money

Any CEO, MD and Manager worth their salt should be asking themselves this right now as they’re involved in strategy workshops and planning for the near future.

If you’re a South African company, the short answer is 4 weeks paid leave from 11 June to 11 July to enjoy the Fifa 2010 World Cup.

Jokes aside though. Two recent articles highlight the plight of the employee in 2010 as the world comes out of recession and begins its bounce-back. We hope!! But then again I bumped into an industry colleague at a coffee shop this week and he reckons the recession was just a perception!

Go figure!

Three men eat at a restaurant. The bill comes to £25. They each pay £10. When the waiter brings the £5 change they take back £1 each and leave a £2 tip. So each man has paid £9, which totals £27. The waiter has the £2 tip, which makes £29, so where's the other £1 gone?

Answer: The figures will not add to £30 because they are not from the same equation. Equation 1: What's been paid is £25 for the meal - which is in the till, and £2 for the tip - in the waiter's pocket, leaving the men with £1 each, ie £3, which all adds up to £30. Equation 2: The men have each paid £9 for the meal and the tip together, ie £27, and they each have a £1 in their pocket, ie £3, which all adds up to £30.

The whole concept of motivation is a strange one. Speakers have been around for years getting people to jump on their chairs at conferences, and Managers have been tasked with keeping people motivated after such events. The truth is that nobody can motivate you. Why? Because motivation comes from only one place – within you.