How to Persuade and Influence People: Powerful techniques to get your own way more often

Chapter 32. MOTIVATION

In business we're always chasing the big prize. It might be winning a new contract, improving sales performance or reducing our carbon footprint. To achieve these goals rarely takes one big effort but rather lots of concentrated bursts. So, for instance, when you're tidying up the office, don't be too discouraged when you've filled up an entire skip but still can't see your desk. Every little helps, as they say at Tesco.

But how do you stay motivated? And more importantly, how can you avoid being demotivated when things don't go to plan? Psychological research by Houser-Marko and Sheldon suggests that the key is to balance up individual tasks against the grand vision. They compared people's reaction to failure depending on ...