Motivation is a potent force that propels both individuals and teams toward success in the business realm. In this week's episode of the "I Hate Numbers" podcast, we delve into four crucial aspects related to motivation.

What Exactly is Motivation?

At its core, motivation is the dynamic spark that ignites action and, moreover, propels us, as individuals and a team, towards our goals. Picture it as the fuel energizing the engine of our business, thereby keeping us enthusiastic, focused, and relentless in the face of challenges

The Importance of Motivation in Business

The significance of motivation in business cannot be overstated. Notably, it enhances productivity and spawns innovation, driving teams to unearth fresh ideas that invigorate the business landscape.

Types of Motivation: Intrinsic and Extrinsic

Within the realm of motivation, two pivotal types come to light: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is an internal force that stems from passion and personal values. On the flip side, extrinsic motivation is driven by external factors like recognition and financial incentives.

Cultivating and Sustaining Business Motivation

Maintaining motivation requires a deliberate approach. We kickstart the process by setting crystal-clear, shared, and attainable goals. Additionally, connecting with our business purpose and breaking down goals into micro-steps helps us navigate the journey effectively.

Embrace Goals and Purpose

Ensuring our goals are distinct, achievable, and moreover, shared with our team sets a solid foundation for sustained motivation.

The Intrinsic and Extrinsic Balance

Striking a harmonious balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation maximizes our potential and therefore spurs us toward accomplishment.

Celebrate Progress

Micro-achievements, whether financial milestones or personal victories, merit acknowledgement to fuel ongoing motivation.

Cultivating a Positive Mindset

Embracing positivity while recognizing occasional negativity empowers us to maintain a balanced outlook and stride forward resiliently.

The Power of Continual Learning

Our enthusiasm flourishes when we actively pursue new skills and knowledge, fostering an environment of growth.

Conclusion

In essence, motivation serves as the bedrock of our business journey. By setting precise goals, cultivating a positive mindset, and nurturing a culture of perpetual learning, we channel motivation's force to achieve our entrepreneurial aspirations.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and share it with fellow entrepreneurs. Until next week, remember that motivation is the key to realizing your ambitions.

Motivation is a powerful and vital ingredient for you and your team to possess if you're going to be successful in your business. In this week's I Hate Numbers Podcast,I'm going to be looking at four aspects to do with motivation. Firstly, what it actually is, secondly, why it's so important for you and your team to have that in your business.

Thirdly, the different types of motivation and there are two types. Yes. There are two types of motivation folks, and lastly, how to get and keep motivated in your business.

You are listening to the I Hate Numbers Podcast with Mahmood Reza. The I Hate Numbers podcast mission is to help your business survive and thrive by you better understanding and connecting with your numbers. Number love and care is what it's about. Tune in every week. Now, here's your host, Mahmood Reza.

Hi folks. My name is Mahmood. I'm a business finance fixer and owner of the firm I Hate Numbers, Numbers KnowHow, For over 28 years I've been helping business owners like yourself make more money. Who doesn't love that? Increase their financial understanding, reduce stress, anxiety and that tax bill. What's not to love about that?

Let's crack on with this week's podcast now. This is episode 182 of I Hate Numbers. I'm really looking forward to this week's episode. Now, firstly, what actually is motivation, just like that elephant that we can recognise and see describing it is slightly more convoluted. Well, motivation at its simplest,

is that inner spark that keeps you and your team moving, driving towards taking action to ultimately achieving the goals that you've set yourself. Whatever your Northern Star has been set as, that's motivation that helps you get there. Think of it as the fuel that powers your business engine and what keeps you excited, keeps you focused and determined even when challenges arise and are thrown at you and coming in all different directions.

So why is motivation such an important ingredient in your business? Well, there are many reasons for it. Number one, productivity is a plus point. Motivation boosts your productivity, increases your drive, and that of your team to get things done in a more efficient way. Innovation is a spinoff for motivation. Motivated individuals, those who are inspired more to get to that end goal

come up with fresh ideas to improve your business. Resilience is another byproduct when things are challenging, when that landscape ahead looks pretty choppy and uncertain, motivation is what pushes you through to overcome those obstacles that are put in front of you. In addition, a nice positive culture and atmosphere is created and motivated

teams, as has been studied, work together better, and you get a much more productive and positive work environment, which others want to be part of. Also, motivation will lead you to that path of success. Goals are much more achievable when you have a motivated team and yourself as the leader to drive yourself towards reaching that.

Now, I said at the beginning of the podcast, there are two types of motivation. And those two types are called intrinsic and extrinsic. Bit of a mouthful to say. Now, intrinsic is an internal force. It's typically of those self-driven individuals. It's an internal mechanism, and that could be because you have that certain work ethic.

It could be that you are passionate. Passion alone, by the way, does not equal success. It could be you have that internal drive from personal family or cultural circumstances that makes you that way. Whatever that internal clock that internal engine is saying, intrinsic motivation comes from within us.

Now we can foster that. We can create the environment, we can do things to strengthen that, and ultimately intrinsic motivation is a much more powerful motivation force, than extrinsic. Now, what is extrinsic? Motivation by nature is something that's external. So typically if you have financial rewards that will be provided if you achieve certain targets,

if your team are rewarded financially or otherwise, whether it's by recognition or their bank balance is being increased, that's the motivating factor and that will drive them towards achieving those goals. Typically, salespeople who will be given a bonus for achieving sales targets, those sales bonuses are extrinsic motivations.

Now, what does it matter? Now, extrinsic motivating factors like recognition money on the table, rewards, perhaps additional holiday for yourself and your team are effective. But long-term, they don't build that ingrained habit, even though they're very powerful. Studies have found that intrinsic motivation is a much more powerful force.

You can culture it, you can create it, you can build it, and you can develop it. However, both of them are there, and both of them are important. Now, it's worth remembering folks and a topic for another podcast here that financial rewards in themselves aren't the only thing that drives people, that motivates individuals to get where they want to.

And we've covered three elements. We've looked at what motivation is. We've understood why it's so important in your business. We've looked at intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. So how do we get and keep motivated in business? Let's share some practical tips. The first thing you need to make sure you set clear, defined, smart goals.

Those are goals that are achievable for you and your team. That gives you direction and purpose and make sure those goals are shared with your team members as well. Having those goals only in your head serves nobody anything. So make sure your team are well aware of what those goals are. Make sure they've involved themselves, make sure there's clarity there.

What else? Well, you can connect with your purpose. Understand and focus on why you are there in the first place. What is the why that you looking to deliver? What is the why that you're looking to achieve and make sure that's firmly embedded in your consciousness. The odd post-it note here and there, those little self reminders, if that's your thing, can also help reinforce that. Our journeys ahead,

the future of the goals that we're trying to achieve here can be very overwhelming because we see that sometimes as a major task. Break them down into smaller micro steps and therefore a) achieving them becomes much more realistic and b) every time you achieve a small micro goal, it's one further step towards achieving the end objective, and that in itself reinforces your belief that you can achieve that to break them down as a microtask, monitor them, tick them off when you've achieved them, and that gives you a little boost of adrenaline and a bit of a dopamine rush that helps power you forward.

When you do achieve something, either yourself or your team, make sure there's some form of reward that goes on. It could be financial, it could be taking yourself for a walk. It could be treating yourself to go out to the cinema, lunch, whatever that is, recognition itself. Make sure there's some form of reinforcement that what you've achieved, regardless how big that achievement actually is.

What else can we factor in? Well, positive. Now, staying positive is always a recommended thing. Focus on the progress you've made. Don't let those pitfalls where you've not quite achieved what you want to dominate your mindset. Things will go wrong, challenges will arise. That's part and parcel of business life.

What you must not do is to overblow them and extrapolate that, that all that's happening are things going wrong? Things can go wrong. Embrace that. And it's worth noting folks that we as human beings have a range of emotions. So if you're feeling a bit blah and you're feeling not particularly motivated, you just wanna flop, crash out, you don't think you've done very well on that particular day or that particular week, then embrace it.

Allow that to wash over, connect with it. Don't try and push it and not deal with it. And it may be also that you wanna try and break that habit. So if you're feeling a little bit blah, instead of just flopping out, spend two minutes to perhaps go for a walk, read a book, break that habit. But remember, positivity is always a recommended thing, but occasionally it will drift into negativity.

As long as it doesn't dominate your thoughts, that's perfectly fine. Continual learning. You've got to make sure you embrace new knowledge and skills. Keep that enthusiasm going, keep that alive, create that culture of understanding. Create that culture where you and your team can give the best of yourselves.

Let's sum up what we've said so far. Now, motivation is the driving force behind your journey, your business journey. It's what helps propel you forward to ultimately achieve the goals you set yourself out. It plays a major pivotal role, and by setting goals, you stay connected to your purpose. You keep that positive mindset and you can harness the power

of your motivation to achieve your business aspirations. Folks, I hope you found this episode useful. Let me know what you think. I'd obviously love it if you could share that podcast with those of you feel could benefit. Lemme know your thoughts. And until next week, stay motivated, stay focused, and keep reaching for those goals.

We hope you enjoyed this episode and appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show. We hope you got some value. If you did, then we'd love it if you shared the episode. We look forward to you joining us next week for another I Hate Numbers episode.