Effective Ways to Stay Motivated at Work

As news of the Culture Alignment program went through the organisation like wild fire, it was filled with mixed reviews. Some wanted to be left alone while others felt they were open to seeing what the NLP courses were about.
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Valerie, Head of Legal was filled with trepidation. She had steered clear of such courses all her life, completely turned off by hype and motivational speakers. She was in the Leadership Team though and this time she thought, not much chance of dodging this one.

As news of the Culture Alignment program went through the organisation like wild fire, it was filled with mixed reviews. Some wanted to be left alone while others felt they were open to seeing what the NLP courses were about.


Valerie, Head of Legal was filled with trepidation. She had steered clear of such courses all her life, completely turned off by hype and motivational speakers. She was in the Leadership Team though and this time she thought, not much chance of dodging this one.


Trevor Head of HR was doing a lunch briefing for the C-suite. She had to attend. See what was brewing. Her colleagues were more eager than she was. Her body felt heavy. How much of herself would she have to reveal. She hated feeling vulnerable with colleagues. She was far more comfortable with family and friends.   
The dreaded day for Valerie arrived. The briefing was to be held in the Board Room and a cut lunch was served. David the CEO was there too so she knew with buy-in from the top there was no escaping. Might as well bite the bullet and relent.
Trevor began with an introduction to NLP (an acronym for Neuro-linguistic Programming). He explained it was a word often associated with motivation but was far more than that. NLP worked through filters of an individual’s mind to have them transform in work and life.
As the organisation embarked on a Culture Alignment program, motivation would be unleashed in each employee. Synonymous with values, the very reason we got up every morning and did what we did. It never occurred to Valerie that values got her out of bed daily.


Trevor continued. When individuals knew their values and compared them to the organisation’s values, they would discover their alignment with the organisation. Valerie thought that made intuitive sense. It was also interesting to note that values drove behaviour. “This was starting to be engaging” Valerie thought to herself.
As a teaser Trevor’s idea was to pick one topic that would convince everyone around the table. If they could see how their lives could change as leaders of the organisation, how they could work together and how results could be achieved effortlessly, this would be a good start.


Trevor went on to explain we could either be motivated towards what we wanted or away from what we didn’t want. When a person was fulfilling their values, they stayed motivated and displayed high performance. As a team leader, his was a sure-fire way to identify team members who were dragging their feet. The arrow pointed straight to the fact that the role was not fulfilling that member’s values.
This was how motivation was addressed head-on in NLP, via the unconscious mind. Flushing out values to the surface, gave individuals a definite advantage. People who did not know their values were living life aimlessly with no direction.
Lunch was served. Yummy sandwiches from the patisserie downstairs. So many varieties that were delicious too and great coffee. David asked for an example to gain greater clarity.


“If we take the value of prosperity for instance” Trevor went on, “an individual maybe motivated to work hard to achieve this value as he wants to buy a house, travel the world and provide for his family. This is someone who is motivated towards what he wants. He would find it easy to stay motivated at work.”


“On the other hand, someone who is motivated “away from” prosperity, would be structured very differently internally. They would display signs of stress and anxiety at work. Surprised?” Trevor asked. He could see everyone around the table deeply engaged.    


“Well their motivation is to run away from “not being poor” quite opposite to the person who is motivated “towards” being prosperous. In NLP terms, this person is creating their pictures, sounds and feelings as poor rather than prosperous.”