Motivation Shots from The Doc

You’re probably fed up with people like me telling you to listen and understand the guys in your team.  However, if you want a motivated team, then that’s exactly what you’re going to have to do!

It’s obviously important to speak to your people. I say obviously, however I’ve known managers who say very little to their people other than to issue instructions and they’re often not clear with these.

Some years ago a large and successful football club appointed a new coach (and it’s not the guys above). He replaced a coach who had gone on to bigger and better things. This successful team started to go downhill from day one; they were losing games to much lesser teams on a regular basis.
The new coach had been successful as a player and had worked as an assistant coach at another team.

Did he know the business he was in? Of course he did! Did he know about football? Of course he did. Did he know how to speak to the media and more importantly his team? He didn’t have a Scooby!

The newspaper, radio and TV people didn’t like this new coach because of his off- hand manner towards them; the players felt the same and it showed in their results.

If you want to motivate your team and achieve your goals then you’ve got to talk to them on human level as well as a business level. It’s not enough just to issue instructions; you’ve got to get to know your individual team members, inside out and backside forward. Of course; that is if you want a happy and motivated team!

What do you think?