In a corporate environment, you might feel your creativity for motivating your team members is limited to kind words and small incentives. Traditional motivators include such things as gift cards and corporate swag like coffee cups and pencil holders. Larger incentives on the other hand, such as promotions and bonuses, tend to be in short supply. Here are some out-of-the-box incentives to offer your team members.

Parking

In the corporate world, especially in a heavily populated city, parking is a coveted perk in an office building. Whether you offer free parking, paid parking options, or assigned parking, there are several options you can offer to your workers as an incentive for top performances. A month of free parking? An assigned spot nearest the door? Covered parking options? These offer great appeal to many employees and can definitely be a motivator.

Split Schedule

Allowing a person to leave mid-afternoon to work from home for the rest of the day can be a tremendous reward. Often times a break from the monotony of the same schedule day in and day out is a bonus in and of itself. Allowing an employee to leave early so they can greet the kids as they get home from school, run errands, or even beat the traffic on a Friday can be especially appealing.

Personalized Gifts

A lot of employees appreciate a kind word from their boss, along with a small token such as a gift card, but you can always be a bit more creative. Instead of giving a generic gift card for something such as coffee, personalize it for that individual employee. Do they enjoy sports? Video games? A great non-fiction book? When you tailor a gift for an employee they will likely appreciate it more; even more importantly, they will take into account that you took an extra step for them, that you care and pay attention to their interests.

Motivation, despite our best intentions, is never a constant state. Everyone wants to achieve something in their life, but sometimes one can struggle with the desire to stay committed or to make the changes they know they need. Cydcor is a firm believer that getting your motivation back is key to achieving any goal. Here are five tips to help you whenever you feel stuck:

Inspiration. Find the source of your drive. Figure out what gets you fired up and in tune with yourself. It can be family, friends, music, exercise or even inspiring stories of others who have achieved a similar goal. Once you identify your source of inspiration, you can be assured in times of doubt that you know what can get you going again.

Realistic goals. One of the biggest reasons people find themselves setting up goals and not achieving them is that they set the bar too high. Don’t sabotage yourself by not being realistic. Set your major objective and have smaller steps along the way that can help you get there. Breaking it down into smaller, more manageable goals will help motivate you. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being able check off a goal from your list and track the progress you’ve made.

Anticipate. When setting your objective, anticipate potential pitfalls that might occur and create solutions before the problem arises. A study done in 2009 regarding goals found that those who were taught to foresee obstacles were able to quickly find workarounds by having a back up plan already in place. By knowing in advance of potential hurdles, those who anticipated were then mentally committed to following their backup plan instead of becoming discouraged and giving up.

Step Back. While you move forward with your goal, sometimes stepping back can help you. You can gain clarity by stopping to re-evaluating your goals and remembering why you set them. This can help motivate you to move forward, and you’ll make better progress.

Find encouragement. Make a commitment to those around you by letting them in on what you’re trying to achieve. Telling others can get them excited for you and keep you accountable. Friends and family are excellent sources of motivation because they generate enthusiasm for your project. Most people are better at keeping promises and commitments to others than they are to themselves. Committing to others can make it more likely that you will reach your goals even when faced with challenges along the way.

While Cydcor knows there isn’t one way to achieve goals and become successful, there are certain truths about a successful career that remain. Especial for those choosing a career in sales, these ten laws will guide you through to generating a good income for your clients, your company, and yourself. These laws are based on classic clichés you are tired of hearing, but there is still value behind them.

1. Fake it till you make it works as a strategy. This doesn’t mean you can slack off, but rather refers to confidence about your abilities. Even when you don’t feel like the strongest candidate or the most skilled sales representative, acting like you are will help you feel better about your journey, and you may surprise yourself.
2. It’s lonely at the top, bring a team. Don’t forget to lift others up with you and surround yourself with equally ambitious people. There is no room in your life for those who wish to naysay or weigh you down, you have to keep moving ahead and realize those who are not rising with you are not acting in anyone’s best interest.
3. Burning bridges is never pretty. Leaving something with a bitter taste in your mouth can come back to haunt you. Remember not to speak ill of anyone you meet in your professional life, as you never know when paths will cross again.
4. Eye on the prize keeps you in perspective. Every decision you make should be getting you closer to your goal.
5. Try, try again, because what other choice do you have?
6. Success breeds success, so don’t forget to keep going! Once you have achieved one goal, set another right away.
7. The sky is the limit when you set benchmarks. Setting high in the sky goals can be lofty and overwhelming. Make sure you get where you need to go by creating stepping stones and benchmarks.
8. Weather the storm when times are rough. It will get better, inevitably. Life goes through cycles, and bad times are just bad times. Stay focused and you will pull through.
9. A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush, so take what you can get at each moment. Bigger fish are on their way, but celebrate your small success as well. How’s that for multiple clichés in one sentence?
10. A stitch in time saves nine, so don’t ignore your problems. Take care of things as they come up. It will save you a headache later.

What are your laws of success? Let Cydcor know on Facebook or Twitter!

The Cydcor Community chose to review Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Dr. Richard Carlson as a great book for personal development and stress management.

Description of this book: Dr. Richard Carlson has built a career on teaching people how to manage stress and let go of the minor pressures of a fast paced American lifestyle.  This is the original in a series of books on making life happier and more manageable by not “sweating” the small stuff, and pointing out even in the subtitle “it’s all small stuff”.  It is easy to get frustrated and hung up over things like bills, appointments, accidents and more hurdles in life, but the main message of this book is that stress and worry only make situations work.  Training your brain to think about solutions rather than fret is a powerful lifestyle choice.

Cydcor recommends this book to leaders because: Stress can be detrimental to your health and career.  Stressed out people also radiate negative energy and cause others to feel stressed or demotivated.  Good managers need to learn how to project productive and positive energy in order to maintain workplace harmony.  This book provides great perspective and can help you change your mental state to becoming a calm, happy and inspiring leader.  The book offers easy to commit to strategies that incorporate small changes that make a huge difference.

Our favorite part: "Without question, many of us have mastered the neurotic art of spending much of our lives worrying about a variety of things all at once." Dr. Carlson writes with whimsy and clarity that makes this book easy to read and convey its message.  This is one that will stick with you for life.

Cydcor is a leading sales company that specializes in face-to-face relationships and professional development.  Follow Cydcor on LinkedIn or Twitter for more professional development advice.