Employee Motivation Simplified
Posted: Tuesday, August 18, 2009
by Todd Dewett
TVA Inc
Scores of books exist addressing every aspect of leadership, yet the grand prize winner surely must be the topic of motivation. Sorry, today it is referred to as employee engagement. The label does not matter much as long as we agree on what we're talking about. I'm talking about an employee's desire to show up at the cube each day and put forth whatever amount of effort is required to maximize their productivity and the morale and productivity of their colleagues. I have had the opportunity to read a few hundred of the thousands of available books in addition to studying the topic as a scholar and learning about the topic first had as a consultant and small business owner. After consuming all of this information and all of these experiences, I have one main conclusion: motivating others is not nearly as complicated as many writers, trainers and theorists suggest. In fact, I'll be bold and suggest that motivation can be meaningfully summed up in three main points. First, learn to see others as individuals. Second, stop your love affair with money. Third, practice what you preach. Let me briefly explain each.
It all starts by getting over yourself. This really means two things. First, you must stop "projecting." That is geek speak for "thinking others think like you think." A classic leadership faux pas. Say that you enjoy a beer or two at happy hour. Nice. Does that mean inviting your employees to happy hour will be viewed by all of them as a positive experience? Not at all. If your best employee loves volleyball or the group you manage is dominated by quilting enthusiasts and you have no interest in either time to start paying attention, and find a way to show it. Employees (humans) enjoy being recognized and related to as the unique individuals they are. Second, don't say or give the same thing to everyone and expect it to mean something to anyone. For example, when everyone receives the very same certificate (aka, the "high performer award" or whatever they call it where you work) it eventually means nothing to anyone. Make sure your recognition and rewards respect unique individual differences whenever possible.
Stop your love affair with money
Easily the most common motivation disaster is our love of money as a motivator (base pay, raises, bonuses, etc.). Stop projecting! This has been studied six ways from Sunday and verified in consulting gig after consulting gig. Most people on the bottom two thirds of the organizational pyramid don't love money as much as those on the top third. Money is a very interesting and important secondary motivator. But, it is not in the top tier for most employees. The top few winners tend to be: feeling respected, being "in the loop," feeling as if their work matters, and having some say over the decisions that affect them. And it's not just money. Any external motivator can be used in excess to the point that employees no longer focus on the work, but instead focus on the carrot you keep dangling in front of them. The good news is that if you make sure (this is huge) that all rewards (especially monetary rewards) are metered out differentially based on performance (instead of giving everyone nearly the same thing or amount because that somehow seems "fair"), they tend to remain motivational. Too much focus on the carrots and people lose whatever innate desire intrinsic motivation they have at work.
Practice what you preach
The rhetoric gap will kill your credibility and demotivate your troops. The rhetoric gap refers to the degree of incongruence between the ideals you espouse as a leader about how to lead and relate to others successfully and actual daily behaviors you show. None of us are perfect, the gap always exist. The only question is whether yours is big or small. The first step towards reducing the gap is to make sure you receive quality feedback about your performance because it is always true that others see you differently than you see yourself. Great leaders build great teams, not a group of "yes men." Another way to think about this is to ask yourself to what degree you "walk the talk." The reason this is so vital to your success as a leader is because others learn vicariously about you (i.e., when observing you) much more than when they are actually interacting with you. When they are mere observers of your behavior there is no evaluation apprehension no stress at all thus they learn better. So when a boss chews out an employee, it's not just the errant employee who will leave with a few scars it is everyone who witnessed it or who was in earshot. Remember, the farther you climb the ladder, the more you choose to live in a fishbowl.
That's it no kidding. After devouring reams of research and other resources I honestly can tell you that these three capture 80% or more of what hard working professionals need to know every day to be successful in motivating other citizens of cubicleland. It's not about whether or not they share your obsession with your favorite college football team. It's not about the size of the bonuses you can offer this year. It's about seeing people as unique contributors, finding personalized ways to recognize their efforts and achievements and minimizing the gap between what you say and what you do. Happy motivating!
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