There are three members posts pertaining to this discussion question asked below...could you come up with a thoughtful, well supported response for each member discussion. They only need to be about half of a page to one page in length for each one. And cite references in support agreements of or arguments. Expand upon the original point or provide an outside source that illustrates it. You can always disagree as well [as long as it is done in a respectful manner]. Provide a counterpoint or outside source to refute the original comment. Discussion question asked: What motivates you? Share a work experience that you had that was truly motivating to you, and why. Share a work experience that was not motivating to you and discuss how it could have been handled differently so that it might have motivated you. YOUR POST TO DISCUSSION question: People have different sources of motivation, mine is in customer satisfaction. Noting satisfies me more than a happy and satisfied customer. While I have had various experiences of which many have been highly motivating for me whereas some were also not as motivating and left me disappointed. Customer service is a key ingredient of success in the retail sector. When someone is working in retail he or she knows that much depends on customer satisfaction. Sales, profits as well as reputation are dependent on the level of customer service provided by a company. Being able to handle customer complaints successfully motivates me and I am always ready to go the extra mile for the sake of a customer's satisfaction. It was not long ago when a customer had made a very large order at our bakery department and due to some reason the order he had made could not be ready by the deadline we had given. While our manager was furious and the whole team was in a state of dismay because of not being able to fulfil the order, I was thinking of ways that somehow the damage could be minimized. I had to find a way to fix things and I was reminded of a quote by Donald Porter. \"Customers don't expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong\" (Walter, 2014). A large part of the order could be fulfilled but still a sizable part of the whole order could not be. As a result I got looking for the other options available. Finally, it was on me to somehow convince the customer to use the other options we could provide in time. I approached the customer and politely expressed our concern mentioning that we were going to charge nothing for the options we were going to offer for the unfulfilled part of the order. After some persuasion and convincing he agreed and we were able to finally retain a valuable customer. Experiences which are challenging generally motivate me. This experience left me as well as the customer satisfied. The customer was happy that the company valued him. Another similar experience left me deeply disappointed where after much pleading and requesting I and my team were unable to persuade him. A few small items in his order were missing and as a result the customer grew furious and decided to cancel the entire order. It had happened due to the mistake of one of my teammates. However, it was not a major error and only a few items were missing from the order but the customer was really difficult to please and did not accept any of our offers. As a result the entire order had to be cancelled and me and my team were deeply disappointed. There is nothing more demotivating than a difficult to manage customer. Yet, despite such experiences I have had my pleasant share of experiences with customer service and have served a very high number of satisfied customers which motivates me to work with dedication. References: Walter, E. (2014). 40 Eye-Opening Customer Service Quotes. In Forbes. Retrieved June 26, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2014/03/04/40eye-opening-customer-service-quotes/ MEMBER #1's POST TO SAME DISCUSION:Eg My personal motivation is directly related to my childhood. I'm sure everyone has horror stories from their past that either motivate them to do better, or they use as an excuse to feel sorry for themselves. I'm not going to go into all the details of it, but can pretty much sum it up by saying that we were not financially well off. Shopping for new school clothes consisted of going to the spare room and digging through garbage bags of clothes that people had donated to our family. I can remember my father having to wait for a decent coat or pair of gloves to keep him warm because there were bills that needed to be paid and for my parents that was a priority. In seeing their struggles to make ends meet; it made me motivated to find a way to be financially secure for myself, my husband and children, and my parents and siblings. It is a very good feeling to know that when the bills come due, they can be paid immediately and that we are still able to be comfortable. I'm not rich by any means. I've worked very hard to ensure that there is a cushion between me and debt collectors. If my family needs something, being able to lend a helping hand makes me feel good, and is what keeps me motivated on a personal level. The desire to be helpful is also tied to an event at work that was very motivating. To this day I'm not sure who, or what they said about me, but when I became aware I was nominated, and reviewed the criteria to be nominated for the Women of Distinction award. It was a very motivational moment in my career. This is a link to information about the award http://www.nysenate.gov/webform/2015-womandistinction-0 this is a statewide initiative, and although I did not receive the award that year the thought that someone thought enough of my work and my passion to do a good job for the people that we serve and nominated me was humbling. It continues to motivate me to strive to do my best because when you least expect it you can find out that some people are actually noticing your efforts, and believe you are making a difference. Unfortunately making an effort does not always result in making a difference. In the department that I work in we have a staff that continuously makes errors, wastes time, and summarily makes more work for the rest of the staff. In an effort to fix the issue, many hours of time and effort have gone into retraining, writing detailed policies, documenting errors, counseling the employee, and nothing corrects it. Not to mention the hours of time that this issue has taken away from being able to accomplish the work that needs to be done. We are a state agency and therefore staff discipline involves union representation and as far as I can tell unless you get physical with a staff or individual served you can be incompetent of doing your job, and continue to reap the rewards. This experience often causes me to question my motivation, and then I realize that its staff like that which makes it even more important that I do my job well. The individuals served need me to continue my efforts to correct the situation, so that the errors don't continue and the information they may need someday can be located. The fact that there is extensive documentation about the issues, and this staffs own admittance of not being able to perform the tasks related to their job duties should have been enough that something could have been done to alleviate the issue. If upper management had made any efforts to resolve the issue, or I could see a tangible result from the efforts put forth it would help to keep me a lot more motivated. MEMBER #2's POST TO SAME DISCUSION: KS Motivation has been studied for decades and leaders in the workplace have used assessments like DISC and Myers-Briggs to determine their employee's personality types to better anticipate behaviors and tendencies. Additionally, motivational books are used as tools to get employees to increase their performance and / or get them back on track. While assessments, books and other tools can help project and inspire short and long performance, the factors that motivate employees to achieve evolve as they mature and begin to truly understand what matters most to them. Therefore, as leaders we must hold ourselves accountable to build meaningful and purposeful relationships that matter with our employees. This allows us to better understand those we are serving, just as much as ourselves (Llopis, 2012). One of the things that motivate me as a manager is having a leader that has your back and one who is looking out for your best interests. When you are lucky enough to work for one of these individuals, you will see that they work diligently to win the trust of their employees who in turn will be more motivated to achieve. I once had a Regional Vice President that always looked out for me. She was upfront in communicating her performance expectations and her feedback was direct. She never treated me like a subordinate and looked for ways to include me in many senior management meetings. This opened my eyes to what lied ahead in my career and thus motivated me to reach the next level and in the process exceed the expectations of my boss. Trust is a powerful motivational tool and those leaders that are more transparent with their employees will find surprising results and new types of opportunities to develop talent. Works Cited Llopis, G. (2012, June 24). The Top 9 Things That Ultimately Motivate Employees to Achieve. (2. f. . (n.d.). Retrieved July 2, Ed.) Forbes Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/06/04/top-9things-that-ultimately-motivate-employees-to-achieve/ MEMBER #3's POST TO SAME DISCUSION: JS The term motivation derives from the Latin work mover, meaning \"to move\". In the present context, motivation represents \"those psychological processes that cause the arousal, direction, and persistence of voluntary actions that are goal directed. \" (Krieitner, 2014, Pg. 206) In other words, motivation is the energy that drives you to accomplish goals, and it's necessary for all types of success. (C. Jalango 2013) Motivation to me it what keeps you going, what keeps you engaged, and excited to fulfill your dreams and goals. Currently for the company I work for we have what is called a \"Potential Point System\". This is where employees nominate each other for a job well done and/or when the employee goes above and behind to complete a task. Once your nomination is approved by your manager, you are rewarded points which you accumulate into prizes. The prizes range from gift cards, i Phones, iPods, i-Pads and week-end trip getaways. Depending how many points you accumulate over time, the bigger the prize. This is a great way to stay motivated, excited and successful in the work place, and acknowledging others at the same time. The rewards are amazing and it keeps you motivated to continue to do a great job and being recognized for it. In the past I have worked for the several companies. In regards to motivation, the most disappointing work experience I witnessed was with a company that was all upper management driven and very little employee driven. Even though all of the employees contributed to the success of the company, upper management benefited from the rewards and profits. And, because there were profits, they had the luxury to be merited with the extra fringe benefits. This became extremely unfair in the work place and when recognized by others, it created a negative working environment. Employees didn't feel like working and had very little or no motivation. They stopped exceeding their expectations and adopted a work culture of \"I'm here for the paycheck, not a career\". This type of behavior in any company or work place will eventually result to people leaving or having a lifeless unenthusiastic staff. I believe what should have been done differently was all the employees should have been recognized and rewarded equally. Instead of the big bulk being shared with only the upper management team, it should have been distributed evenly among the entire company. Every employee at the end of the quarter should have been given a percentage of the profit shares. Doing this, would not only create harmony in the workplace, but keep every employee motivated to work hard for themselves and for the success of the company. References: Jalango, C. (2013, August 13). How You Can Get Motivated To Reach Your Goals. Retrieved June 17, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/womensmedia/2013/08/01/howyou-can-get-motivated-to-reach-your-goals/