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Leading the Horse to Water: strategies for managing motivation

Guest post by: Teresa Pool, PCC

Article Overview: You’ve heard the old saying, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”. What causes one horse to step right up and drink deep and another decide to take a pass? Leaders often ask the same question when frustrated by failed attempts to motivate their people. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

Leading the Horse to Water: strategies for managing motivation

Jack developed his management style by working his way up the sales ladder. He understood the aggressive sales mindset and knew what made his guys tick: throw them a big challenge, dangle a bonus and get out of their way. It worked every time and made Jack and his people successful. So successful that he was given the marketing and customer service teams to work his "magic" there. You can imagine Jack's frustration when his tried-and-true motivational strategy failed to work on the creative types in marketing and the nine-to-five call center folks. "What's wrong with these people? They don't seem to care about our goals. Why can't they get jazzed up about what we are shooting for? What does it take to light a fire under them?"

The motivation challenge:

• Motivation is hidden. Although you can observe motivated and de-motivated behavior, the personal values that drive it are not visible. It is easy to assume a person's motivations from their behavior, but those assumptions are rarely accurate.
• Motivation is unique. Each of us has our own set of motivational drivers that has been developed over our lifetime. So you can't assume that what works for you will work for everyone else.
• Consistent motivational strategies create inconsistent results. If you use the same motivators for different people you will get different responses.

The motivation drivers:

There are six main categories of values that create motivation. Our own unique set is a composite of all the categories and how high or low we are in each one.

1. Continuous learning and development. Motivated by discovery and learning new things.
2. Return on investment. Motivated by concrete results and financial rewards.
3. Beauty and harmony in the environment. Motivated by artistic pursuits and harmonious relationships.
4. Social and interpersonal relationships. Motivated to make a difference in others' lives.
5. Individualism and independence. Motivated by power, influence and renown.
6. Tradition and a system for living. Motivated by an internal belief system for doing what they believe is right.

The motivation myths:

• "It's not fair to treat people differently." Actually it is really not fair to expect everyone to want the same thing.
• "I'm the boss and my people need to adapt to my style of motivational leadership." It is the boss' job to get the best results out of everyone.
• "I don't have time to personally motivate each person on my team." You really don't have time to make up for the low productivity of de-motivated people!

A-List Strategies for Motivational Management:

Ask. People usually know what makes them tick, so the safest bet is to just ask. A powerful question for getting to motivational criteria is, "What is important to you about..." ...your job, ...this project, ...my leadership, ...your performance. When Jack asked his Marketing team, "What is important to you about our goal?", many responded with a blank stare. But when asked, "What is important to you about your job?", the answers were commonly about artistic license and a cool work environment. When Jack tied the goal to spiffing up office décor, productivity soared.

Assess. Yes, you can measure an individual's unique mix of motivational traits with assessment tools. My favorite is Workplace Motivators. Jack discovered that many of his call center staff had a high value for systems and structure. This explained why his "Let's figure it out as we go along" mindset was creating such an uproar.

Acknowledge. People prefer praise and rewards that align with their own motivational values. A big bonus was a great fit for Jack's money-motivated (return-on-investment value) sales team. An informational conference or course might be a better reward for those with a high learning-and-development value. Public acknowledgement and a position increase could motivate a person with high individualism-and-independence.

Managing motivation is truly a case of "different strokes for different folks". Now you have the strategies and tools needed to get all your team members to drink deep and keep coming back for more!

Related Articles
  Don't Drag a Dead Horse
  Getting Your Horse (Customers) to Drink Water
  An Introduction to Trojan Horse Marketing
  Leadership Styles - A Lesson From Warzone Afghanistan
  You Can Spoil Your Dog But Dont Ruin It

Article Tags: aggressive sales, artistic pursuits, categories of values, concrete results, continuous learning, creative types, customer service teams, financial rewards, harmonious relationships, inconsistent results, interpersonal relationships, li li, main categories, management style, mindset, motivational strategies, motivations, motivators, personal values, return on investment



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