Memories can Motivate!
POSITIVE MEMORIES CAN ACT AS PRACTICAL MOTIVATORS FOR FUTURE PERFORMANCE
It is often said, “forget the past and focus upon the future!”. In the practical world though, does this proverb really hold true? Well! It is my strong conviction that looking back at the past sensibly and smartly can motivate as well as empower us with strength and positive attitude to deal with the future challenges.
I believe that if we are able to awaken the Positive Actions from our Past then these memories themselves can act as motivators for our future!
Such memories especially have a special power; the power to Influence and Inspire the mind of the ‘Present’ to help us wonderfully deal with the ‘future’. I wish to explain this with a real-life example.
The boardroom was full to capacity with all the senior management employees and along with them was the Head of Sales with his team.
The atmosphere seemed a bit gloomy, not because of the rainy weather outside but more so because of the atmosphere of depression and disappointment due to an extremely poor performance by his Sales team.
This particular team was specifically instructed to be present for the meeting and it was aware of what was expected...a barrage of aggressive and acerbic comments, scolding and extremely critical observations regarding their poor performance!
“It is inevitable! Today is going to be a day where I probably will be either asked to leave this organization or firmly requested to tender my resignation.
This organization has never seen this kind of Sales decline and it has happened now under my leadership. I just hope that the humiliation gets over soon” The Head of Sales was seen whispering to one of his colleagues.
The door of the boardroom opened and someone from Human Resources department walked in with an LCD. He then went ahead and turned on the ‘Viewing screen’. Most of the people were a bit surprised! “Is this going to be some audio-visual presentation or, more appropriately, a dressing down of the sales team” asked one of the senior managers from the Production team who was also present there.
At that moment the door of the Boardroom again opened and entered the Chairman, Mr. Harman Patel and following him was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Vakoo. “Good Morning everyone!
How are you all?”, Mr. Patel exclaimed energetically! Most of them were a bit taken by the manner in which he greeted everyone as they were expecting a more somber and almost a depressed expression rather than an enthusiastic one!
Both of them seated themselves and the CEO, Mr. Vakoo then politely instructed the Mr. Nair, the person from the Human resource department to begin.
“Begin what” that was the mental expression in the minds of most of the people in that room. Mr. Nair nodded in the affirmative and proceeded forward to turn on the laptop and the LCD.
Just before the pictures began to get displayed the Chairman, Mr. Patel requested to speak a few words and then addressed the people who were seated in the room.
“Dear colleagues, I am aware with what expectations you have come for this meeting, especially my colleagues from the sales team! I want to show you something through a ‘video’. In that ten-minute video the major achievements accomplished by the Sales team from the previous six months were displayed in great detail.
After the completion of the video a series of pictures were also displayed and these were about the numerous celebrations after the same sales team had ‘Over- achieved’ their expected targets.
And finally another small video clip was shown to the entire audience about the time when the same sales team was adjudged as the best team across all the sales teams from various organizations through the entire region of Fiji!
As the video ended the Chairman began addressing specifically the
Sales team. “WE ARE EXTREMELY PROUD OF OUR SALES TEAM and WE BELIEVE IN YOU”.
Some of the members of the Sales team including the Head of Sales were literally moved to tears! They never expected the final words from the Chairman where he expressed his belief in them despite the present failures!
Rather than getting reprimanded and humiliated by the senior management something totally different had happened.
They were rather reminded, through photographs and video clips of what they had accomplished in the past. They were reminded of their amazing potential and positive abilities!
Spontaneously everyone stood up and gave the sales team a rousing applause. When the vibrations of their passionate claps had pleasantly faded the Chairman continued. “Dear colleagues, I have always believed that our sales team is a special one and have proved that they are amazing in their attitude toward achieving their targets passionately.
I know that this sales result for this month was extremely poor and much below the expectations.
I got to understand from the other colleagues of mine that the entire team has been completely demoralized and stressed by their performance or rather the lack of it.
Even the other departments and functions in the organization seemed to have become disappointed with the Sales Team.
Having said this I wish to tell everyone that I firmly believe in them because I have seen their intensity and inspiration with which they have always worked in the past.
Hence, rather than giving them a scolding and harsh words I thought it better to show them what they have achieved in the past and can accomplish in the future.
I wanted to “MOTIVATE BY ACTIVATING THEIR MEMORIES’ about their capabilities and competencies with which they can RE- FOCUS upon the future targets!
It could have been very easy for me to criticize the Sales team and humiliate them about dismal failure but that would have become detrimental and negative to their morale and motivation. Scolding them was never the right way to deal with their failure.
What I believe in is that Positive Memories can act as extremely Practical Motivators for future performance. After this meeting I will be interacting with each one of the sales people and together we will work out a positive and proactive sales strategy.
As I conclude this meeting I want each one of you to remember something important. Crying over spilled milk is probably easy and justifiable; but wiping the floor quickly and then finding ways for the milk not to be spilled again in the future is much more important” saying this he along with the Mr. Vakoo left the room. Everyone had learnt something wonderful...‘MEMORIES CAN MOTIVATE!