Workplace 101: A Profiles Global Business Blog

Part 2 - Author: Scheherazade Perkins, M.A.

In part one of this blog series, I outlined how managers need to get creative about motivating their employees without dangling the dollar in front of them. For many organizations, this is not a choice. Constrained budgets and resources mean leaders NEED to find other ways of motivating their staff.

I also promised to share with you ten traits of highly self-motivating people. Gail Cohen, lecturer, consultant, and author compiled a list of attributes that typify self-motivated individuals.

Part 1 - Author: Scheherazade Perkins, M.A.

In this environment of economic downturn, tightened belts, and constrained resources, managers are experiencing the need to get creative about motivating their employees, without dangling the dollar in front of them. It is a fact that tightened belts mean fewer dollars available for dangling. Even in these rough times, not much has really changed about motivating people. Most HR professionals and OD specialists agree that money never really motivated anybody. Soon after your employees receive a salary increase and calculate the increase in taxes, the excitement of the increase dissipates.

Author: Bud Haney, President and CEO of Profiles International

Employee turnover is about more than just the emotional loss of saying goodbye to a familiar face. Recruiting and replacing an employee is an expensive process. There are the immediate costs of interviewing and training a new employee, as well as the long term harm and loss of morale as a result of losing a top performer.

Retaining and motivating top talent is one of the highest priority concerns for chief financial officers, just as important as managing healthcare insurance and controlling costs. Losing a high performer could have damaging effects on a company’s overall profits and development. Once you’ve attracted top talent, you must respond in a way that will help you retain it.

World renowned author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar unfortunately lost his short battle with pneumonia on Wednesday at the age of 86.

The acclaimed business icon has been a household name for over 50 years before his retirement in 2010. Millions of people around the world including presidents and world leaders have been impacted by his theories, practices and publications.

Zig Ziglar touched the lives of many Profiles International employees and today, we pay tribute to a man whose legendary work will live on in his absence.

In loving memory of Zig Ziglar 1926-2012

Do you always love your job? If this question makes you pause, then maybe you have been misled by what Fast Company called “the passion hypothesis.” This is the standard career advice of our time: you'll be happy at work if you find a job to match your passions. Of course, this idea developed out of the best intentions, but it’s a simple solution that has led to a host of new problems.

As the saying goes, ‘age is just a number’ and Mark Zuckerberg has certainly set a new record. Facebook’s recent move to a publicly traded company made 28-year-old Zuckerberg the youngest CEO at a Fortune 1000 company.

Summer has officially started. It’s time to put on your sandals, grab a cooler and hit the beach for a few months, right? Well unlike kids in school, the workplace doesn’t have a summer break. With all the summertime hype and beautiful sunny days, it may be difficult to stay focused at work. But the summer is actually the perfect time to rejuvenate and get motivated. So here are 10 great tips to maximize employee motivation and keep employees happy and productive this summer.   

Rumors of layoffs have been going around your office for weeks, and everyone is on edge. Today is the day and at 5 o’clock you will be doing one of two things: getting ready for the next work day or packing up your personal belongings and joining the unemployment line. The end of the day arrives and you dodge the bullet; you will be returning to work the next day. Now what? Are you worried that this is only round one of the layoffs and that future downsizing will cost you your job? Has your morale and motivation level taken a hit due to the stress associated with the layoffs?

What does it mean to be brilliant? Brilliance is expressed in many different ways: dazzling, wonderful, talented, gifted, inspiring. But guess what, you don’t have to be Albert Einstein or graduate from an Ivy League university to be brilliant. Just look at Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year, which includes a variety of individuals like Mashable.com’s founder Pete Cashmore, the successful business legend Warren Buffett, NBA star Jeremy Lin, famous entertainer Chelsea Handler and MIT professor Donald Sadoway. These individuals are very different from each other, but are all brilliant in their own way.

Guest Post by Marvin LeBlanc

I have not failed. I have just found one of 10,000 ways that won't work.
- Thomas Edison

Failure is a fact of life. However, one bitter truth is that failure is often self imposed and invited. Don't believe me? Read along to find out what distinguishes achievers from those who never end up fulfilling their dreams and believe that they justly deserve the moniker 'failure'.