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Why Being a “Sponge” at a New Job Could Be Holding You Back

Introduction Starting a new job can feel overwhelming. There are new people to meet, systems to understand, and expectations to learn. That is why new employees are often told to “be a sponge.” The idea is simple: observe, learn, and avoid mistakes. Learning is important, but blindly absorbing everything around you is not always the best strategy. Being a “sponge” can encourage you to accept every process, opinion, habit, and workplace behavior without asking whether it is actually useful. The goal should not be to absorb everything. It should be to understand your environment, learn what matters, ask questions, and develop your own judgment. Why “Being a Sponge” Sounds Like Good Advice Learning from experienced colleagues can help you understand how a workplace operates. You can learn how meetings work, decisions are made, and expectations are set. The problem begins when learning becomes passive. A new employee may remain quiet and follow existing systems without questioning them. Bu...

Best motivation techniques of this century

Best motivation techniques 

Introduction

Today we will understand the meaning of motivation and how we used to get motivated for any task. Let’s start with a question that why we went to college? There can be many answers like someone can say that he or she had gone to college to earn a degree but someone else can say that colleges are a place to gain knowledge. Some other person may also say that he or she had gone to college just because of their parents. All of the above answers are the need of a person so motivation used to come whenever we have a need to do something. The magnitude of our motivation depends upon the size of our needs and many times we fail to realize our needs. Whenever we fail to understand the importance of our needs, we used to get demotivated. Also, we seek external motivation from other people in these cases. Let us understand the types of motivation and explore the best type of motivation for our personal and professional growth.

Types of motivation

1. The Fear motivation

Fear motivation is a very strong urge to move away from any undesirable result. It is a very strong motivator but sometimes it can become lethal for our own goodness. This type of motivation makes us very uncomfortable in any unfavorable situation. This type of motivation used to give chills to employees and students. We cannot be stressed and give hundred percent results every time. Think about employees who are always in fear of getting fired, can we expect great efficiency from these employees?

2. Carrot and stick motivation

This is a very popular motivation technique among corporates. This involves a carrot (reward for good performance) and a stick (punishment for bad performance). It can be considered as a good approach that involves a feedback mechanism so that employees can alter their performance based on targets, rewards, and punishments. By using the carrot and stick motivation, we can alter the behavior of our employees but still, it’s not the best type of motivation. When we provide rewards that our employees do not want or punishment that our employees do not care then this type of motivation fails.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

3. Growth Motivation

Do you also observe that some people are full of enthusiasm and energy? It seems that they have an unlimited supply of motivation but we never understand that they have a very focused approach towards life. They definitely not wait for any secret sauce of motivation but they step out and work for their own future growth. Napoleon Hill in his famous book "Think and Grow Rich" very nicely explained how our mind can think and conceive impossible things and ultimately achieve those things. Leaders have a growth mindset and they always do things for their personal, social, and professional growth. This type of motivation for growth is an intrinsic type of motivation. We all must strive to work for growth motivation.

Summary

All of us have experienced the above type of motivations in our lives. Fear motivation and carrot & stick motivation may not work every time but growth motivation works every time. If you are still stuck in the first two types of motivations then definitely try to come to the growth motivation stage.

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