The Starving Artist Syndrome

My research paper is on Hertzberg's Two Factor Theory. It states that there are motivators and hygiene factors that affect the way you work. Motivators decide whether you are satisfied or not satisfied, and hygiene determines whether you are not dissatisfied or dissatisfied. It also talked about all the different scenarios regarding individuals. My favorite was the starving artist syndrome.

Normally, you fall halfway between being satisfied and not dissatisfied - bear with me as it can get a little confusing. In other words, you are motivated by recognition and training and you are happy with the work-system. If you have low hygiene, then your basic needs at work are not being satisfied. This can be the disciplinary system, people you work with, vacation time, salary, etc. If you have low motivation, then you have little recognition or promotion opportunities. Many times, employers will substitute motivators with hygiene factors. It is only a temporary solution because sooner or later, you will begin to become unhappy because you lack motivation.

Sometimes you will sacrifice one factor for the other. Sometimes you will be so motivated that you decide to ignore basic needs. Perhaps you ignore a good work-life balance or you decide to work voluntary overtime because you are trying to get that promotion. Maybe you spend your life painting masterpieces, but you sacrifice your basics needs just to accomplish a finished piece. Hence, the starving artist syndrome - high motivation but low hygiene. Following your dreams to the extreme and one day you might reach a good balance between motivation and hygiene.

You can find out more about Herzberg's Two Factor Theory here:

http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/herzberg/

Negotiating with a Friend

This weekend I had to negotiate with a friend and I pulled up some notes from another class. It was actually some useful material - I hope it can help you in the same way!

Before you negotiate, you may want to consider who you’re negotiating with. Relationships have an impact on the process of negotiation, and it is important to consider the consequences that the negotiation may have on the relationship.
 

Negotiations go sour quickly when there is a bad relationship between the two parties. Imagine how it would be if a poor employee tried to negotiate a raise. Their boss may not even like speaking to bad employees, and he would not want to deal with them longer than necessary. Needless to say, bad relationships could bring about good negotiations. When two parties dislike each other, they may try even harder to out due the other party, especially when these two parties are fighting over a contract with a third party. While it’s unnerving to deal with someone that gets under your skin, it’s important to know that these negotiations occur, and could be used to your advantage. Anyways, if the other party does not like you, what more have you got to lose?
 

When negotiating with a friend, people have two scripts that factor into their personality. One script deals with the previous relationship, and the importance of keeping that relationship. The other script focuses on the negotiation, and the desire to achieve a good outcome.

1. When the first script overcomes the second script, the outcome is usually lessened so that the negotiation adds to the relationship. 

2. When the second script overcomes the first script, the outcome desired outcome should not change.
 

Make sure that you establish some common ground before negotiating with someone close to you. Let them know that it’s “strictly business” if the outcome means a lot to you. Otherwise, the negotiation could come back and hurt the relationship.  

Ryan Howard at the Eagles Game: Good or Bad Idea?

I’m a huge Philadelphia fan and I loved watching football and baseball on Sunday. I’m more of an Eagles fan than a Phillies fan though. I’ve been listening to sports radio out of Philadelphia all day long and people have been calling in to say how upset they were to see Ryan Howard at the Eagles game. I thought it was a great sight to see and it definitely showed the Philly’s support for one another.

On the other side of the argument, Ryan Howard should have been using that time to mentally prepare for the big game. He’s been criticized for having a bad batting average since the post season, and many people are pointing this out as an example. People even joke around that he was flirting with the cheerleaders.

Regardless of the situation this is a relevant topic. What is more effective for the organization? Let’s say you have a very important meeting with a prospective client at the end of the workday. Your partner shows up after a great weekend of watching sports all weekend and hasn’t even looked into the meeting at all. On the other hand, you’ve done your homework and spent all your waking hours putting together a sales pitch. Which way is the better approach? It’s a fun argument and there is no right or wrong answer? Ryan Howard is a key player in the Phillies team and who says he can’t spend his time off cheering for his favorite football team. The excitement from the game could have been the difference between winning or losing on Sunday night. Let me know your thoughts!

See the story from ESPN here.

Making Decisions in Two Seconds or Less

This is a re-post regarding Eiger Dreams and Entrepreneurship. In that post, I discussed an article that talked about entrepreneurship as a disease. You don’t get to choose to be an entrepreneur – it chooses you. I also talked about how a decision made with less information can sometimes be more beneficial than a decision made with a plethora of information. I’m excited to say that I’m reading a book that actually backs this theory up. The book is called Blink and the author is Malcolm Gladwell.  If you don’t know by now, he is one of favorite authors.
 

The book discusses a person’s unconscious thinking; the kind of thinking that takes place without one’s knowing. Gladwell uses a great example. Imagine you’re crossing the road and a truck is about to hit you. You don’t have time to process all the information concerning the situation. In fact, you don’t even have time to think. You make an action before you even know what happened. That’s because you’re brain quickly did numerous calculations and told you to move without you even knowing. That situation is a little bit extreme. Gladwell talks about another experiment where students judge teachers by watching a silent video clip. You can read more about that one in my previous post.
 

Bottom line – we all make decisions everyday that is completely unknown to us. It is possible to harness this knowledge into something useful. You can use it to listen for key indicators, or use it to improve your interviewing. After all, a handshake says a lot about someone.

Google's Next Undertaking

Google is a great company that thrives on innovation and technology. If you've never looked into Google's corporate culture, it is something you should definitely check out. One of the interesting things about the company is that each employee gets to pursue their own special project. The project takes up approximately 20% of the work week and can be completely unrelated from your job function. I wonder if this approach led to Google's next big investment: Offshore Wind Power. At first thought, it doesn't seem to go along with Google's core competencies, but maybe their strengths lie in innovation.

Google will be investing in the development of the Atlantic Wind Connection Project. After everything is said and done, approx $5 billion will be put into the project. Google has always been on the cutting edge of technology and after the BP oil spill disaster, I'm curious to see the return on this investment.  Investing in energy may be the next big success for Google, although it will take a long time to payoff. The project isn't estimated to be finished until 2016. I'll finish the article with a quote from the article that shows just how new this project is:

“The North American wind industry hasn’t had any players involved with the motivation and financial heft to really move this market forward,” Hodges said. “Google could play that role.”

Click here to check out the article.

First Impressions: It Takes Two Seconds....

In class, we talked about stereotypes and I mentioned an article from one of my favorite authors, Malcolm Gladwell. Luckily, this article is featured on his website and you can access it for free. Check it out here. Since this is a lot of reading, I wanted to summarize it for the class.  The basis behind the study: “Nalini Ambady, together with Robert Rosenthal, set out to examine the nonverbal aspects of good teaching.”

They found out the results on judging the teacher’s personality from a video tape was the similiar regardless of how long they watched. The study started with a ten second video, and was shortened down to a two second video. This is significant because it shows how we judge people. Everything past two seconds is irrelevant. We have already made our judgment.  First impressions do matter and it depends on our own personal biases. You could argue if these biases are right or wrong, but the next part in the experiment is best said by Malcolm Gladwell.

“A person watching a two-second silent video clip of a teacher he has never met will reach conclusions about how good that teacher is that are very similar to those of a student who sits in the teacher's class for an entire semester.”

I’ll leave it at that. If this fascinates you as much as it fascinates me, then make a note to read the article. It’s a great conversation topic and its useful information based on real research.

Gladwell, Malcolm. (May 29, 2000). Gladwell.com. In The New-Boy Network. Retrieved Oct 8, 2010, from http://www.gladwell.com/2000/2000_05_29_a_interview.htm

Choosing A Successor - Vick or Kolb?

I was fortunate watch Philadelphia Eagles lose to the Washington Redskins in person. A few questions came to mind during the game, and one actually applies to business. Did Andy Reid properly prepare the Eagles quarterback position for the 2010 season?

Let's examine the facts. Kevin Kolb was Philadelphia's second round draft pick in 2007 and was ready to take over the job as quarterback when Donovan McNabb left the team. Along the way, Philadelphia drafted Michael Vick to play in the wildcat position. Going into the 2010 season, the Eagles had two franchise quarterbacks. Reid made it clear that Kolb was going to be the starting quarterback.

In game one, Kolb gets a concussion and is out for the remainder of the game. Still unable to play week two, Vick takes the stage as the starting quarterback and plays a terrific game. Reid makes the decision to start Vick in week three, and Kolb is forced to sit on the sidelines. In week four, Vick gets a rib injury by fighting through multiple linebackers and is out for the remainder of the game. Due to a holding penalty from the offensive line, the 21 yard gain was negated. Kolb immediately takes over and deals with the situation to the best of his ability.

Instead of focusing so much on the quarterback, it's important to look at all the aspects of the game. Was Reid too focused on his quarterbacks to realize that the offensive line was causing plays to fall apart and put the quarterbacks in danger? How do you fix the problem halfway through the season? 

Corporations face the same issues. What happens when so much faith is put into one CEO, but he/she fails because of circumstances outside of their control? So much change for a company makes it difficult to move forward, and the same could be said for the Philadelphia Eagles. It will be interesting to see how Reid moves forward with the season and to see whether or not Vick will be the starting quarterback when he recovers from his injury. Who will be the true successor to Donovan McNabb?

Here's a video from Forbes describing how to choose a successor based on four key traits.