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Getting Assistants Off Of Lazy Rears, Motivated For Work
Posted by Theo McLanahan at Feb 12th, 2008 in Outsourcing
Nowhere is it written that a small business can’t accomplish huge goals. If your mind is set on accomplishing something, you’ll be able to achieve it. With a team of motivated assistants, you’ll be able to take on the world. But motivating people can be difficult. Here are some tips for keep your assistants motivated.
Goal setting is a powerful force for motivation. Giving your assistant written goals will help them to understand exactly what needs to be accomplished. Plus, goals are measurable - you either reach them or you don’t. This helps your assistant to be able to measure their progress.
Take some time at the start of each week or month to define and review goals with your assistant. This will help keep both of you on track, and help them to get their assignments completed.
Keeping a positive environment will also help your assistants stay motivated. Even if you and your assistants live in separate states or continents, you can still create a cohesive work environment.
Perhaps a weekly teleconference meeting would be beneficial. Everyone will feel like more of a part of a team. Let them know they are able to look to one another for advice if you’re not available.
Giving your assistants new challenges will also do wonders for their motivation. Perhaps one of your assistants can help you organize an event or plan a new information product.
Plenty of stimulation is also important for staying motivated. If someone works on the same task for too long, it can lead to boredom and a reduction in the quality of work. Giving them a new assignment or even having two or three assistants working on something as a team can make a big difference.
Contests are another great way to motivate people. You could define a team goal and if the team reaches it, they all receive a price. Or create individual goals to create a sense of competition.
Of course, each person is unique and their motivation can come from a different place. What works for one assistant may not work for another. It is a good idea to keep your communication with your assistants open, and to ask them what it is that motivates them as an individual.
About the Author:
Is your internet business struggling along because you don’t have enough time in the day? Maybe it’s time to start working on your business instead of in it. Visit www.netmarketingchaos.com for insightful information about running a profitable internet business.
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Great tips. Getting assistants motivated can be hard at times. In james brausche’s freedom business system he recommends making videos to show your assistants exactly what to do. That has been working pretty well for me.
Great post.
This information helps me for a number of reasons. First it gives me some ways to self motivate. Setting goals and reviewing them is something I need to do more often for myself. I didn’t realize how much harder it is to stay motivated in a work at home environment.
The second reason is I have been discussing managing a group of virtual employees for someone so this info really hits the mark with me.
Another style of management of virtual people I am learning by observing how a marketer, whose blog I read everyday, James Brausch, runs his intern program. He has set it up in specific stages each one precisely pre programmed with specific instructions and expectations including how long each task should take.
I amazed at how efficient it seems to be. Something I will have to absorb into my people management tool box. It is extremely well organized, which has always been a struggle for me. Not my strong suit but something I know I should work on .
Thanks again for the post.
Good food for thought.
-Scott
Have you seen the intern program James Brausch is running?
I have to say that it does a great job on the motivation side for a program that is done on a no money basis.
It has a long set of different task, each of which may earn you some cash if you do extremely well at it. But more importantly, you are undertaking it in exchange for learning how he runs his business (motivation), and he includes the provision of free copies of the software required to carry out the tasks.
Plus, he actually does split testing on the tasks to improve the completion rate, etc so they get more motivating all the time.