The Anonymous Widower

How To Motivate Athletes

I read in The Times today, that quite a few of our successful athletes in Barcelona have not been given funds to help their training from Lottery sources.  One, Andy Turner won gold and two others, Mark Lewis Francis and Christian Malcolm won silver in the two sprints.

I always remember when I was at ICI, learning about motivators and demotivators on a course.  I seem to remember that money wasn’t a particularly good motivator, but lack of money was a strong demotivator. On the other hand status was a strong motivator.  So perhaps to succeed in a major championship is a very strong motivator and nothing is going to stop you doing it, even if you’re a bit short of the readies.  Remember though, that as team members, they would have all the support they need in terms of physios and coaches.  Is giving people the right support another motivator?Andthey  also have the status of being in the team.

So perhaps someone has been working on the status thing and being more careful with the money.  Has it got results? After all we’re ahead of the Germans in the medal table. And that can’t be bad!

Perhaps we should apply this set of rules to other areas as well, like business and politics. We tend to pay people a lot of money at the top and they don’t perform.

July 31, 2010 - Posted by AnonW | Business, Sport | Athletics