Motivation Beyond Money
I have probably studied motivation and motivating others more than
any other subject I have been taught. For
some reason, it did not click for me. I found
it complex and confusing. Today I
understand it better probably because I understand human behavior better. Understanding what motivates workers into
higher levels of performance begins with me getting to know the people I lead,
talking to them regularly and observing them at work looking for subtle changes. Remember, my experience was all gained in the military,
where motivation is optional.
The video The three
things we work for (money isn’t one of them), was impressive. In four minutes, Andy Mulholland covered a
lot of ground not just what motivates workers, but in a veiled way he explained
how an organization maintains a motivating environment. So, what are the three things that people
work for?
1. Interesting work: they want to be challenged
and kept on their toes. Bored workers are
less motivated and less productive.
2. To expand their skillsets: they want to keep
learning and getting better; to enhance their career not stagnate in it.
3. To be recognized for their work and valued
for their contributions. This has
nothing to do with money.
In fact, if an employee is unhappy and ready to move on, you
cannot overpay them to change their mind.
Money is not enough, it does not work and will not solve the problem (Mulholland,
2011).
I have always been taught that money is not a motivator. Now I know that it depends. If a company wants to hire a specific person
for specific talent, money (and other compensation) can be a motivator to get
him on the books. Otherwise, it is not a
good motivator. If used successfully, the change is usually short lived (White
&White, 2015).
Mulholland suggested that HR should be viewed
differently. Aside from the administration
of people and people programs, HR actually cultivates good worker attitude. In turn, good worker attitude cultivates good
leadership. Leadership maintains the
motivating environment over the long run (Mulholland, 2011). This may mean
nothing to anyone else, but for me, it was an ah-ha moment.
Providing interesting work is a burn-out risk if not addressed.
Providing interesting work sounds easy
enough, and it is in some professions. Engineering
and software development are examples of jobs that can be different and
interesting every day based on the nature of the work. My job as a Radar technician in the Air Force
was always interesting and challenging because I rarely, if ever, saw the same
failure twice. On the other hand,
assembly line workers producing thousands of the same widget every day is not
as easy. There are ways to keep those jobs
interesting too. Cross-training allows
an employee to be placed in different positions and see different aspects of
widget production. Setting new goals while
simultaneously doing their primary work can add enough distraction help keep
the employee engaged. For example,
cashiers are sometimes challenged to sell a specified amount of candy that is
displayed near the register. Offer
rewards such as gift cards for dining or shopping.to motivate the cahier to succeed.
There are many ways to do it and
creativity is the key (Miksen, C., no date).
The same problem exists when trying to enhance the skill set
of employees performing routine, repetitive, or boring jobs. In this situation, I would choose cross
training the employee to other tasks in production. Establishing teams that rotate to all aspects
of widget making not only enhances each team members skill set, but establishes
a peer support team to answer each other’s questions and provide general support
for each other. (Miksen, C., no date).
Ways to recognize people for sustained good performance,
special achievements or other accolades are too numerous to list. An effective system to recognize employee
achievement should be simple, immediate, and powerfully reinforcing (Heathield,
S. 2016). To be effective, rewardable performance
or contributions should be well defined using specific criteria, all employees
need to be eligible, it must supply specific information documenting why the
individual is being recognized, recognition should be done in a public forum, the
recognition should be immediate or as close to the event as possible, and winners
should be selected by their peers.
Management should use different avenues to recognize people such as
personal hand-written thank you notes, etc. (Heathield, S. 2016).
Interesting work, enhancing skill sets and recognition are all
very good motivational tools that will provide lasting results. I am an intrinsically motivated person. Everything I do I approach as if it were the
most important task I have ever done and it must be done correctly. This keeps it interesting and challenging for
me. I do not need recognition, but I do not run
from it. It normally just embarrasses
me. I take pride in whatever I do and
dedicate myself to accuracy and quality regardless of the task. I want to make sure it is right before I call
it done. When I fall short of my
expectations, I would rather start over than release the work. As a result, I tend to be slower than the
average in completing tasks, but tend to pay closer attention to detail. Working on a team is not a problem, but I
prefer teams with defined team member roles.
With all of that in mind, I am motivated by trust. Give me the
work and explain the expectations then trust me to do the job. Personal and mutual trust is very important to
me. If I do not trust my supervisor, it
makes it difficult for me to communicate. I have to find a way to resolve the issue
before I can be productive.
Being respected as a professional motivates me to try to
improve processes, techniques, tools and myself. If I am treated with respect, it is important
to me to not damage or lose that respect.
I will do everything in my ability to not disappoint. Conversely if I do not feel that respect is
present, I have nothing to lose.
Lastly, I want credit for my work. This is not the same as recognition. I do not want public pomp and circumstance. If work that I am involved with is discussed,
I want to know that I get credit for my contribution. I take responsibility and hold myself
accountable when I miss the mark. Just acknowledgement
for the times that I get it right, is all I want.
Motivation is complicated.
Motivating people is one of the hardest skill sets a leader will
learn. It is also one of the most
important concepts a leader must master. Managers and leaders have to be able to
motivate their people not only to get the job done, but employee happiness,
performance and job satisfaction as well as organizational effectiveness, cohesiveness,
and success depend on it.
References:
. ( © 2011). The
three things we work for (money isn't one of them). [Books24x7
version] Retrieved from http://common.books24x7.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/toc.aspx?bookid=43753.
White D and White, (2015,
June 23). Money Is nice, but it's not enough to motivate employees. Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247333 (Links to an external site.). 2016
June 25.
Miksen C., (no date) How to motivate employees who
work at routine,repetitive jobs. The Houston
Chronicle. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/motivate-employees-work-routine-repetitive-jobs-23644.html.
(2016, June 27)-
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