  He became a super-star!
     
2. Constantly teach, coach and encourage them to master their current job so that it’s done extraordinarily well.  But also, so that they develop a lifelong respect for and commitment to ‘mastery’ in everything they do.  That’s how extraordinary businesses, careers and lives are built in today’s complicated and competitive world.  ‘Good enough’ is not good enough…and mediocrity is no longer an option.
     
3. Create a culture of clarity, commitment, urgency and accountability combined with a culture of respect, energy and joy. That means hiring people who have respect, energy and joy. You can’t build a 1^st class business by hiring 2^nd rate people.  Business is challenging …but it should also be fun.  Without that balance, your business becomes a dreary, soul- destroying place to work.  Good people leave and your mediocre people stay and take ‘I don’t give a damn pills’.
    
   Every person you hire either honours and strengthens your culture or erodes it.  So, hire carefully.  Then teach, reinforce and authentically live your culture and values, every day. 

4. Celebrate and reward ‘the wins’…large and small.  Whether it’s a sales commitment met, a project completed, some great customer feedback received, or a team member getting engaged…celebrate!   Celebrating with pizza is even better!   People really want to win and be part of a winning team.  If they feel like they’re losing, morale will go down and staff turnover will go up.  Create a culture of celebration!

So, there you have it.  Four tips to encourage each person on your team to choose the behaviours that will move your business and their lives forward.  What action will you take to implement these…and when will you start?  For help in creating a ‘Winning Culture’, download my insightful Biz Tool #B-18 by Clicking Here, no charge.

That’s it for this week…

Live brilliantly and be kind to each other!       

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.