Mind | Motivation Shots from The Doc

Motivational Managers Run their Own Mind

Posted by The Motivation Doctor on November 26th, 2009 View Comments

Successful managers have a deep understanding of their own minds. They’re aware of their needs, their strengths and weaknesses, and their emotions. They’re honest with themselves and resultantly, with their team members.

You have to decide who runs your mind, is it you or is it somebody else? thinking

Let me give you and example. I’ve always had a thing about good timekeeping; it’s something that’s been programmed into my brain. If you agree to meet me at 8.30 in the morning, I’ll be there at 8.20; I will always do my utmost be on time.
So I used to get angry when a member of my team would show up late for a meeting or an appointment with me.
When I got angry I’d get stressed and end up saying something to the team member that I regretted later. Therefore, I learned to start thinking about the situation and try to see it from their point of view, and not let my programming run my brain.

That doesn’t mean to say I ignored the lateness or did nothing about it; I thought very carefully about what I wanted to say and spoke to the team member about how we would resolve this situation.

The point about this is – I’m not prepared to allow that team member’s behaviour to run my mind. Getting angry and stressed is not good for your health and it isn’t a productive way to motivate your team.

In running their own mind Motivational Managers know what they’re good at and what they’re not so good at. Again it’s important to be honest with yourself. Some managers take on tasks they’re not good at, thinking that they should be able to do them. They then make a complete mess of it and ‘beat themselves up’ for being so useless.

On the other hand, don’t ever put yourself down; challenge and test yourself before deciding whether you can do something or not.
Successful managers have confidence in themselves, they accept their weaknesses but they don’t see it as a failure. They speak out when they don’t know something and they ask for help when they need it.

Have you ever asked a question at a meeting possibly feeling a bit stupid and thinking everyone else knows the answer? At the coffee break someone then says, “I’m glad you asked that question because I didn’t know either but I didn’t like to ask.”

Successful managers have the courage to challenge what they hear in their own mind and also what they hear from other people.
Believe me; once you start to apply this, you’ll make your life so much easier, get the job done and reduce your stress.