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Motivation - Some Things Never Change
| Guest post by: Geoff Flemming |
Article Overview: Motivation and our natural tendency to use 'carrot and stick' to motivate - and why it has the opposite effect!
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Free Download - Joy of Confrontation By Geoff Flemming |
Motivation - Some Things Never Change
My youngest son who hasrecently turned 16 managed to find employment at the local McDonalds. Being very commercially oriented, he has been working various part time jobs for years whilst waiting to become of age to be a casual employee - anywhere with anyonewho would employ him.
Having been at McDonaldsfor about a month he had been through some of what could be referred to as his 'sense of entitlement'. When asked to move faster he pointed out safety risks, and also questioned and pushed back when one manager raised her voice. Needless to say he is not the most popular employee there!
At a very recent discussion with a very youngmanager, she pointed out to my son that to work at McDonalds, he would haveto get used to getting yelled at every now and then. Where did this management strategycome from!? Whilst I have never been to 'HamburgerUniversity', I suspect thatthere is no training program in place in which managers are instructed to yell if all else fails!
Something we do innately as humans is usewhat I would call the 'power stick'. As parents when we want something to happen quicker, or to happen at all with our children we either incentivise, threaten or justturn up the volume!
So why do we as leaders and managers use the power stick? Because we can!
Author and speaker John Maxwell explains in many of his books the basic need of people in every organisation - to be listened to, respected and understood.
Nearly 30 years ago Ken Blanchard wrote a book called 'One minute Manager'. He talked about the value of praising, setting targets and counselling with employees. Blancharddidn't mention anything about yelling!
Bestsellling authorand speaker Daniel Pink says it best. He talks about our innate use of 'carrot and stick' in order to get results. Daniel relates to the use of rewards and punishmentsto control our employees' production as an antiquated way of managing people.Carrot and stick management not only dimishes performance, it kills intrinsic motivation, crushes creativity, encourages shortcuts and bad behaviour, and fosters short term thinking.
Pink relates to three areas that we need to upgrade our thinking:
1. Autonomy - Intrinsically motivatedpeople will always outperform those whose motivation is based purely upon external rewards. Employees are most motivated when theyhave autonomy - still operating interdependentlybutacting with choice. When people can make good decisions and can act upon them holding them accountable becomes simple. They want to dothe right thing!
2. Mastery - Threatening and coercingcauses simply employees to become disengaged. Only engagement causes mastery. With mastery in place people will want to achieve goals and will thriveon solving even the most complex of problems. Mastery means that employees will enjoy becoming the best that they can be.
3. Purpose - Having clear purpose provides context for both autonomy and mastery. Employees with purpose attach their desires to a cause greater and more enduring than themselves. Withclear purpose intrinsic motivation is at its highest and there is little needfor extrinsicrewards.
This is aboutour people beingat their best. This process does not mean to place happiness over profits.This move to accompany profit maximisation withautonomous, engaged and purposeful employees has the potential to rejuvenate our businesses and remake our world!
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Article Tags: crucial confrontations, crucial conversations, incentives, Influence change, Leadership, motivation
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About the Author: Geoff Flemming RSS for Geoff's articles - Visit Geoff's website Geoff Flemming is the Director of Business Transformations, a well established coaching and consulting firm based in Victoria. Apart from Geoff's track record in senior management working with a range of Australian corporations, Geoff has been in the coaching field for 11 years. He has developed and delivered a range of leadership and behavioural change programs nationally through a range of industries. His specialty is in developing emerging leaders and working with fast growth organisations. Geoff has designed and successfully delivered leadership and executive coaching development programs through service industries such as retail security and salons, through to pharmacy groups and a number of franchise organisations. The primary outcome in organisations that have been through Geoff's programs is in the creation of a culture of leadership and high performance. That is teams of people who are aligned, communicate well, keep each other accountable and are intrinsically motivated to achieve the best possible result. Geoff also runs Crucial Conversations Australia / New Zealand. This organisation is part of SevenSeventeen, the licensee for VitalSmarts products in Australia and New Zealand. Crucial Conversations now runs under license in more than 40 countries around. It is the consumate program for people in all walks of life to teach how to have tought conversations - and have them go well! http://www.crucialconversations.com.au Click here to visit Geoff's website   The Need for a Skill Transforming Performance by Improving Thinking The Art of Relationships within Organisations Motivation and Ability Laser Like Focus |
Related Forum Posts
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
Re: Spellcheck?
- [quote="TheAnonymousMan":2f894q6j]When discussing the majority of people I would definitely say that most people hit the "Change" or "Ignore" button without thinking too much about the correct spelling of a word. All bosses are concerned about is getting the report to the Directors meeting on time.[/quote:2f894q6j]
That probably depends on what the "majority" are trying to accomplish. I have word set to alert me about misspellings and grammatical problems, so I fix most as I go. But I also add names etc to the dictionary because I get tired of seeing the red and green squiggles when I know the info is right.
If you're only going to click "Change" or "Ignore" then why bother to take the time to use spell check????? Business people that I work for want the info compiled in a timely manner and they want it right - which is fine because that's the way I strive to do any project. Sending out a memo, letter, report etc with obvious spelling and grammatical mistakes makes the person and the company look bad as far as I'm concerned.
Shri
Re: Seth Godin: Star Fish v Long Tail
- Thanks for sharing, David. I always enjoy the interest it brings me when I read these types of things. Things that make you think to consider other possibilities, no matter how obvious they may seem.
Cheers,
Emma
Re: What is your biggest challenge? Today?
- The Big challenge i face many days, is the challenge to stay on schedule.
Things always pop up, like family plans and social gatherings.
I always end up procrastinating.
I've heard it's a very common situation, so does anyone have a resolution to that?
Franchisng
- This is a ll excellent information. I guess I am in a limbo about this. I have a great business that has the potential to be an a amazing franchise. But I am bogged down with the day to day work that franchising seems overwhelming. I also don't know if I actually want to take the risk to expand. Do you tamper with a model that works well? Things to think about! Anyone been in this situation?
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