Motivation is an inside job

Motivation is an inside job. 

I’ll say it again. Motivation is an inside job. 

Our motivation, or it’s lack, is not the fault of other people. Which means the toxic boss, negative colleagues, or relentless organisational culture are not the reason for our lack of motivation. Our decision to allow these things to impact our motivation is. 

I know that’s hard. I know it’s easier to point the finger at others. I also know that sustained contact with these potential demotivators can wear even the hardiest person down. 

The issue is that so long as we look for the cause outside ourselves we’ll not take personal responsibility for making the changes that are needed. Instead, we join others and gossip about the toxic boss rather than make the hard decision to find a new job or raise the issue with HR. Instead we continue in our lack of motivation, waiting and hoping for someone else to change their behaviour - and that may never ever happen - leopards and their spots and all that! 

If you’re lacking motivation, what action can you take today to take responsibility for the external factors you’re currently allowing to impact your joy for life?

Momentum provides motivation

I was listening to Brendon Burchard on a podcast and he said "momentum provides motivation".

Read that again.

"Momentum provides motivation"

He didn't say motivation provides the momentum, he said momentum provides the motivation.

A great reminder that taking action towards our goals every day can also inspire further action. Rather than just the other way around.

We don't have to wait for the motivation to take that action. 

One morning a few months ago, whilst mid vision setting and thinking I had to have the vision perfect before I took action, I woke with the following words in my mind.

"Put your running shoes on."

It didn't mean literally, it meant put them on metaphorically and do something every day towards the vision.

As I often do, when I may find great insight or advice hard to accept, I made a collage. I think it's as much about the act of making it, that changes the internal beliefs and mindset, as having the resulting collage card and leaving it somewhere where I will see it regularly.

This is the collage I made.

Another collage I made at the same time was made to act as a reminder for me to do my hip mobilisation exercises daily. Exercises I know help my knees (and one reason I knew the running shoes weren't for actual running!). Exercises that I don't however do every day - other than when I did the 28 day challenge.   

The smiling face in the collage was made by the 5 year old from next door and is of me - complete with purple fringe (bangs?). Apparently he "didn't need to draw the white hair because the paper was white" :-). 

The great news is that since making the collage I have done my hip mobilisation every day.  

For me taking the time to find the appropriate pictures, cut them out, position them, glue them, talk to next door's son and help him with his drawing, and make the card was the momentum that has since provided the motivation to keep me taking action.

What can you do today to start the momentum to get where you want to go?  

I also make collage cards to use as coaching and facilitation tools with clients - more here. They were certainly very popular in a recent session with the Scottish Institute for Business Leaders with one senior manager saying:

"I found the approach valuable, and an excellent framework to help develop solutions from a new perspective. It was interesting how apparently random pictures prompted highly relevant thoughts. Definitely recommended, and approach with an open mind" left in comments in a recent post.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Unlocking personal potential using unconventional tools

Values and Beliefs

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Values that are too big for their boots

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What's motivating your actions

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Procurement Awareness - Training

Last week I suggested Procurement weren't very good at engaging internal stakeholders. I went on to suggest in the following blog when we're not communicating enough with these stakeholders they don't understand what procurement is all about and so try to do it themselves without us.

One means of increasing internal stakeholder awareness of what procurement is all about is to share what best practice is with them. Having done this many times in the past it's certainly the most direct way of internal stakeholders understanding there's more to it than they first thought and to leave it to the professionals.

The problem is how do we convey there's more to procurement than many think: 

Suggestions include:

• Sharing the horror stories of procurement gone wrong ie when muddling through didn't work - examples here in my Pinterest board (please let me know others).
• Sharing the benefits of when procurement has succeeded.
• Sharing the process we follow and bringing it alive - as per AT Kearney's above.
• Using a metaphor for procurement - gardening is such a great example - as most people realise a garden needs to be mowed, weeded and pruned even if they don't realise suppliers do.

Do let me know other ways you've successfully increased your internal stakeholders awareness of the procurement profession.

Throughout this week we will be exploring different means of improving relationships with internal stakeholders using a variety of tools - Frameworks for Change Coaching Process, Creative Whack Pack, Oblique Strategies, Standing in their shoes and in personal coaching sessions collage cards and the Transformation Game.

Alison Smith

Inspiring change inside and out - when what you're doing isn't working.

The coaching and facilitation I offer is specifically aimed at identifying what it holding you or your team back from achieving your objectives and part of this will often include improving stakeholder relationships.

More here on the type of coaching I offer, and more specifically when someone else might be the more ideal coach for you. Call me +44 (0)7770 538159 or email alison@purchasingcoach.co.uk
 

Goal setting

As my 51st birthday approaches I've taken some time to review my goals set this time last year for my 2nd half century. As a result of lack of progress with some of those goals I found time to review why that might be, and have returned to many books, youtube clips and DVDs about achieving goals.

For clarity the goals were around my life generally rather than smart and specific goals for work. Although I suspect many of this first list, of common features in the theories of how to achieve our goals, equally apply to personal and work goals and include:

• Clarify what the goal is
• Understand why the goal is important - why should you get out of bed to take action towards it. Often the bigger the 'why' the more motivation - so think more widely about the repercussions of achieving your goal or pick a bigger juicier goal. 
• Clarify how you'll know you've achieved it - what will it look, sound and feel like - perhaps even having a vision or Pinterest board pulling these ideas together 
• Clarify the goal isn't conditional on other people - for example a goal of a job with x becomes a goal of an enjoyable and challenging job, or a goal of a relationship with y becomes a goal of being open and ready to being in a loving relationship
• Clarify and work on the beliefs that may hinder you achieving your goal - you know the ones along the lines of "I can't do it" or "I'm not good enough". Or the not so easy to notice beliefs that limit the amount of achievement, pleasure or satisfaction you can have at any one time. Or other beliefs about what you'll have to give up in order to achieve your goal. 

These have all been common features over the last fifteen years at the coaching or facilitated sessions I've worked with individuals and teams on, and of course when I've applied them to my own life too.

Whilst its important to not underestimate the power of undertaking these activities, especially the beliefs we have that stop us taking action, its often the next step that's the difficult part. That is knowing what to do, and taking the action in order to move from where you are to where you want to be. 

Interestingly its this next part that the different theorists have different views on - even if they're not all mutually exclusive - and can include:

• Reminding yourself daily why you want to achieve your goal
• Reminding yourself daily of what your goal is
• Visualising yourself achieving your goal - emphasising how you'll feel and what you'll be doing, seeing and hearing 
• Having gratitude for having already achieved the goal NOW
• Having gratitude for each small step you've taken
• Just having gratitude every day for everything
• Acting as if you've already achieved the goal - making room in the bathroom/wardrobe for 'his or her' stuff or buying a new suit for the new job or viewing houses you'd like to buy 
• Not thinking, saying or acting as if its anything other than possible and your right to achieve the goal
• Concentrating on 'what' you want and allow the 'how' to materialise later
• Identifying a detailed action plan to achieve it and monitoring progress regularly
• Having a buddy who keeps you accountable to your action plan 
• Noticing the ways you sabotage achieving your goals and releasing the pattern
• Just making sure you take the first action step NOW - getting momentum being the biggest hurdle to achieving your goals
• Using affirmations to remind yourself you can achieve your goal
• Once you've clearly expressed your goal, forgetting about it and allowing your unconscious actions to move you towards it
• Letting go of your expectations and attachments to it being achieved in a certain way - ie there are many different solutions to achieving your goal. Don't get stuck on only one of them as you may miss the other easier ways of getting there
• Being in a state of wonder about how life would be like once you've achieved your goal
• Concentrating on being of service to others and trusting that as you give you will receive 

Perhaps in coaching sessions for others its always been easier to pick which of these I think most likely to work for that individual or team - not so easy for myself.

This week I found an additional action that for me personally has made such a HUGE difference.

• Making a commitment - ie stating the goal as ... "I commit to ......" (Note the lack of use of 'want' 'need' 'desire' 'dream' 'would like' 'hope' or 'pray' or lack of any energy of 'desperation' 'fear' 'lack' or 'failure') 

Committing to my goals has:

• Enabled the action plans to become a whole lot clearer
• Provided the inspiration to change and therefore provided the motivation to take action
• Alerted ever fibre of my being of the need to achieve my goals. Which has made it a necessity to find ways of achieving them. It's as if they've gone from green to red on a RAG report.
• Set my filters to high alert to notice the opportunities to achieve my goals (will follow up in a later blog about the impact our filtering of the world has on our experience of it - in the mean time just set an intention to notice cars with coloured alloys and notice what you notice about the frequency you notice them)
• Brought in a more peaceful energy about my belief in me achieving my goals - its as if because I'm now 'committed' then of course I'll achieve them 

I'm wondering if you've also had any ahhas when achieving your goals and discovered the difference that makes the difference to your success? If so please do share in comments below as I'd suggest different strategies work at different times for different types of goal - so a more comprehensive list to reflect on will always use useful.

Alison Smith

Inspiring change inside and out in purchasing, procurement and strategic sourcing 

I'll also write a blog next week on the different ways the Landscaping your life process, where I use nature as our teacher, can be used to assist with goal setting. For now you can find out more about it on Facebook & Pinterest. 

What gets them out of bed in a morning?

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Communication - keep trying

I came off the phone the other day knowing that I hadn’t got through to the person on the other end about my point of view.

The indication was that I had not, because if I had got my message over effectively, the person on the line would have been as annoyed as me, and the reaction would have been: “Let’s get this sorted”, rather than :“Okay, let’s look at that in a few weeks when X has happened” (meaning never).

I knew I’d forgotten to say the one thing that would have made all the difference. So to find out what that might be, I went back to a great book by Shelle Rose Charvet to remind myself what I could have done differently to improve the communication.

In this situation there were two things I should have remembered and paid attention to:

1. The type of information he needed
Did he need to see, hear, read or do something with the information? Over the phone he was only ever going to hear what I said, so perhaps I should have sent an email or information to back up the call? Or would PowerPoint or Excel have worked best for him? In this instance, using a webinar and spreadsheet worked a treat.

2. What was his motivation?
As I’ve written in a previous blog, I’m motivated by affiliation. The challenge for me is I often jump straight to saying that the problem is causing “unhappy or demotivated staff”, “friction” or “upset”. Those people motivated by achievement may well be turned off by these words unless I start talking about the potential outcome being “failure” or a “delay”. In this particular instance I think power, via financial security, was more the issue. In a subsequent call I simply mentioned the cost implications of ignoring the information (backed up by the Excel document) and he was suddenly on side.

Next time you walk away from a situation where you’ve failed to convince someone of your opinion, just think about what you could have done differently and try again. But, a word of caution, please don’t then become angry as I blogged about last week.

Alison Smith
Sowing the seeds of effective communication in procurement

* Previously blogged on Supply Management

Picture Source: repairmyexcel.com via Alison on Pinterest