Stay Motivated
“The Secret of Staying Motivated Is To Keep Going”
Opening Case Study :
Sundar Pichai –A Truly Motivational Leader
Born on the 12th of July 1972, Sundararajan Pichai or better known as SundarPichai who has recently become the talk of literally every town, is the newly appointed CEO of Google Inc.His father’s name is Raghunatha Pichai, He was an electrical engineer at British Conglomerate General Electric Company (GEC), and his mother’s name is Laxmi Pichai, she is a stenographer. Sundar was more active and intelligent student in his school time. Sundar finished his schooling at JawarVidyalayaschool in Ashok Nagar, Chennai, and completed his class 12th at Vana Vani school in Chennai.
Sundar Pichai, the Chief Executive Officer of Google, was born and bought up in a middle-class family in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He spent most of his childhood living in a modest two-bedroom apartment with his parents and grew up living a restricted life. However, he has always been extremely appreciative of his parents’ devotion and sacrifices to always provide him with the best education and support. After completing his education from IIT Kharagpur and Stanford University, Pichai took the biggest leap of his life by joining Google in 2004. He shot to fame by becoming the youngest CEO of Google in 2015. Here, we take a look at lessons that can be learned from the life of SundarPichai as a motivational leader .
While he may have hailed from a middle-class background, Pichai pursued bigger dreams. Till date, he encourages all leaders to follow their passion, dream big and constantly reinvent themselves. In order to reach the top of the pyramid, you have to work really hard and have to be persistent in all your approaches.
Being ambitious helps in keeping your motivation levels high, but being different helps deliver out of the box solutions.Pichai led the company through one of their major changes, moving from just software related solutions to hardware and retail. Under his guidance, Google expanded in 2015 to restructure its sprawling business and created the parent company, Alphabet. Alphabet became the home for its more experimental projects such as space exploration and anti mortality.
Failure has been conditioned to sound like a bad thing. But not for Pichai. He has always championed a positive attitude to failure. “Wear your failure as a badge of honor and start again,” is one of his famous quotes. In 2013, the company came under immense scrutiny for invading the privacy of the users. This year, the company also faced allegations of increasing gender gap and discrimination. However, Pichai persevered in trying to rectify the past mistake, create a more stable work environment and build a better future for everyone.
Breaking all the stereotypes, SundarPichai is known for keeping a work life balance and not being a workaholic. He believes in working smart to boost efficiency and productivity levels. Chrome, the now ubiquitous web browser, was initially started as an experiment by his team of 10 engineers. When Microsoft made ‘Bing’ its default browser, it was assumed that Chrome would not work out in the market. However, with a few innovative approaches, Chrome secured its position in the search market.
Great leaders believe that their employees determine a company’s success or failure.It is not the size of the building, how cool the product is, or even having the best equipment or process that determines success. What propels and sustains a successful organization is its diverse team of talented, motivated employees.
Great leaders continually invest in their people and understand motivational rewards for employees. As a leader, one should keep an open perspective on human nature. Knowing different needs of subordinates will certainly make the decision-making process easier.
As much as people don’t want to admit it, there are lots of unmotivated employees in this world. Whether they aren’t driven to do their best or they simply have no motivation to move up in the company, this can be a tricky situation for a leader.
According to a recent study by Dale Carnegie, less than 25% of non-management employees are fully motivated and engaged. This is clearly an issue that must be dealt with. If employees feel no reason to work hard, why would they? Creating simple, yet effective motivating factors within your company culture is the answer.
Here are 5 simple ways to motivate your employees to do their best.
- Set goals and recognize success: Your employees want a challenge, it’s human nature. If they show up every day with the same menial tasks to work on with no goal in sight, it’s easy to become unmotivated. Setting achievable goals for your employees allows them to work towards something concrete and will also give you as a manager something to measure their performance against.
If employees aren’t meeting goals, you will know it’s time to let them go or work on their performance. When goals are achieved, make sure they are celebrated or at least acknowledged. This doesn’t have to be extravagant, but a simple incentive like a team lunch or internal email recognizing the success will keep employees moving towards their next goals. - Listen : One of the biggest motivating factors for employees is the feeling that their wants and needs are heard at work. This doesn’t mean that every request is granted but listening to what employees have to say is key to motivation. Whether an employee has an idea for a new process or new ideas for their position, however unrealistic the ideas may be, just listen. People like their voices to be heard and if they are continuously blocked by managers unwilling to listen, they may reach a point where they don’t care about the organization and aren’t willing to work hard.
- Pay them well: To keep your top employees, you’re going to have to pay them a competitive salary. This might be easier said than done in some organizations, but make sure you’re not skimping on salary. If their performance merits a raise, give them one, this will let them know they are valued and appreciated. If you can’t afford competitive salaries or raises, think about performance-based bonuses for individual employees or teams.
- Care about their future: A leader that shows interest and involvement in the future of their employees does wonders for motivation. Creating opportunities for people to move up within your organization as well as encouraging continuous growth and education. Employees feel valued
and important when they feel their manager really cares about where they are headed within the company and in their career. Acting as a mentor and advocate will build trust and motivation about their future with your company.
5. Create a good culture: Make sure your company is a decent place to be. Not just offering a competitive salary and benefits but people genuinely enjoy working there. If your culture is negative and stiff, why would employees want to work hard if they aren’t enjoying what they do? Just incorporating simple perks like lunches, team building activities and happy hours can be motivation enough.
CONCLUSION
Keeping your employees motivated to work hard and give their best efforts is key to a successful and healthy business. There are some employees that might need a little nudge to work harder and some that do it on their own but in the end, leaders play a pivotal role in motivation.