A Teacher's Drive to Student Motivation

I'm still trying to uncover the secrets to motivation with my students.  My management & leadership class is a new prep for me this semester.  I've taken the old curriculum which includes units on personal management using the 7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens and units on management functions, leadership, communication, case studies and ethics.  This year I decided to launch a student-run business out of the class so we are using  Market Day for the business model because there's no inventory and customers can purchase product online which makes it a turn-key business for us.  I could provide anyone with more details and pro/cons of using Market Day but my focus here is the journey of discovering what motivates my students.

Last semester we had issues of lack of motivation primarily because students didn't feel connected to the cause.  For me, I thought the learning opportunity and the experience they gain to put on their resume was the big BLING for doing Market Day at all.  The students got to make decisions on marketing, customer service and gain real life experience - how much better can it get.  LEARNING BY DOING.  But there were a lot of other things that played into it.  Students wanted to make money themselves....I could go off on a tangent of the teen generation but that's really for another blog post.  So despite my talks with my students about the rewards of their hard work, they really didn't seem to care.  I've been reading Daniel Pink's book, Drive and I'm seeing now some problems that I did first semester - mainly the carrot and the stick.  I offered prizes and incentives but in the end it was just a short term band-aid for the problem. And by the end of the semester the hardworking motivated students where so discouraged by the other half of students, everyone gave up.

One month into second semester:  Here's my REFLECTION: 

• The start of the semester is to jam packed with the 7 Habits Sean Covey book and starting the student-run business
• I need to reevaluate using the Sean Covey book.  Some of the students feel that it is common sense and the stories are for a younger audience.  CONSIDER USING THE STEVEN COVEY BOOK OR LETTING STUDENTS PICK A SELF-MANAGEMENT BOOK OF THEIR CHOICE.
• Business organization charts includes a student President, and managers that run two marketing departments, an operations department and a finance department. 
• NEW: The student president has been a great addition to the org chart this semester.  David is helping provide valuable feedback and help the group stay organized.
• NEW: Rotating managers every 2-3 weeks versus every month. 
• Each month each student will do a reflection on the business - what worked, what didn't, how to improve, what did they learn.
• NEW: after the manager is done with their rotation they will do a reflection paper as well.
• NEW: When students are discouraged about lack of motivation I am explaining the Team goals and not emphasizing short term "carrot and stick" incentives and explaining why.
• NEW: We've spent a class preparing a one-month department plan including their goals.  The next class they work on executing the plan.  Students seemed to have more direction and motivation in completing their goals.
• NEW: Incorporated manager meetings to help with planning and to help provide managers with experience and opportunities to discuss concerns.  This gives me the opportunity to have those teachable moments and discuss concepts of motivation

To address one of my reflections above, do you have a book you would recommend relating to management, self-management, leadership or motivation that would be engaging for high school students?

Recognition - it works!

I've always been motivated to work hard simply for someone to tell me I'm doing a good job.  It probably started when I was young, being the youngest of three girls.  I worked hard and did "good" to get positive responses from my parents all the in the quest for fighting for attention in a house of three kids.  I wanted them to be proud.  So something as simple as getting my report card posted on the refrigerator was very motivating for me.  Recognition.

It's funny how I forgot this simple secret to motivation - Recognition.  I actually was telling my students when I worked for the Daily Herald as an advertising sales executive.  I was motivated each month to reach my sales goal not just because I wanted to make money but especially because I wanted to get my name on a certificate which would be posted on the bulletin board in the office of all reps that reach their sales goal for that month - Recognition!  I even told my students how I even want recognition from my husband.  When I clean the house all I want is for my husband to come home, see it, appreciate it and say "wow, the house looks great." - Recognition.

So after last weeks blog post about how I was struggling with motivating a group of students, I thought more about it and discussed with with my Market Day rep.  We launched Market Day this year as a student-run business, which is a monthly grocery purchase program.  The Market Day district manager proposed a sales incentive to my high school students - increase sales and win a food party for our class. Where the kids motivated? NO.  I was disappointed.  They said they already work during class time and they don't think it would make them go "above and beyond."  I even asked - does it hurt to take the challenge?  Would you rather have a pizza party or no pizza party at all?  Its a no-lose situation.  One student even called it a "bribe." And of coarse I explained, especially from doing sales for eight years prior to teaching - its not a bribe.  It's called "incentives."  So anyway - food was not all that motivating to high school students.  The district manager pitched another idea to them - hit your sales goal (increase from 34 customers to 54 customers which is only 2 more customers per student in my class) and the district manager would place an ad in the student newspaper congratulating the class (and listing their names).  The light switched on!  The students loved it.  They wanted the recognition.  So I pitched another idea to them - I'd get them company t-shirts that said on the front Management Class / Market Day and on the back FUTURE BUSINESS LEADERS.  Again - they liked it - recognition.

So how have you been recognized that lead to motivation?  Or how were you motivated to get recognized?  Share your experiences with us.

REFLECTION - People are motivated by recognition.  Here's some ideas to recognize people:

• I always try to thank people for their hard work - a little thank you goes along way.  So send a quick email or make a phone call - it works.
• Awards, honors, announcements  - try bulletin boards, announcing at the end of class who did the best project, awards ceremonies, announce at the holiday party all the employees that got promoted over the year
• Let workers leave work an hour early for their hard work
• Create a "Fun Friday" at work or in the classroom.
• Tell your spouse/partner what you love about them

RECOGNIZE WHAT YOU THINK IS GREAT and SHOW PEOPLE YOU APPRECIATE THEM

What's in it for me? Personal interest = more motivation

What's in it for me?  What do I get if I do this?  Why work hard?  Why should I care?



Photo by Jorbasa, from Flickr Creative Commons



Oh, I have heard things like this all the time or at least I've felt it from people.  I'm finding if people have a personal interest (positive reason) or something at stake (negative reason) motivation increases. Take bees for example!  They work so hard to just to get nectur from a flower and store it in their "honeystomachs." They have to visit anywhere from 100 to 1500 flowers to fill their tummys only to then have the worker bees get involved to turn it into honey.  Thats a lot of work!  But they have a goal, a personal interest and guess what - it produces results!

 

So let's take a look at a few more examples of positive and negative things that drive motivation:

• Money- commission for sales goals, allowances for children
• Grades- the harder you work, the better your grade
• Charity - a personal cause that has affected you or your family member
• Non-tenured teachers- fight for keep enrollment numbers so they don't loose their jobs
• Loss of privilege- Bad report from school leads to parents taking away rewards
• Rewards - you behave, you get XYZ (My nephews got to sleep at Papa's house)

The sad thing is that on the opposite side of this. What happens when they don't care about grades?  Or Charity?  Or have a passion for learning?  I'm struggling with this in my classroom lately.   I hear that the class is "to hard, to much work" or I hear "I'm not learning enough."  Then I have another class, Management, where I'm having them manage and run a business.  I've given them more opportunities than I can count to come up with ideas of motivational rewards we could incorporate into class and choices on how to run the business and projects they'd like to do in class. Yet, I feel like I'm putting in so much energy to motivate and nothing is sparking the fire in them.  So I've come to realize that they are not personally vested.  But how do you get all your staff personally vested? Everyone has their own inner-beliefs and opinions.  So while I am trying several different strategies to reach everyone, I guess I'm still thinking there needs to be a simpler way of motivating a group of people.  Anyone have ideas or suggestions?  How do you spark a fire in a group of people when everyone has different motivators?

REFLECTION

• If you have a personal interest or something at stake - it motivates!
• Then - How do you motivate a group of people with different motivators?