Hot answers tagged motivation
36
Focus on Results/Value Instead of Hours
Instead of focusing on the hours worked, I would strongly suggest judging the employee on the value that he is delivering. Since you're happy with his work, you can have a relatively positive discussion with him about how you would like him to take on more work/responsibility and make a bigger impact within the ...
33
Good answers all around, but I feel one aspect deserves more attention:
Get it under your skin that employee != founder.
Founders have a rich set of emotions to draw strength from, they are energized by their own vision of the company's future, and by their social standing as entrepreneurs in society.
Founders share richly in the future profits of the ...
12
You have to confront him head-on. This can't fester. You can't have secret doubts. It's not fair to either of you.
If he's truly unmotivated, you have to make a gut call about whether it can be fixed. I don't agree with the answers above that say "You should motivate him." You don't motivate co-founders. Employees, maybe. Co-founders need to have the ...
11
I will answer the question of what you can do to make your mother open a side business.
My answer: You can't. You shouldn't.
First of all, I answer from a philosphoical perspective that none of us should try to make another adult do anything. We can encourage, we can support, we can engage in logical or illogical arguements- but if we approach if from a ...
10
Is it legal where you are to ask for so many hours? If you are in the USA you could get into lots of trouble, since it has been determined time and time again that programmers are not exempt employees (they are not management, basically, and so the employer cannot pay them only their fixed salary without overtime) and so they are due overtime if they work ...
10
I agree with much of the above, especially the need to manage the work being done and the responsibility handled, rather than hours.
Also, consider these issues:
Sitting at your desk does not equate to working.
Some of the best problem solving and thinking happens when you are away from work.
Seek engagement and results.
The best people solve problems ...
9
Mike Michalowicz's Toilet Paper Entrepreneur Blog often asks readers about their insights on various subjects, not unlike this site. Then all this entrepreneurial wisdom is compiled into a blog post. Anyways there recently was post about "How To Survive The Entrepreneur’s Dark Days":
You are not alone. Every entrepreneur has dark days. I mean days of ...
9
I just had to drop a note here to say that you should consider yourself lucky that you've found an employee that values health and balance in life and at that produces good results!
I would say that there is a significant performance drop when you start working that many hours regularly. Add to that the cost when health is giving in.
Find a balance!
9
Been in this situation a few times, here's what I've learned.
Meet in person a few times a week to discuss ideas, status, questions, etc
Celebrate small victories, if you get continually rewarded every few days it really boosts your spirits
Eat/drink together. Bonding is good.
Show your co-workers the light at the end of the tunnel. Send out high-fidelity ...
8
Doing the finishing touches of a product can take a lot of work. Among other things, you should definitely consider putting a crappy version of your software up from others to use.
Additionally, I would suggest starting getting customer feedback even before the product is ready. Use screenshots and product features to talk to potential customers (or online ...
8
Great question, very interested to see what other people post. Here's what I do:
I know when I am about to go on a deep dive. I know that if I keep it unchecked I will have an awfully negative day. When this happens, I know the day simply started wrong, and I need to get over it. I take it easy during that day and go to sleep really early so that ...
8
I think most of us here can relate at one time or another. As a matter of fact, I'm just getting past a large period of burnout. Here's my suggestions:
PERSONAL
1) Take some time off. This is never as easy as it sounds, but it's worth it. Laying on a beach sounds appealing, but, for me, it was just time to stew on everything I was leaving behind at ...
7
I find it best to surround myself with other entrepreneurs who are still excited about their ventures.
Talk to them about their stuff. Enthusiasm is infectious. Plus whatever they're doing might inspire you with a new idea that gets you refocused.
Tell them how you're feeling and get a pep talk. We have all experienced the funk! Which means we can play ...
7
Ive found that meeting people who have never heard about your idea, and will therefore be excited about it is a great way to amp yourself up. You were right on with your idea of getting out and finding a new network for your idea.
Go on Meetup and find your local startup or entrepreneurship meetup. Meet some people, spread the word about your business, and ...
7
Work when you're at your best and get some rest.
Eliminate what isn't important. I dare you to do less.
Getting to know people on a personal level isn't a waste of time.
Automate boring and/or repetitive tasks after you fully understand how they are to be executed and make sure those around you do the same.
Learn to type faster unless you don't use a ...
7
What I've discovered for myself is that what's most rewarding is actually the little successes each day with the team. Whether it's something I did or someone else.
The "little successes" that keep us driving forward on the journey towards the biggest reward, the company surviving and thriving in a great environment that people enjoy. So a customer likes ...
7
Your post brings me back to a Post that another startup entrepreneur wrote about the value of ideas:
It’s so funny when I hear people being
so protective of ideas. (People who
want me to sign an NDA to tell me the
simplest idea.)
To me, ideas are worth nothing unless
executed. They are just a multiplier.
Execution is worth millions.
...
7
If it was a local team I would say it is due to boring work. Great developers take motivation out of building great software. Maintenance periods, too much bug fixing, doing the same thing for too long are examples of things that will make their productivity go down.
In a remote team, you can take all of that in consideration, plus the fact that they might ...
6
Pre-launch/revenue, I think the best way to figure out if it's the "right" idea is answering honestly whether or not you'll use the product yourself, and if you're charging for your product, whether you'd pay for it. Don't answer this as a hypothetical "you" in an alternative universe -- ask whether you would buy this product today to solve specific ...
6
Pay more. 50% more hours, on overtime rates, means you'll need to ~ double their salary. You'll also need to increase their holiday time as well to avoid burn-out.
Also, forcing someone to work overtime is illegal in many countries, and immoral everywhere.
And it's quality, not quantity, that counts. You're probably making the false assumption that the ...
6
Take a long break: You need some perspective and being in the daily grind will not give you that. What I mean by long is like a 4-6 weeks. If you can't afford to do that, then you may be too involved with your gig and need to do #3 for sure.
Start A Side Project: Do something you always wanted to do. It does not need to be related to the business just ...
6
http://answers.onstartups.com/questions/4895/how-do-i-manage-my-time-as-my-startup-grows
This similar post got me to look at the book Getting Things Done by David Allen who is on the above podcast. I’ve been using the GTD approach for a little over a month and feel I get more done and am less stressed. The key things I do differently are:
• I started ...
6
Adrian, you've taken a big step and a big risk in doing so and I believe it's OK to feel nervous about it. Everybody thinks "what if things go wrong"? It's perfectly natural.
But you know what? You have the guts that many other don't, and that counts a lot.
Think positive, plan and perform small steps. That will help your morale.
"Divide to conquer", i. ...
6
From my perspective it is pointless to spend any time marketing your software when your web site isn't ready for "prime time". Say you spend 100 hours marketing right now. Virtually all of that time is going to be wasted if 95 out of 100 people leave your site because it doesn't convince them that you are serious.
Your web site needs to explain exactly what ...
6
Here at Stack Exchange, we have chat software. We are using our own, but HipChat is acceptable. There is a main room in there that everyone is expected to be in (at least lurking) whenever they are at work... not being in the chat room is equivalent to not being at your desk. This has done wonders at creating a coherent company culture with people who are ...
6
My best advice to you, try to meet other people who are on the same path. When I went down the entrepreneurial path, it was hard to keep moving forward and stay motivated. I quickly found that when I hung out with other people going through the same thing, I would receive a bump in motivation and drive. Entrepreneurs and innovators feed off of each other.
...
5
"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
I've found the best "motivation" is to treat your employees like the smart adults they are. They become demotivated when they are treated like worker bees. ...
5
Did you ever read the (now very old) book, The Soul of a New Machine, by Tracy Kidder?
In the book, Kidder describes the design and creation of a new mainframe. At one point, when the product is almost ready, the manufacturer takes all the engineers off the project, and brings in a new set. Why? Because they felt (and I truly believe) that engineers fall ...
5
Having a big picture game plan or as HBR put it years ago, a "big hairy audacious goal". This way, things that go wrong don't derail you, but rather help you chart out an even better route to your end-goal.
At the end of the day I figure that we don't really have much time in life and this is a big consideration. Money is definitely a driver, but not enough ...
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