Get Motivated – The weekend is just over this HILL!

Recognition is not one size fits all! Get it right

Now get back to work!

Guest Post Intro: As a Corporate Trainer, Motivational Speaker and Employee Recognition Strategist; David Kovacovich is always asked what differentiates the great people in the workplace. The best answer he can summon is that they never allowed themselves to give in to their doubt. This is a story of a young man and his belief that he can achieve anything. Feel free to connect with David at his Blog or Twitter.

March Madness is upon us and a friend of mine who does not follow sports asked me why people got so excited about this basketball tournament. The best response I could come up with is that people love to see an upset. When she inquired as to how a mid-major school could beat a national powerhouse I told her, “I guess they didn’t know any different”.

In addition to narrowing the basketball competition to 16 teams this past week, the NCAA wrestling championships were held. To play hoop with 4 other teammates requires a different type of motivation than that of being on the wrestling mat alone. By this measure, the odds of ‘an upset’ in College Wrestling are far more difficult.

Ignoring the Odds
Kyle Dake became the first ‘true freshman’ to win an NCAA Wrestling National Championship in 5 years. Why was Kyle able to rise above the extraordinary pressure of beating 5 people that were more experienced than he was? He didn’t know any different.

You’ll see from this clip that Kyle Dake is incredibly confident….and why not. He put himself in the company of the best in the country because he let his talent speak for itself, didn’t listen to his critics and did not get caught up by those who believe there is no way a Freshman can win the National Championship.

In the work place tenure often comes with entitlement while the unadulterated confidence of young people is met with a raised eye brow. What a shame! The unfortunate thing is that very few people have the self confidence of Kyle Dake. They become a product of their environment and their effort to win gets redirected into water cooler complaints, the navigation of office politics and the promotion of their work beyond the work itself. The biggest tragedy in American Business is our intimidation by the motivation of our employees. If you fit the aforementioned description you should not be in a leadership role. One day that door will swing shut for a final time and your legacy will not be the policy you wrote or programs you implemented but the people you empowered to use their confidence to help the team succeed.

Think about the potential (Don’t ignore talent)

My guess is that Kyle Dake will not pursue a career in the WWE. So when you see him in front of your office four years from now with his resume in his hand: take him in, help him understand how to channel his motivation in an effective manner and let him carry your legacy. Believe me; He is strong enough to carry it!

Not one of those posts: I usually try to be pretty informative and insightful in my posts but this is not one of those posts. This is a random thought post.

I came across a post “Decision Making, Social Media & Corporate Branding” written by @ImSoSarah. A quick synopsis of the post, from my perspective, is that everyone has a brand  (now trendily… if that’s a word) and all people/companies try so hard to manage that brand. The thing is that many people connect, friend and follow others not necessarily for the corporate information and deals that you have, but more for the off-topic and quirky information that is sometimes randomly put out.

Trendy Terms: Me personally, I could care less about trendy terms, yet I do understand the power in those terms like “brand” and peoples perception of that brand. I personally believe in seriousness, humor, connections and information. I try to do all four within my blog, twitter feed and my other digital footsteps. At the same time I try also to be serious and valid in the topics I present.

My comment in her post was the following:

The funniest thing about branding (corporate, business and personal) is that depending on who you are, what you do and where you do it – people act like they are not human.  Thing is we have quirks, we cuss, have gr8 & bad times, we say and do stupid things. Yet somehow we try so hard to cover it all up.

No one has to put it all out there but by putting something out that isn’t manufactured, always polished and plastic-surgery-perfect… people get to see that you are human!

And wouldn’t you or any one of us rather spend time with a HUMAN rather then a BRAND! I sure would.

Main Point: So to clean it up… it is better to have real connections with real people who actually do real things!

Brands suck… HUMANs Rule