Deon Barnard

I have received a couple of requests to do an article about success. Is success dependant on hard work or is it all just chance? I spent some time thinking through these concepts and have developed a three colour theory on success. Firstly, we need to be on the same page with our use of the terms ‘Success’, ‘Hard Work’ and ‘Luck’ – all three of these terms have a huge number of applications and meanings. For the purpose of this article, here are the definitions:

Success = Achieving a personal goal to do, have or be something

Hard work = Application of personal energy, effort and time in the sense that it requires some degree of personal sacrifice or exertion.

Luck = Chance or random coincidence outside of your direct personal control, or if you insist – an act of God.

The definition of success here is the critical factor. Bashir, who asked me this question, used the following example: two people with similar backgrounds, with the same education and of the same cultural and language grouping are employed at the same time in a large company. After 5 years one of them has a middle management position and earns double the salary of the other who is still in a clerical position ‘at the bottom of the ladder’. What made the one more successful than the other?

My immediate question to Bashir is, “Who are we assuming to be the more ’successful’ of the two?” to which Bashir might reply, “Huh? The first of course! The one with the position and the money!!” And that’s exactly the problem with how we see success. If our personal goal is to make a million dollars, we tend to rate the success of everyone around us by that same goal, i.e. Carol hasn’t made a million dollars so she’s not as successful as Bruce. But according to my definition of “Achieving a personal goal”, Carol may be entirely successful at her goal of ironing the laundry for the day, and in Bashir’s example, the middle manager is only ’successful’ in the context of a personal goal that goes something like, “I want to be a manager and earn double my current income in the next five years”. For all we know, the clerical guy might be more successful if his personal goal was to have a simple 8 to 5 job with low responsibility and no take home work so that he could spend more time enjoying his wife and kids.

As you can see, answering the question ‘Is success hard work or luck?’ has a lot to do with what someone is trying to be successful AT. I propose that luck and hard work play different roles depending on the context of success. The rules change depending on what we’re talking about in the same way that Newtonian physics doesn’t seem to apply at a molecular level, for which we use a different set of rules which we call Quantum physics.

I propose three ‘contexts’ for success: The Red Zone, The Blue Zone, and the Twilight Zone.

In the Red Zone our success is entirely dependent on us doing something about it. Unless a bolt of lightning escapes the twilight zone to thwart our attempts at success, we will achieve our goal through at least some sweat and effort. Of course the whole notion of working ’smarter not harder’ can also apply here, but nevertheless, work is required. Examples of achieving Red Zone success are:

• Having a clean home. The dishes aren’t going to wash themselves no matter how lucky you are or how much God loves you.
• Becoming a novelist. You’re going to have to write a book to achieve this, there’s no getting around it.

In the Blue Zone our success is not entirely up to us, but it’s not entirely out of our influence either. In this zone our own efforts tend to improve our probability for success even if they don’t ensure it. Examples include:

• Recovering after a car accident injury. Our own desire to recover and subsequent interventions (hard work) will have a positive effect on the success of our recovery but we cannot determine the ultimate specifics of our recovery. There may be unknown neural or spinal complications outside of our control which have countering effects, thereby ‘lowering’ our chances of success.
• Getting employed. You can go to a job interview and say all the right things and wear the right clothes, but someone else decides if you’re the right candidate for the job. Performing well at the interview will ‘increase your chances’ for success but not guarantee your position.
• Winning the lotto. Even though the probabilities are almost entirely against this, success still requires human intervention in the form of buying a ticket. This is very close to Twilight zone success but still in the blue zone.

In the Twilight zone our success has (seemingly) nothing to do with our own efforts at all. At first glance it would seem that this type of success is entirely random or accidental. Examples include:

• Inheriting a fortune. You didn’t ask for it – you didn’t work for it – you just got born in the right place at the right time.
• Sudden death. You’re Donald Trump about to complete your latest hotel venture and your helicopter crashes to the ground or you’re struck by lightning. Not your choice, but you have to live with it… or die with it in this case.
• You get ‘found’ by a talent scout. There are millions of really beautiful girls in the world but some talent agent travels to Morocco and finds a village girl who he takes back to the US and turns into the world’s next big supermodel. Her beautiful friend is still collecting water from a dusty desert well. Hard work? I think not.

There are any number of theories that attempt to ‘explain’ the results of the twilight zone including God, a universal ‘force’, fate, karma, etc. but for the purposes of this article we will leave these ideas alone, except to agree that things happen to us that we don’t control.

These zones could be represented with two circles, the Red and Twilight zones, intersecting at the blue zone as in the diagram below:

Any personal goal or ambition we have will fall into one of these ‘zones’. Understanding which zone the goal is ‘in’ is important for understanding why we regularly fail or succeed in achieving those goals. For example, someone who constantly feels like a ‘failure’ in their job searching because they have a misplaced belief that they don’t need to ‘do’ anything except ‘wait on God’ might find themselves wondering why they never succeed. Job hunting is a Blue zone activity which becomes more inevitable the more effort/energy is applied to the search. Then again someone might spend days and days doing a rain dance in the Sahara in dry season and wonder why their ‘efforts’ are not being rewarded, i.e. attempting to increase twilight zone success. I will write more on these ideas in future articles.

I want to focus here on the Blue zone – an area that is not unlike a strategic war game, where regular good tactics usually overcome the ups and downs of bad dice rolling. My sense (untested at this point) is that some people are more skilled at understanding the probabilities at play in their success and the ingredients required for managing those probabilities and improving their chances at success. So let’s consider Bashir’s question about the middle manager and the clerk. I will assume that the two people in question had a similar personal goal – to get promoted in the company and earn lots of money – one succeeded and the other ‘failed’. This goal is clearly a Blue zone goal: their success, although not entirely in their own hands, will be influenced by various factors (I’ll use the term ingredients) including attitude, communication skills, work hours, problem solving and other personal sacrifices or efforts by the individuals involved.

Here are some of the ingredients I believe increase the probability of success:

• Perseverance: Often the probabilities increase simply because, in time, the competition moves out or moves on, leaving you in a better position to “fill the gap”. Giving up too soon negates this principle.
• Knowledge: This increases your ability to apply your efforts wisely and play a more tactical war game. Reading and practice are critical here.
• Resources: It goes without saying that many probability reducers go away when you throw a little money at them.
• Self belief: Low self esteem is sure to lower your chances at success. Self belief influences every thought and action of your life.
• Courage: The ability to suppress terror and take action despite fear of loss, rejection, humiliation, conflict etc. is a key ingredient for success.
• Relationships: Developing a strong network of allies will weigh the dice in your favour.
• Communication: You’re more likely to attract the resources and people you need for success if you have good communication skills. People also take you more seriously.

These are just a few ingredients for improving your odds in the Blue zone. Of course all the luck in the world won’t help you if you throw double 1’s, or a bolt of lightning leaves the twilight zone and zaps you, but because we have no control over these mishaps of luck it makes sense to apply your efforts to improving your odds until success becomes inevitable.

My good friend Basil suggested that the Blue zone is where the good stuff happens – the creative stuff – the innovations. I agree with him. I think we’ve all been zapped by a few unexpected ‘acts of god’ in our lives, and when that happens we tend to be scared of going too close to the twilight zone and prefer to scuttle around in the Red zone where things are entirely predictable and ‘risk free’. You may find that your ‘impossible dreams’ are not so improbable when you start applying some of the ingredients I have suggested. Remember, to win the lotto you have to buy a ticket – and although I don’t respect gambling because of the insane odds, I think some of the so called ‘risks’ we’re so afraid to take have very respectable odds when it’s all broken down.

Please send your comments. I’m especially interested to hear what you think are the factors that influence the odds in the Blue zone.

Often obstacles in relationships stem from personality clashes. You may be asking, “Why doesn’t he like me?” or, “What have I done to offend her?” or, “Why does he seem to get along with everyone but me?” It is important to understand that we all approach life and tasks differently, largely based on our personalities (see my introduction to personalities). Cholerics for instance, generally prefer understanding headlines and leaving the details for others to sort out, whereas Melancholics generally feel safer when they have had a chance to plan everything to the smallest detail. If these two people were assigned a task to work on it might be reasonable to assume that they would work well together, one focusing on the general direction and vision casting, and the other wrapping up all the details, but often this is not the case. The project might fall apart because the Choleric communicates in single word ideas, expecting the other person to intuitively understand what needs to be done; and the Melancholic, frustrated with the abrupt and autocratic style of the Choleric becomes critical and depressive. At the same time the Choleric is getting frustrated with the pessimistic view of the Melancholic and the long and intense conversations he’s constantly being requested to have in order to thrash out details. This type of misunderstanding and frustration takes place everywhere, all the time, because:

• People don’t understand personality styles (their own or others)
• People underestimate the role of personalities in relationships
• People aren’t willing to adjust – “I am who I am and people must just accept me the way I am”
• People see other personality styles as ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’ – “If they were just more like me”

So here are a few simple suggestions for improving work relations and effectiveness with each style.

Working with Cholerics

• Don’t walk in with a flip file and 57 points to discuss. This will turn them off immediately. Stick to the main issues and give summarized feedback focusing on the bottom line.
• Don’t mumble, stutter or avoid eye contact. Cholerics respect power. Once they lose respect for you it’ll take a small miracle to win it back. Say what you have to say confidently (and succinctly) then let them get on with stuff.
• Don’t be a rules lawyer. Cholerics make and break rules regularly. They are seldom impressed by someone who constantly points out where they’re breaking rules – rather highlight the consequences of their actions for them and then leave. Remember, the greatest people in the world had to beak rules to make progress.
• Don’t get offended at their lack of emotional warmth or lack of sentimentality. Cholerics seldom recognize the need for warm greetings and small talk, but that doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate you or that they’re in a bad mood. You might have to initiate the, “Good morning!” Often the choleric appreciates this and says something like, “Oh, sorry. Didn’t I greet you?”

Working with Sanguines    

• Silence kills. An absolutely quiet working environment will frustrate and stifle a Sanguine. Sanguines need regular opportunities to communicate and laugh.
• Watch your negativity levels. Sanguines wilt in a negative environment – they hate sitting somewhere where people whisper intense and gloomy messages to each other. To get a good rapport going with a Sanguine, smile a lot and laugh openly.
• Don’t be a bore. Sanguines want to have fun. Introduce fun and play into your dealings with Sanguines. To achieve this you might want to use music, team building events, Friday casual day etc
• Give them a stage to shine on! Sanguines love to be noticed and appreciated, so give them roles and tasks where this can happen. Let the Sanguine give an announcement at a meeting or sell an idea to a group of people.

Working with Melancholics

• Appreciate and respect their personal space. Unlike many Sanguines, Melancholics prefer to keep to themselves and get on with their work. They often feel threatened and anxious when people invade their personal space, physically or otherwise, and interfere with their work.
• Give them details. Melancholics are not effective or productive when they only have vague headlines and generalities to work with. They want to know who must do something; where; by when; with what; in which manner; etc. This must be communicated verbally or in written form.
• Stick to the agenda. Melancholics are not prone to wandering off the topic in an attempt at humor or some other such distraction. Stick to the facts and avoid generalizations and exaggerations.
• Remember your manners. Melancholics live by rules, traditions and doing the ‘proper’ thing. You won’t make many Melancholic friends by forgetting to say please or thank you, or by raising your voice or any other abusive coercion.

Working with Phlegmatics

• Be sincere. Phlegmatics mistrust loud, opinionated people. Quiet down, look them in the eyes and show them that you have their interests at heart.
• Be gentle. Phlegmatics will open up to people who are tender and kind, and even then it may take a long time to trust you enough to really share openly.
• Give them a sense of security. Phlegmatics thrive in a secure and constant environment. A change of role or even moving their desk can be deeply unsettling.
• Be concerned about their personal life. It is not unusual to find little framed photos of their kids, dogs or other beloved things surrounding their work space. Phlegmatics are sentimental by nature and appreciate it when someone asks about the health of their kids etc. Just remember that they know when the question is sincere and when it’s not.

You might be saying, “But what you’re asking me to do for these people goes directly against my own personality style,” and that’s the whole point. It is because it is so difficult to adjust to the personalities of those around us that we need to be constantly reminded of these simple things; after all, if we expect people to adjust to us then surely we need to return the favor.

Managers have the difficult task of promoting the company’s agenda while at the same time caring for the personal needs of their staff. They have to get the most productivity out of employees, for the company to earn more profits, and yet at the same time see that staff are treated fairly and are personally fulfilled at work. The ‘company’ as an entity has no emotional capacity or people skills – it exists for the purpose of making profits – or at least that’s how it’s been for a hundred years; however, more and more in recent times there is a move toward a new philosophy where people, communities and Earth itself are all equally important shareholders in the company, and the board of directors are not a pantheon of Gods anymore. The old-school manipulative techniques of “you’re fired” and “don’t challenge me – I pay your salary” don’t fly anymore; in fact you’re likely to get hauled over the coals at the CCMA (Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration) for even thinking about being so stupid. In short, the world is evolving and so must managers, supervisors, team leaders, directors and bosses. We need to understand how to get the best out of our people before we’re going to get the best out of our company. We need to start paying attention and caring.

Motivating employees is not the job of the “HR guy” or the external therapist; it’s not even the job of the manager or team leader – it’s everyone’s job. As we all start applying motivational principles at work, the motivational water table is raised and everyone benefits. Here are some tips for raising the motivational level at your workplace:

1. Have a regular “Barrel” session.

This is something I picked up from my ministry days, although few churches ever used it effectively. Imagine a wooden barrel made of staves and held together by metal bands. Imagine that some staves are short and others long, i.e. the top of the barrel is irregular. Now imagine pouring water into that barrel. If you continue to keep pouring water, after a while the water will overflow – at the shortest stave. No matter how much you keep pouring, the water level in the Barrel will never be higher than the shortest stave. Imagine the staves are critical success factors for your business and the water is the success (profits included). Have a weekly Barrel session with your team to “score” each stave of your business and then focus on improving the shortest stave – in this way you will raise the success level of your business. Let everyone get involved in the process, from the lowly receptionist to the uber-exec. Motivation starts by making people feel they’re included. PS: If you’re not sure where to start with this let me come and facilitate your first session.

2. Colorize your environment.

Nobody wants to work in a sterile, grey institution. Bring some life into the place with plants, paintings (not those sickening ‘motivational’ posters) and interesting furniture. Also, do a survey on what your employees think about their uniforms! Some corporate attire is worse than Afrikaans school uniforms. Get someone in who understands fashion and give your staff options for looking reasonable and professional at the same time. Funk up your corporate logo too.

3. Get rid of dumb incentive schemes

Incentive schemes that have your employees working twice as hard for an extra R100 at the end of the month will cause enormous dissatisfaction. Don’t link your performance management systems to financial incentives because all you’ll get in your performance interviews is everyone lying about how they’ve performed. Nobody is going to tell you what’s going wrong if they think it will impact their salary. Implement a performance management system that focuses on self development and the achieving of personal dreams, with an emphasis on coaching, and watch employee attitudes improve!

4. Communicate!

Talk to your people. Start the day with a focus session and deal with concerns as they arise. Deal with difficult situations one-on-one. If you have expectations then communicate them – only Stone Age managers think “they should know how to do that, it’s just common sense”.

5. Administrate your motivational plan properly

Many businesses administrate the more technical HR elements like salary, leave, employment records etc; but they don’t keep track of the stuff that really counts like your employees’ dreams and personal development. Managers should know where their people are ‘at’ and during regular coaching sessions should be monitoring the personal progress of each employee in their care. Keep secure records for this and please abide by the prevailing personal information security laws and standards.

6. Put the right people in the right places

Many people seem rebellious and contrary at work simply because they’re doing something that doesn’t fulfill them or suit their personality style. It is critical to get a sense of your employees’ GHAPE (gifts, heartbeat, abilities, personality and experience). In this way you will be able to assess whether you have a noisy extrovert dying behind piles of data capturing or a shy perfectionist trying in vain to motivate your sales force. PS: I can help you with this too!

I would love to hear stories of your motivational journey at work. What’s working for you? What’s de-motivating your staff? The more feedback I get the more useful I can be in my upcoming articles.

The power that drives any successful group, team or effort is motivation. I call it the “M” factor. I’ve seen, over and over again, skilled and professional teams of people fail at their tasks because of a lack of motivation. All the other factors may be in place: financial know-how; academic qualifications; physical capacity; resources; a worthy cause… but when the most important factor is missing (motivation), it all fizzles out into frustration and failure.

In this article I want to introduce the “M” factor by describing what motivation is and what motivation is not. This will be the first in the “M” factor series and the articles that follow will be practical guides as to how to introduce the “M” factor into different types of groups and circumstances. So let’s start with:

Understanding your motivational generator

There are many academic theories on what human motivation is and how it works. Two popular theories are Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and Hertzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene theory. I particularly enjoy Hertzberg’s theory because it separates the factors that simply prevent dissatisfaction from those that truly motivate with long term effect. We’ll look at some of these when we discuss what motivation is not. I see motivation as a combination of faith and hope. It is that invisible voice that speaks to our depression and fear and says, “get up; get going; you’ll be OK; you can do this; this is going to be great!” Without this we are defenseless, we are overcome by anxiety and the instinct to give up, hide or run away. When we are motivated we have energy, strength and endurance. When motivated, men can overcome: adverse conditions; unpleasant bosses; impossible tasks; ill-health; and even great personal loss or trauma. Imagine if you will that motivation is a generator in your soul. For most people this generator’s power switch is off by default. For others, intermittent access to the correct kind of fuel has the generator powering on and off throughout the day, not unlike a typical hotel in Lagos. For a few people the generator is on all the time and they know just where to find the fuel to keep it going. The fuel is the “M” factor!

Let’s discuss this fuel for a minute. Maslow says that if you’re hungry you will be motivated by food (on the bottom, physiological layer of his pyramid). Your need to survive is the fuel that motivates you to get up and do something about it. This kind of fuel is not long lasting though, and the moment you eat something you are no longer motivated in the same way to do what you have to do to survive… until you get hungry enough again. The higher you go up Maslow’s pyramid the longer-lasting the fuel for motivation. At the top of his pyramid is the self actualization segment which involves things like: vitality; self-sufficiency; meaningfulness; creativity and authenticity. You will notice that these factors have nothing to do with money, possessions, fast cars or fancy clothes. What people are looking for (in all the wrong places) is to achieve a sense of being happy and at peace with themselves. If Maslow is correct then achieving this goal may require first working with the fuel to be found in the lower segments of the pyramid like: a sense of being safe; feeling loved; sexual fulfillment; feeling important; recognition; and a sense of achievement – again, notice that I’m not talking about money and possessions here. When you understand how to access this fuel for your own generator and to use it to refill the generators of others you will be mastering the art of motivation.

What motivation is NOT

Motivation is not keeping people happy and submissive so that they refrain from grumbling or disagreeing with you – this is easy to do through trinkets, discipline, fear and manipulation, which are very short term motivators and in the long term have the opposite effect. They are also not giving people things they ought to have already for the purpose of coercing them into action – these are what Hertzberg calls ‘hygiene factors’ or ‘factors which may prevent dissatisfaction’. I see too many managers and leaders trying to motivate their staff or teams using hygiene factors instead of true motivation. Here are some hygiene factors that do not motivate, but may cause dissatisfaction if not present:

• Salary
• Bonuses
• Good working conditions (lighting, heating etc)
• Policy and procedures
• Resources to accomplish the job
• Relationship with boss
• Supervision

These factors are not fuel for the motivational generator. I might say to you, “Joe, if you meet all your targets today I’ll increase your salary”. This may ‘motivate’ you to achieve some short term goals, but how long will that motivation last? Until you’ve spent your increase and the novelty wears off! After that you may ask yourself, “Why should I do anything for this company? They never pay me enough, even when I meet all the targets”. Your well meaning financial incentive may end up having precisely the opposite effect. Effectively you’re using jumper cables to kick start someone else’s generator, but the moment you remove your cables, their generator, which is running on empty, splutters to a grinding halt.

Many people use negative motivators to try and achieve a positive result. I see this everywhere, but particularly with parents and their children. “If my child is scared of me she’ll do what she’s supposed to do”. “The more I beat my child the more ‘motivated’ he’ll be to obey next time”. “The louder I scream the more my child listens to me!” So dear parent… how’s that working out for you? You’re just creating rebellious children, and if it hasn’t started manifesting outwardly yet, believe me it’s happening on the inside and one day you’re going to regret the monster you’ve created.

So what IS motivation?

First, it’s important to understand that motivation is personal and different for every individual. Our generators are not all the same model or size and they don’t all require the same fuel to run. Our individual capacity for motivation is influenced by many factors. In some ways Maslow is correct in that a hungry person will probably not be as motivated for philosophical conversation as someone who has everything they need. So it is critical to understand needs – your own, as well as those you want to motivate. However, having said that, my experience has led me to believe that everyone can be motivated by self fulfillment, even the hungry, if they understand what that self fulfillment looks like and get a taste of what it feels like.

The secret to motivation is tapping into the dream – the dream of the individual. Every person’s dream is unique, and although it is possible to get people motivated for a dream that is not their own, it is more powerful and beneficial to link your motivational efforts to each person’s own dream. The reason so few people are self motivated is because so many of them have no idea what their dream is. Many have never even considered the concept; they simply live their lives according to the expectations of the rich or powerful around them. They have become victims of circumstance and don’t know what to do about it. I have asked many people to describe their dream for me only to get answers like: “I want to be happy” or “I want lots of money” or “I want to get out of this job”. When I ask: “what will make you happy?” or “what will you do with your money?” or “what do you want to do instead of this job?” I get blank expressions. This is the hunger speaking; the loneliness; the lack that Maslow identifies at the bottom of his pyramid.

In my exercise “the Dream Walk”, I help people uncover their personal dream for their future. They literally draw the dream on a piece of paper and then we discuss what needs to change for them to achieve that dream and what will potentially prevent them from achieving it. When we understand people’s dreams we understand what they’re ‘about’ and we have clues about what will really motivate them. That means that to be ‘motivational’ you have to genuinely care about people and their needs and their lives; and to motivate yourself you have to start by understanding your own dream and what it’s going to take to get you there.

In the other “M” Factor articles I will specifically deal with motivating yourself, your kids, your colleagues, your friends and how to be motivational as a trainer, coach or speaker.

Watch this space!