All posts by amcpherson

It’s Freelance Friday with “Dr. Woody” Woodward

February 21, 2014Freelance FridayEmployee Motivation, Michael "Dr. Woody" Woodward, Paypalamcpherson

The Right Way to Motivate Employees

It’s one thing for a CEO to be passionate and enthusiastic, but there’s a line of professionalism that must always be maintained.

According to a report form technology website Venture Beat, PayPal CEO David Marcus wrote a scathing letter to his employees reprimanding them for not using PayPal products and encouraging them to leave if they didn’t have the passion to use the products they work for.

According to the website, part of the leaked memo reads:

“It’s been brought to my attention that when testing paying with mobile at Cafe 17 last week, some of you refused to install the PayPal app (!!?!?!!), and others didn’t even remember their PayPal password. That’s unacceptable to me, and the rest of my team, everyone at PayPal should use our products where available. That’s the only way we can make them better, and better”.

As an executive, you certainly want your employees using and promoting your products. However, when faced with a situation where workers aren’t embracing what they sell, you need to investigate the root of the problem—not intimidate.

To make things worse he reportedly ended the note with the following:

“In closing, if you are one of the folks who refused to install the PayPal app or if you can’t remember your PayPal password, do yourself a favor, go find something that will connect with your heart and mind elsewhere,”

This situation hints PayPal might have a morale and culture problem, and it’s up to Marcus as a leader to take responsibility– not dole out blame.

When faced with internal problems, good executives start by asking why. They reach out to their executive team first and then to the entire staff to find the root of a problem and how to fix it. Sending out a one-sided note about the problem through a company-wide memo is not leading, it’s retreating.

Leadership starts by listening. Good executives need to get out among the workers and ask questions and listen without judgment or reaction. Often referred to by politicians as a listening tour, the idea of getting out of your inner circle is critical to understanding the realities of what others are dealing with. All too often executives become isolated within their circle of advisors and become detached from the realities of what’s going on.

Marcus should have focused on three questions:

Why are you not using the app?
What is it that we can do to ensure you use our app?
What do you need from me?

The fact that company employees are not embracing and using its products is a failure of leadership that Marcus needs to address by first looking in the mirror. At the end of the day, if his employees have to be forced to use the app, how can he expect consumers to want to willingly pay to use it?

Michael “Dr. Woody” Woodward, PhD is a CEC certified executive coach trained in organizational psychology. Dr. Woody is author of The YOU Plan: A 5-step Guide to Taking Charge of Your Career in the New Economy and the new on-line course The YOU Plan for Career Change on Udemy. Dr. Woody is the founder of Human Capital Integrated (HCI), a firm focused on management and leadership development. Dr. Woody also sits on the advisory board of the Florida International University Center for Leadership. To book Dr. Woody for your next event contact Sue Falcone at sue@simplysuespeaks.com or call 1-888-766-3155.

It’s Work Positive Wednesday with Dr. Joey Faucette

February 12, 2014Work Positive WednesdayGreat Depression lessons, positive success, secrets of successful entrepreneurs, success, Work Positiveamcpherson

5 Secret Questions the Positively Successful Ask Daily

Success While studying Great Depression businesses created by successful entrepreneurs, I discovered five core practices that were daily habits for them. They asked themselves five questions daily that charted their course to success.

You become a successful business person, also, by asking yourself these same five questions daily. The five questions to ask so you become positively successful are:

What Am I Thinking?

It really is all in your head. Your thoughts guide your every action, relationship, and sale. Your thoughts either help or hinder your journey through the current economy. Your business either succeeds or sucks because of your thoughts.

Positively successful people guard their thoughts religiously, insuring that they only rent space to positive ones. They place border guards around their mind that maintain a singular perspective: focus on the positive and filter out the negative. They have little patience with purveyors of negativity—think 24/7 news channels—and constantly feed their minds mentally positive nourishment.

Who Am I Attracting?

While success begins in your head, it bears fruit in relationships with customers, clients, suppliers, team members and others with whom you invest time. As Jim Rohn reminded us so well, “You are the average of the five persons with whom you spend the most time.”

Positively successful professionals guard their relationships like their thoughts, insuring they invest time only in positive ones. They have firm social boundaries that limit availability to negative persons—“Eeyore Vampires”—and focus on attracting ideal customers, clients, team members, and suppliers. They know it costs too much to do business with some people and delete their contact databases accordingly.

Why Am I Working?

Success begins in your head, and reflects back through relationships into your heart. “Why am I working?” clarifies your purpose and desire. Successful people engage emotionally on a passionately positive level with their labor. Their work matters.

This positive engagement fuels their imagination and frees them emotionally to discover solutions to customers’ problems in innovative, added-value ways. Such creative expression satisfies their “Why?” and furthers their success journey.

How Am I Doing?

Positively successful business people understand that the what, who, and why questions beg for reflection, i.e., “How am I doing?” The key is to acknowledge areas for improvement while accelerating what’s moving forward now.

Their singular focus is, “How am I best and strategically acting on my what, who, and why?” This positive focus is the clear pathway to successful achievements.

Where Am I Going?

These Great Depression gurus understood that once positive results emerge from their positive mental, social, and emotional achievements, the successful path requires sustaining. You must keep going.

They discovered that what serves them best is to serve others. They ethically acted in the best interests of their team and community, giving servant leadership to improve others’ lives daily. Gratitude for their achievements fueled their philanthropy.

So how’s your work? Ask yourself these five questions daily and enjoy success as you Work Positive!

Joeystanding Dr. Joey Faucette is the internationally known author of the #1 Amazon best-seller, Work Positive in a Negative World: Redefine Your Reality & Achieve Your Business Dreams (Entrepreneur Press). He is a professional speaker who coaches business professionals to increase sales with greater productivity so they leave the office earlier to do what they love with their family and friends, leading individuals in organizations of every size to achieve amazing results. He and his wife have two adult daughters. They enjoy living on Pleasant Gap Farm with their three yellow Labs, three quarter horses, and one cat–Boo Radley.