Motivation for the Masses

You have the skills – it’s just realising this!

Summary

The course “Mastering Motivation for Career Growth” is designed to help individuals, regardless of their current job situation, harness the power of motivation to achieve career advancement. Based on recent seminars held in Oxford, UK in September 2024, the course explores the fundamentals of motivation and how it can be used to create meaningful change in your professional life. Whether you’re currently employed, unemployed, or seeking career advancement, this course offers valuable insights and practical tools to help you discover your motivations and apply them to your job search or career development.

Course Requirements:

For Those Already Employed: Access to your Person Specification can be helpful, allowing you to assess the skills and qualifications required for career progression or job change.
For Job Seekers: A clear understanding of the skills required for potential roles will help guide your job search.
Reliable Internet Access: To fully benefit from the course and search for jobs, you’ll need reliable internet access.
Willingness to Reflect on Personal Motivation: The course requires self-reflection on what truly drives you, a critical step in discovering your career aspirations.
Awareness of Time Commitment: To maximize the gains from this course, you’ll need to dedicate sufficient time to reflect and apply what you learn.

Course Structure and Key Insights:

The course aims to explore motivation as the key to career change and progression. Through a combination of theoretical learning, practical examples, and interactive sessions, you will gain a deeper understanding of your own motivators and how they relate to the job market. The course structure includes:

Understanding Motivation:
- The course begins by addressing the question, “What motivates you?” Participants are encouraged to reflect on their personal drivers—whether intrinsic (internal satisfaction) or extrinsic (external rewards)—and how these influence their career choices.
- This self-reflection allows participants to align their motivations with potential career paths and develop strategies to pursue jobs or promotions that match their goals.
Soft Skills and Transferable Skills:
- One of the key insights from the Oxford seminars was the importance of soft skills (such as communication, emotional intelligence, and teamwork) and their transferability across various job roles. Even if you feel your current job doesn’t equip you for a new role, these soft skills can often be leveraged in different industries or positions.
- The course emphasizes that many of the skills developed in one role are applicable to other jobs, and recognizing this can open up new opportunities for career change or advancement.
The Power of Real-World Examples:
- The course incorporates practical examples and real-world scenarios to demonstrate how motivation and soft skills play out in different job contexts. For example, a group discussion revolved around the role of a Shift Manager at McDonald’s, and the skills that can be transferred from this role to other jobs. This activity encouraged participants to see how various skills, even from what they might initially consider “unrelated” or “entry-level” jobs, can be valuable in other professional settings.
- Educational Consultant was one specific role discussed, and participants explored how skills from teaching and consulting could transfer into other industries.
Practical Motivation Techniques:
- The course not only delves into the theory behind motivation but also offers practical strategies to help you stay motivated during your career journey. Techniques such as setting clear goals, breaking tasks into smaller steps, and visualizing success are introduced to help you stay on track.
- A memorable example includes a live demonstration involving a slice of apple, which, while simple, effectively illustrates how motivation can come from unexpected sources.
Strategies to Remember and Stay Motivated:
- Participants are taught strategies to remember important concepts and stay motivated, particularly when faced with setbacks or challenges in their job search or career advancement.
- Tools and tips are shared on how to maintain a positive mindset, enhance motivation, and keep moving forward even when progress seems slow.

Who Should Take This Course?

This course is ideal for anyone looking to enhance their career prospects through motivation and self-reflection, including:

People already in a job who are seeking a career change or promotion.
Those feeling stuck in a dead-end job who think they are unable to advance or move into new roles.
Job seekers who need help identifying their strengths and finding motivation to pursue a new career.
Individuals looking to reignite their passion for work and make a fresh start in their professional life.

Course Takeaways:

By the end of this course, participants will have a clear understanding of their personal motivations and how to use those motivations as a driving force in their career. The course provides:

A deeper understanding of motivation and how it applies to career development and job changes.
Practical tools and strategies for staying motivated during the job search or when pursuing career advancement.
Increased confidence in identifying transferable skills that can help you transition to different roles or industries.
A clear action plan for applying motivational techniques to achieve your career goals.

Requirements

If in a job already, access to Person Specification
If not in work but seeking work, an idea as to skills required
Reliable access to the internet to enable job search
A willingness to reflect on what REALLY motivates you
An awareness of the time needed to maximize the gains from this course

Description

This is a short course about motivation. It is based on recent seminars in Oxford, UK in late September 2024 – so it is very current! The assembled students came from very different background: some were in jobs (from professional to part-time, unskilled); some unemployed; some students at the University (usually studying Psychology)

They attended for one reason: to master the basics of motivation.

The group were asked what motivated them and also whether the skills they already had – soft skills, transferrable skills – would be enough to change jobs. Initially the general feeling was ‘no’.

So a task was set.

Pick a job you THINK will not equip you for another job – and then discuss.

The role initially picked was Shift Manager in McDonalds (although to be fair, offerings also included Starbucks, Costa, Waitrose etc.)

The ‘go-to’ role was ‘Consultant-in-an-unrelated-industry’

Two of the group had had dealings with Educational Consultants – one of the two was a teacher – and so ‘Consultants’ was narrowed down to ‘Educational Consultant’.

Then the discussions started.

As you will see from the course what emerged is that often wherever we are in life we have certain skills that would be of interest to a potential employer. Skills that involve motivation such as communication, emotional intelligence and willingness to work in a team.

From these sessions a course was borne.

This course is for beginners – it is also for the more experienced student. we deal with theory. we deal with practical examples. we also deal with ways to remember, ways to motivate and even have a live example of a slice of apple motivating several!

Perhaps more importantly, it is a course, I hope, you will enjoy.