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How often do you give pep talks to your employees? Do you spend much time preparing beforehand? What sort of things do you say? Is it effective?
I don't do it as often as I probably should- I don't think I'm all that good at it. Whenever I watch the Patriots I wonder how Bellicheck inspires his players to work so hard for the team. I would love to be able to translate that sort of energy to my pep talks.
I'm looking for some inspiration. I have a couple of new guys who are getting bad attitudes, and bad attitudes spread like the plague.

[Stonehenge]

I don't think I have a scheduled time to give pep talks - I just do it on an individual basis, when the need presents itself. Hard to measure objectively, but I think I'm pretty good at it, when I remember to do it. The guys I talk to usually work a lot harder that day, and it lasts for a little while.

Though I was very fortunate to spend time working a few years in a white collar job that invested heavily in teaching management how to be good at managing.

I wish I could tell you what I do - I don't really have a set format. I know that in general I try to set in their minds that the person they need to impress is me. I also try to just lay things flat on the table; things they do well, things that need work. Then I try to give them something to shoot for - raise, promotion, or even something really small. For the big stuff (raise, promo) I won't tell them they are almost there when they aren't, but it seems to me that if you just notice their work, it makes a ton of difference.

Sit a guy down and tell him you are going to give him a certain job to do. Tell him how and why the job is important, and that you are counting on him to get the job done, and done well.

I don't want this to sound like I have all the answers - not even close. There are some guys that just don't respond to that - some are lazy, some are just clock-punchers. But for the ones that you can reach, you can do great things.

This is starting to feel like a stream-of-consiousness post....another thing I thought of - if someone is getting too full of themselves, thinking they are all that and a bag of chips, I'll take them down a few notches. And if they are beating themselves up unnecessarily, I'll bump 'em up a few.

Again, all of this is assuming I notice a problem and have the time to address it. Fortunately, this year I have more time to really manage the people, which is one of the jobs I really enjoy.

[Bill Schwab]

We give talks every Monday at 6:30AM. Doughnuts and tacos are served, along with coffee and soda. Once a month, on Friday, along with passing paychecks, I bring a grille and we cook steak Fajitas that I marinade in garlic and cilantro sauce all night, then we char them using 151 rum and light it.
We also offer rewards incentive programs. Rewards for job referrals, rewards for beatng the amount of budgeted hours in every job they do. rewards for keeping trucks clean.
The motivated employees will find ways to move the unmotivated ones into better attitudes, or they will recoomend we loose them....
I have a stack of applications an inch thick, and a crowd on every corner who we could pull labor from if we had to. No employee or thier attitude is going to wreck this company, nor should it wreck yours.

Site here is my advice from experience. If your two eggs are spoiling, get rid of them right put of the gate. Two bad eggs will soon spoil the whole dozen. If they can be worked with and thier attitude can be changed, then invest the time. No talk, no rally is going to turn a unmotivated person whose attitude is bad.

Find out what it is going to take to motivate these guys...And, they either become better men or they fall victims of unemployment... Simple as that.

[jwholden]

Bill,

Once again, thanks for your participation in the site.

Too often I see new business owners 'motivateing' employees by yelling and trying to make themselves feel superior to their subordinates.

I am always in awe when I see a crew that knows what to do (kind of like the sports term 'moving without the ball'), works as a team and smiling while working. I love to see people who are happy at work!!!

I got pissed off when a former boss gave us the "three guys sitting on their but for 10 minutes is a half hour of wasted time speech." The boss never considered that those same three guys saved him three hours on the job earlier that day. The motivation to work efficiently...punch out earlier so we get paid less or be assigned 'busy work'.