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Motivation One Size Does Not Fit All

Written by: Alvah Parker

Article Overview: Managers continually try to find ways to motivate their employees. The most common way is to use bonuses and pay raises. What other ways work? Who else is responsible for finding what really motivates a person?

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Motivation One Size Does Not Fit All

“I’m not someone who is motivated by money”, said an attorney who was in one of my workshops. His comment was his reason for not doing the marketing he knew he needed to be doing. It is hard to gear up to do something when you can’t visualize a compelling reason to do it. His point was that he just didn’t get around to doing things he knew he “should” do but really didn’t want to do. Still his practice wasn’t growing so the issue is how does he motivate himself?

Some people use money as the score card for success. If they are earning more than the vast majority they feel good. We usually call a person like that very competitive because he or she is motivated by winning. Not everyone is motivated in this way however. One person who is motivated in this way is Jack Welch former CEO of GE and co-author with his wife Suzy Welch of the book "Winning". (Appropriate title!)

In the March 27th issue of "Business Week" Jack and Suzy Welch wrote a response to a question posed by a reader who asks, “In our business, the biggest challenge we have today is motivating our people. What is the best way to do that?” Their response was: “Besides money, you mean? We assume you do, because as a boss, you surely have seen how effective money is in lighting a motivational fire – even in employees who claim money doesn’t matter to them. Indeed, money’s power to energize people is so tried and true we won’t dwell on it.” The Welches go on to say that maybe some people aren’t motivated by financial reward but those people usually don’t gravitate toward business.

This kind of assumption makes me see red! First it assumes that people are all motivated by the same thing – money. Sure I think the vast majority of people can be motivated by money to a point. They want to provide a comfortable living for themselves and their families. Of course everyone has a different definition of “comfortable living” so for some money is a motivator for a long time. Once a person gets to their own threshold of “comfortable living” however what makes them want to continue to work on a project or their own practice? These are the true motivators and they come from within each person.

According to Ginny O’Brien, author of "Coaching Yourself to Leadership", her research shows that men are motivated by career development, professional recognition, and financial compensation, while women were motivated by relationships, quality of customer focus, and communication with colleagues. According to their Business Week article therefore it seems Jack and Suzy Welch think then that women would not “gravitate toward business.” In a sense using money as the carrot is a subtle discriminatory practice.

One aspect to leadership that O’Brien talks about is having a deep understanding of self. This is part of what is called emotional intelligence. Knowing what motivates you is one aspect of understanding yourself. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if business leaders got this? The major responsibility of finding your motivators is yours but how helpful it would be if managers coached employees with the goal of helping the employee find his or her key motivators.

It is important to differentiate internal from external motivators. Someone who is internally motivated finds the feelings within him or herself that really ignite passion. External motivators would be something outside the person like money and other tangible recognition methods. The external ones provide a burst of energy but don’t have sustainability.

What if companies provided a questionnaire to all new employees on their first day to determine if they knew what motivated them? The questionnaire might list lots of external motivators and have a question about internal ones too. Now if someone asked you those questions on your first day in the office, wouldn’t you think you had found the perfect place to work?! Of course the manager would need to follow through with appropriate coaching and rewards.

It is important to remember that a manager’s role is to create an environment in which the employee works effectively, creatively and productively so the business makes a profit. In that kind of environment employees have the freedom to explore what motivates them and the trust in their manager so that they share their findings.

Being self motivating is of course ideal but that can only happen when an employee is given the space and encouragement to figure it out for him/herself. If managers assume that one size fits all, they limit the possibilities of the business.



Take Action

1. Start with yourself. What motivates you? Take a piece of paper and write a story about a time when you were driven to keep working on something. The work was so engaging you would have done it without pay. See if you can determine what it was about the work that pulled you.

2. Knowing what your values will help you to know what is most important to you. That may be a clue as to what motivates you. For a values assessment please send an email to asparker@asparker.com with Truvalues as the subject.

3. Read "Coaching Yourself to Leadership" by Ginny O’Brien and "Winning" by Jack and Suzy Welch

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Home > Business-Coach > Alvah Parker > Motivation One Size Does Not Fit All
Article Tags: comfortable living, money, motivation, what motivates you

About the Author: Alvah Parker
RSS for Alvah's articles - Visit Alvah's website

Alvah Parker is a Practice Advisor (The Attorneys’ Coach) and a Career Changers’ Coach as well as publisher of "Parker’s Points", an email tip list and "Road to Success", an ezine. Subscribe now to these free monthly publications at her website http://www.asparker.com/samples.html and receive a free values assessment. Work becomes more meaningful and enjoyable when you work from your values. Alvah Parker began her career as a high school chemistry teacher. She later transitioned to a sales career at AT&T. As a Sales Professional at AT&T for 15 years she was elected to the prestigious Counsel of Leaders for the top 3% of the sales force. After leaving AT&T she transitioned into a coaching career.  Alvah is a senior coach for Boxwood Technology where she coaches association members on career issues and also  a SCORE Business Counselor where she advises and counsels small business owners. Parker’s Value Program© enables her clients to find their own way to work that is more fulfilling and profitable. Her clients are attorneys, entrepreneurs, managers and people in transition who want to find work that is in line with their own values. Alvah is found on the web at http://www.asparker.com. She may also be reached at 781-598-0388.

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Re: How To Stay Motivated In Your Business Re: How To Stay Motivated In Your Business - Motivation spurs people into actions every time. When there is no motivation the reason to move forward seems lost. Thanks so much for this post Evan
Choose 'stability' in a franchise Choose 'stability' in a franchise - Tapping into current 'trendy' franchises can be risky business - You may find yourself stuck with a longer term 10yr contract. What happens when the trend fizzles? Your investment disappears... There are a whole host of factors to consider when entering into the arena of franchising. A few items on the check list that should steer you into safer waters... away from the predators... are listed here. 1. Age (stability): 10+ years 2. Satisfied franchisees: 85% + satisfaction 3. Size (stability again): 250 units 4. Strong profits 5. Great management There are other measurements that need to be considered like - identifying accurate store profits. There are short-lists of franchises that meet these criteria. That's for another thread...
Re: Choose 'stability' in a franchise Re: Choose 'stability' in a franchise - [quote="RussellWebb":2gm9ygof]Tapping into current 'trendy' franchises can be risky business - You may find yourself stuck with a longer term 10yr contract. What happens when the trend fizzles? Your investment disappears... There are a whole host of factors to consider when entering into the arena of franchising. A few items on the check list that should steer you into safer waters... away from the predators... are listed here. 1. Age (stability): 10+ years 2. Satisfied franchisees: 85% + satisfaction 3. Size (stability again): 250 units 4. Strong profits 5. Great management There are other measurements that need to be considered like - identifying accurate store profits. There are short-lists of franchises that meet these criteria. That's for another thread...[/quote:2gm9ygof] Hi Russell, Looking forward to seeing this short-list!
Think like an Association Think like an Association - Hey Sebastian, Maybe you could try thinking like an Association... I would study the structure or formats used by other Associations. What are they doing to add value for their members? The BBB plays a monitoring role for consumers by gathering data about business' that are behaving badly. And they're pretty successful at it too. Maybe you can offer a 'Platinum Program' that franchisors buy into. Accredited members only. Criteria could be strict: 1. Age (stability): 10+ years 2. Satisfied franchisees: 85% + satisfaction 3. Size (stability again): 250 units 4. Strong profits 5. Great management -Maybe a 'Gold Program' for those Franchisors that aren't quite at that level, but can strive to reach it... -Top 100, 500, 1000 Listing for qualified members... maybe a slap at Entrepreneur.com and their biased top 10 lists... -Maybe act as a monitor like BBB? -Maybe team up with FranSurvey OR do something similar for each member (not sure about Fransurvey's rep, but I like the concept) There's so much discontent within the franchising arena that I think if you were part of the solution, then you could create a win/win with your Association. The only downside is that this power can get abused if there aren't good checks and balances within the association.
Re: Finding AND Keeping Good People Re: Finding AND Keeping Good People - Employee retention or as you mention “Keeping the Good People” is one of the biggest challenges for any growing business. It takes a huge effort from the entrepreneur’s end. I can come up with the following when it comes to KEEPing the good people- 1. Motivation of the employees 2. Recognition of the needs of the employees 3. Activities to make the employees feel valuable towards the organization 4. Make benefits more accessible 5. Offer profit sharing incentives 6. Create clear career paths at the company 7. Consider telecommuting, job sharing and other flexible working arrangements 8. Incentives are essential and they don't have to be huge 9. Have other managers praise an employee's work 10. Be sensitive to the balance between work and private life


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