Open Thread: Motivational Tools – What Do You Use?
I’ll let you in on a little secret…here at FreshBooks HQ we ring a bell every time someone upgrades to a paying account. Inevitably it’s a race to “ring the bell” whenever one of those emails arrives. And while there are varying degrees of competition to actually ring it, everyone in the office loves the sound of that bell.
When you have a team, you need little ways like this to acknowledge your small successes. Maybe it’s a group lunch or something new for the office that benefits everyone, some form of public acknowledgement, but you need something. Little rewards like these build camaraderie and keep people focused.
Is there anything you do to keep you or your team motivated?
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11:16 am
At my last gig, we went on and on and on about developing a local News Site that would challenge the local newspaper. We continued to meet at the office, however there were too many distractions for a brainstorming session.
So, we decided to head out for a Brainstorming Retreat. And sure enough, we ended up with Sootoday.com which now has quite a huge following.
How did we motivate? Beer, wine and Steaks!!!
Works everytime.
11:22 am
I’m not going to lie to you…beer, wine and steak motivate me too
1:39 pm
At work we have an “Awesome Award.” This was inspired by a BrainFuel blog post.
We have an old softball championship trophy which has become our “Awesome Award.” Every week in our team meeting, the previous winner selects someone who delivered or did something amazing this week. The new person gets to display the award at their desk for a week and gets a gift card to sweeten the deal.
The monetary reward may be small but team members get recognized for their efforts by their peers.
8:55 am
At a small software company I worked at, we did something very similar to the ringing of the bell. Whenever a sale closed, we would ring a loud siren called “LuLu” and everyone would gather and discuss the sale, give kudos where warranted, and basically feel good that all areas of the company were contributing to the bottom line.
8:54 pm
Music.
Quotes.
A night out with the team.
Coffee Shops.
Borders.
Librarys.
Re-reading blog posts that I’ve written.