3 Ways to Reignite Inspiration and Motivation in Your Employees - Spark Hire

3 Ways to Reignite Inspiration and Motivation in Your Employees - Spark HireOne of the frequently asked questions of small business managers today is How do I motivate my employees? Quite often, you will find that even your most motivated employees suffer from burnout from time to time. While you need employees who are self-motivating, it is also important that you help to encourage and motivate them as their manager.There are several ways to reignite inspiration and motivation within your employees.1. Share your passion and excitementBelieve it or not, your passion and excitement for your business can be contagious throughout your gruppe. When your team sees the excitement and passion you have for your company and mission, typically, they will begin to display similar feelings.Dont be afraid to show your excitement for your mission. When you gain a new customer, get pumped and share that excitement with your team. Sure, it may be a little goofy to run around the office, slapping hig h fives and cheering, but you will gain smiles and energy from your team. After all, whats more exciting than a leader who is truly passionate and displays an energy for each small victory within the organization?2. Share your business achievements and goalsMake sure you are having monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings with your team. The purpose of ansicht meetings is not to bore everyone to death for an hour or two. Rather, the intended purpose of these meetings is to share with the team what your achievements were for that period and establish what your goals are moving forward.Please, leave the power points out of these meetings. What a dragBriefly, run through the updates and achievements, making sure that you recognize outstanding performance. Make these meetings about praising your team for accomplishments and a job well done. If you did not meet your achievements, still keep the meeting encouraging and after discussing the stats, quickly move into future goals and what the team can do in order to reach these goals. HC ansprechbar mentions that it is important to have inspirational dialog with your team in order to foster and encourage an inspired and motivated staff.During these meetings, offer incentives for reaching certain future goals. Perhaps you will have a pizza party, extra time off, or some other form of fun that the team will enjoy. An important thing to remember is to stick by your incentives. If you promise something, make sure that it is something you can follow through with, should your team reach the goal. There is nothing more discouraging than a boss who doesnt deliver on promises made.3. Implement team building activitiesOne of the most important forms of encouraging motivation and inspiration amongst your team is by implementing team building activities. When you encourage and promote team building activities, it makes your team stronger. They will understand each others differences and build stronger relationships with each other, fostering a positive work environment. When you build a strong team, you build a strong business.As HC Online mentions, its important to keep in mind that different employees are motivated and inspired by different things. I recommend that you get to know your employees personally and ask them what motivates and inspires them. This will help you to ensure that you are making the right decisions in your motivation efforts.How do you keep your team inspired and motivated? Please share your tips below.Image Micha Klootwijk/BigStock.com

Engineering Renewable Energy for Haiti

Engineering Renewable Energy for Haiti Engineering Renewable Energy for Haiti Engineering Renewable Energy for Haiti Even before they graduate, engineering students at Georgia Tech have started to bring much-needed, inexpensive, and reliable solar power to a small remote village of about 6,000 in Haiti, devastated by the 2010 earthquake.Students say projects like these are not only great learning experiences, they are also very rewarding, as they know they are helping make peoples lives better in addition to making themselves feel like real practicing engineers.The village, called Thoman, a three-hour drive east of Port-au-Prince, is being developed as a sustainable community by a Mississippi-based nonprofit ministry. The people still live in primitive housing and have no electricity or running water. Only last year did Thoman get connected to Haitis main power grid, but service is so unreliable that a recently opened health center relies mostly on a diesel generator that is expensiv e to operate.Living conditions are so poor that one team member, Edlawit (Julie) Bezabih, originally from Ethiopia, said, Haiti is different. I had never experienced conditions like I saw in Haiti. I am from Ethiopia, obviously from Africa, so most of these things are not new for me.ORS Team in Atlanta (from left) Elizabeth Robelo, Julie Bezabih, Wondewosen Kihinet, Liyao Wu, Kyron Longwood. Image Georgia TechRestoring PowerTwo independent teams developed systems that are making life a bit easier. One team of 23 students, led by Frank Lambert, principal research engineer at Georgia Techs National Electric Energy Testing, Research, Applications Center, developed and installed a hybrid micro grid system in the health center, which now provides 24/7 power.The system includes a 7.2-kW photovoltaic array and a battery bank to replace the diesel generator in everyday operations. The team chose this system over otzu sich power-generating units after evaluating options, based on technical and economic criteria, such as daily energy production and maximum annual capacity shortage, as well as ease of use and ability to obtain replacement components when needed.The other, smaller team of five students, guided by Ph.D. mentor Liyao Wu, developed and installed a smaller solar-powered system that provides LED light, replacing kerosene lamps for single family houses and phone charging so that residents dont have to travel miles to find a power source. When this team started its project a year ago, they knew their work was destined for Haiti eventually but had no idea when, so they didnt expect to see the final results. Several months later when they learned they would go to Haiti the next spring to do the installation themselves, that gave them even mora inspiration to konzept the very best project for the Haitian people, Bezabih says.The team spent the first several months learning about power electronics circuits, doing simulations, and talking about different designs. By February, they had a system they thought would work, consisting of a controller board that interfaced with the solar roof panels to charge LED lights and phones via USB ports.Then testing began. One of the first issues the team faced was a circuit board that blew out around noon when radiation and voltage are very high. Under the guidance of Wu, the team employed a voltage regulator to take it down so that the circuit board worked perfectly.ORS Team inside the second house theyve powered, with the owner and her daughter. Image Georgia TechEven bigger challenges arose after they arrived in Thoman. They did not know ahead of time what type of houses they would be working on, and the team realized it had to create a new mount for the solar panels to be positioned for maximum sun exposure. The installation kit they brought wasnt useful, and they learned that only two team members were light enough to work on the weak rooftops. We had to drill and do everything ourselves, Bezabih says.W hen they needed guidance and troubleshooting, they called for help from someone on the health care center team, who had previous experience installing solar panels. That first installation took two days, the second one, only five or six hours.Optimizing DesignAlthough what happens next is not set yet, Wu is ready to hand off the project to a new graduate student to work with the next team because he will be focusing on his Ph.D thesis, and most, if not all, of the other team members are graduating. But Wu has laid out ideas for what could come next.The design is not yet optimized, Wu says. What we have is a working prototype that provides power to the customer, but the board is large and bulky. We should be able by mora careful design to shrink the size and make it lighter and still give the same or better performance.The system currently is charged via a power bank during the day, but he would like to see a battery incorporated so that it will automatically get charged during the d ay. We werent able to do that before because of time constraints, he says.An added benefit that the researchers hope can happen is that the teams can teach the Haitians how to build and install the systems themselves, providing much needed employment opportunities where none exist today.Wu hopes one day he can get back to projects that offer help to people in need. Our project helped two families, and there are hundreds there, he says. I hope that more can be installed in more homes and that they can be more functional, not just for cell phones and lighting but to power more complex functions maybe pump water and other things they need electricity to do. They have a very long way to go.Nancy S. Giges is an independent writer.Learn about the latest energy solutions at ASMEsPower Energy Conference and Exhibition.Our project helped two families, and there are hundreds there. I hope that more can be installed in more homes and that they can be more functional.Liyao Wu, Ph.D. student, G eorgia Tech