Greetings!

Does your team have the blues? Time to serve up an Angel's Cocktail!
What's that? Read on....
Hooked on Hormones
Smart leaders know that it’s often the little things that engage and motivate employees. Personal gestures, recognition, and appreciation mean a lot, sometimes even more than compensation.

The reasons for this are well known. Our subconscious mind is not rational, it is heavily swayed by our perceptions, feelings, and primal instincts. In fact, our well-being is influenced by hormones and neurotransmitters we are barely aware of.
We can feel happy, sad, angry, fearful, and inspired based on chemicals our bodies are constantly sending to our brain. Here are few of the fun ones, sometimes called the “Angel’s Cocktail”

  • Dopamine: Focus, Motivation & Memory
  • Endorphins: Laughter, Creativity & Relaxation
  • Oxytocin: Empathy, Generosity & Trust

Because life isn’t just rainbows and unicorns, we also experience fear and negative emotions. Here are the conflicting hormones, the “Devil’s Cocktail”

  • Adrenaline: Anxiety, Fear & Irritation
  • Cortisol: Stress, Criticism & Suspicion

(For a great video on this, scroll to the bottom for a TedX speech by David JP Phillips)
Shots of Dopamine

People love the rush of dopamine. You feel it when you crush a golf shot and someone says “great shot”. You feel it when your favorite team wins a game. When a player scores the winning run, goal, or basket. You can think of countless others:

  • Calling Bingo!
  • A Winning Lottery Ticket
  • Triple Word Score in Scrabble
  • Sinking the 8-ball in Pool
  • Bullseye in Darts
Masters of Influence
Why do people love to gamble when they know they will lose almost all the time? Casinos are masters of mood manipulation. Every aspect of the casino experience has been expertly crafted to extract as much money from you as possible.

The lights, the sounds, the displays, and the décor are all designed to bypass your logical brain and go straight to your subconscious mind. Every time you hit Blackjack, your hormones spike. Jackpot!
Dopamine McNuggets

You can use these same principles to motivate your team. Create quick rewards and motivators, and find ways to have something going on all throughout the year. Some quick examples:

  • Spiffs, such as cash rewards or gift cards
  • Contests, especially short term ones
  • Sights: A gamification wallboard
  • Sounds: A sales bell or gong
Sales Gong
Here's a sales organization that installed two sales gongs in their office to celebrate new contracts.

The large one for sales over $100,000 GP, and the smaller one for lesser size sales.

To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee "That's not a gong, this is a gong!"
Progress Charts
When you have longer-term incentives, such as an annual President’s Club or bonus accelerator, make sure you are tossing in lots of McNuggets along the way.

A good way to do this is a progress chart where you can celebrate milestones along the way. You can recognize people when they start, when they are halfway, and more. Thermometers are great for this, and you see them frequently used for charitable fundraisers.
Variety
Dopamine wears off quickly, so keep feeding your team new and tasty snacks. You’ll find it’s a cheap and easy way to elevate everyone’s spirit and drive performance.
"Angels & Devils Cocktail" TedX Video
David JP Phillips
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Meet the "Hit Mann"
Mike Schmidtmann coaches business owners and sales leaders across the USA. He works to drive results in sales recruiting, new business development, and profitability.

Mike led sales for Inacom Communications for ten years. then founded and built a $30 Million business unit for SPS.

Mike produces the award-winning Trans4mers webinar series on IT sales and management subjects. He is a frequent public speaker on business topics.

He lives on a farm in Northern Virginia with his family and assorted horses, alpacas, goats and dogs.
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Mike Schmidtmann

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