Leaders: Here Are The Top 9 Things That Motivate Employees to Succeed

When you wake up in the morning, what fuels you to begin the day? Are you passionate about your work? The triggers that motivate people to achieve are unique for everyone; for some it’s money; for others, it’s wanting to make a difference, writes Glenn Llopis in Forbes.com.

Motivation has been studied for decades, and leaders often use motivational books and other tools to get employees to increase their performance or get them back on track. But if you’re a leader, it’s critical to get to know your employees, and to be specific about how you help each of them achieve their goals, desires and aspirations. To help one another and to accomplish that, you must identify those motivating factors. In this piece from Forbes.com, see the nine things that ultimately motivate employees to achieve.

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Greater IBM, what do you think of these nine motivators? Please share your own story and perspectives by commenting.

 

-Posted by Regan Kelly

Have You Heard of Coursera.Com? Top Universities Offering Online Classes for Free

Have you heard of Coursera.org?  They have partnered with 33 leading universities around the world, including Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford, University of London, to name a few, to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.  Their vision is to provide everyone in the world with a world-class education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.  Here are some of the upcoming classes that Greater IBMers may be interested in:

• Starts Jan 7 (10 wks):  (University of Washington) Building an Information Risk Management Toolkit by Barbara Endicott-Popovsky (Director for the Center of Information Assurance and Cybersecurity at the University of Washington, following a 20-year industry career marked by executive and consulting positions in IT architecture and project management).  She is also teaching Information Security and Risk Management in Context during the same timeframe
• Starts Jan 28 (5wks):  (University of Virginia Darden School of Business) Grow to Greatness:  Smart Growth for Private Businesses, Part 1 by Edward D. Hess (his book, Smart Growth, was named a Top 25 2010 business book for business owners by Inc. Magazine and was awarded the Wachovia Award for Research Excellence)
• Starts Jan 28 (5 wks):  (University of Edinburgh) Critical Thinking in Global Challenges, by Celine Caquineau and Mayank Dutia (both at the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Edinburgh)
• Starts Jan 28 (5 wks):  (University of Edinburgh)  E-Learning and Digital Cultures by Jeremy Knox, Sian Bayne, Hamish Macleod, Jen Ross, Christine Sinclair (all at the University of Edinburgh)
• Starts Jan 28 (6 wks):  (University of Maryland) Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies by Dr. James V. Green (Director of Entrepreneurship Education at Maryland Enterprise Institute.  Previously held roles at multiple start-ups including WaveCrest Labs, Cyveillance, and NetMentors.Org)
• Starts Mar 5 (8 wks):  (Vanderbilt University)  Leading Strategic Innovation in Organizations by David Owens, PhD (Professor at Vanderbilt’s Graduate School of Management, where he also directs the Executive Development Institute.  He has also consulted for leading organizations such as NASA, The Smithsonian, Nissan, Cisco, and done product design work for well-known firms such as Daimler Benz, Apple, Dell, Corning, while working at IDEO Product Development)

–Posted by Julie Yamamoto, Program Manager, The Greater IBM Connection

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The January 2013 theme for The Greater IBM Connection is ”leadership”, and The Greater IBM Connection will be sharing various tips, tools, and resources on this topic.

Don’t Just Pass the Time on Your Commute – USE It Instead

by Liz Strauss at successful-blog.com

Some days, there just isn’t time enough to finish all of your work. On top of your regular tasks, things crop up that have to be handled right away – pushing you back even further.

Author Liz Strauss

Add to that your long-term deadlines, and that can mean late nights at the office, and/or spending your evenings and weekends working. All of which can make you miss out on the things you would rather be doing  – with family and friends.

But there’s one source of time you could tap – daily! How to be more productive in the time it takes to commute to and from work.