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Later: That didn't seem to do anything. I think we should set up a recognition program and recognize the top producer at a free pizza lunch every Friday.
Later: The pizza lunch is nice, but it doesn't seem to be having any impact on the numbers. And the three people who got the certificate for top producer weren't thrilled about the award. Maybe I should make a contest with awards - movie tickets!
Later: The contest seemed to backfire. Maybe movie tickets weren't such a great idea. Maybe a massage, or a clock radio, or a toaster…
Later: None of those prizes worked either; maybe I just have a group with a bad attitude! I know what'll motivate them! I'm going to give them an ultimatum - make the numbers or ELSE!
Later: That worked for a couple of days. Now, half of the team is gone - and those who left seemed to be all the star producers.
In the above scenario, who's motivated? That's right, the manager! Why aren't the employees motivated?
Motives are a personal thing. What motivates one person may not motivate another person. And what motivates someone this week may not be motivating next week.
Successful managers and supervisors know that the key to motivation is understanding and tapping into people's individual motives - finding out what motivates them and giving it to them. Successful managers know how to form that bridge between employees' motives and their work.
"It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want
to." Sondra Anice Barnes, writer
"Those who win are those who think they can." Richard Bach, writer
How do these quotes apply to motivation?
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Motivation is an intrinsic (internal) drive to achieve. It's a personal choice based on the belief that the payoff is worth the effort. The payoff is often intangible: Recognition, self-satisfaction, etc.
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People are either motivated to GET something - such as striving to reach sales goals to be recognized for superior achievement - or to AVOID something - such as refraining from making phone calls for fear of rejection.
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Motivation is a combination of desire and belief. Motivated people WANT to achieve and BELIEVE that they can achieve.
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Motivation can be triggered or influenced by external factors.
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Motives compete with each other. For example, a person may be motivated to meet aggressive sales numbers and simultaneously motivated to avoid rejection.
While motivation is an internal drive, it can be externally generated or influenced.
Use the following acronym to ensure that the motivation you provide will have the positive effect you intend:
Meaningful (personally desirable, rewarding)
Objective (focused, specific enough to be accurately measured)
Tough (challenging, requires effort above normal)
Important (targets relevant, business-impacting behavior)
Viable (while challenging, the goal is always achievable)
Ethical, tasteful, fun (doesn't turn me off)
Motivation is not something we "do" to others. It's finding out what excites them - what drives them. And then we tap into that energy source!
This information comes from Motivating for Sales
Performance, a 12-unit program that YOU can use to help your sales managers increase the effectiveness of their sales teams. Check it out at
http://unlockit.com/HPS-MSP.htm.
Employees are Our Number One (or Two or Eight) Asset
There's a Dilbert cartoon that sadly reflects the attitude rampant in
some companies today. The pointy-haired boss is talking to his staff at a staff meeting. He points to an overhead saying, "It looks as though we were wrong: employees are NOT our #1 asset. It seems that employees are #8, right after carbon paper."
In a few companies, employees MAY be the most important assets. However, according to a variety of studies, employees at many companies feel like losers to carbon paper.
These studies indicate that many employees - good employees - don't feel that they receive the support and direction they need to do their jobs effectively. After surveying 2,600 US workers, New York-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting (April 2003) found that:
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Only one-fourth of employees indicated that their managers coach them to improve performance.
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Forty-two percent say that their manager gives them regular feedback on their performance.
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Just 29% say that they are rewarded when they do a good job.
Towers Perrin, another New York-based consulting firm, concluded from surveying 35,000 U.S. workers that only one-fifth of workers are highly engaged in their jobs. While an equal amount of surveyed workers are disengaged in their work, Towers Perrin suggests that the middle three-fifths - "the massive middle" - offers the best opportunity for managers and supervisors. "Strengthening the this group's level of engagement may be the most critical task virtually every employer faces today."
Another more recent article was published Harvard Business Review entitled "How Fleet Bank Fought Employee Flight" (April
2004). In this article, the authors begin by lamenting that few companies truly understand the impact that a given program - be it training, incentive pay, a new recruitment strategy, or whatever - have on employee productivity and turnover.
Shunning the traditional exit interview as being biased and misleading, the
researchers used market research techniques to determine why Fleet employees were leaving - in some departments at a rate of 40% turnover per year! Fleet had tried to plug the flight dike through more competitive pay and flexible working hours - priorities listed in employee surveys; however, employee turnover continued to rise rapidly.
The researchers found that Fleet employees who were promoted were 11% less likely to leave than their colleagues. Even changing jobs reduced the likelihood that employees would leave.
"In effect, the more rapidly people moved through jobs, the more likely they were to stay. These findings were at odds with the common belief that as employees broaden their experience and become more marketable, they tend to seek opportunities elsewhere. In fact, the findings presented Fleet with a pleasing paradox:
Broadening the experience and marketability of employees
gave them a compelling reason to stay."
Broaden the experience and marketability of YOUR employees by providing them with training and development opportunities. It's good for them and GREAT for business!
Note: for a summary of the Harvard Business Review article, go to
http://www.mercerhr.com/.
. . 1137315. The full article is also available for a fee from Harvard Business Online at
http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/.
. . R0404H.
Employee Development - Job #1
I mentioned the work I did with Tom Peters in the last newsletter. Frankly, Peters scares me. Whereas I'm a middle-of-the-road kinda guy, Peters is an extremist. I like to see which way the wind's blowing before making a decision; Peters thinks I'm doomed.
Therefore, in creating training materials for the Linkage  broadcast that Tom did several weeks ago, it came as no surprise that the primary themes included "destroy your company before your competitors do" and "continually reinvent yourself" and "there is no such thing as a sustainable competitive advantage."
What DID surprise me was the priority Tom broadcast to thousands of managers and leaders worldwide. He started his 90-minute broadcast with the treatise:
"Job 1 - DEVELOP YOUR PEOPLE. End of story."
Peters believes - as I do - that the products and services we create to compete in tomorrow's world come from today's workers. The satisfied customers of tomorrow are being serviced by today's employees.
This sentiment is echoed by the authors of the aforementioned article about Fleet Bank's employee turnover. The authors state, "in today's knowledge economy, how a company manages its human capital is for all intents and purposes the only remaining source of
enduring competitive advantage."
How your company manages and develops its people today may very well determine its future tomorrow.
Entelechy's High Performance Management training helps turn your managers into leaders. Create your own customized leadership training using our modules as the basis for your training. Check out
High Performance Management at http://unlockit.com/HPM.htm.
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