Breaking the Money and Motivation Link

Motivation ....one of the most important lessons you can learn!

Richard Townsend - orglearn - Management tips, free blank resume form, fill in the blank resume sections online.
What managers need to do & the issues to consider in the soft skills area of their role. Articles on behavior, motivation, selling, competence, teamwork, EQi & leadership. Blank resume form with positive examples, handy self-analysis to evaluate the commercial realities of what you have to offer employers.

Measuring, Motivation and Leadership

A great TED Talk by Chip Conley

Measuring, Motivation and Leadership.... Maslow and much more!




Richard Townsend

Motivation: Why has Business got it so Wrong

Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation... or is that inspiration!?



Excellent... take the time, its worth it!

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How do I Stay Motivated During a Takeover?

Perhaps this readers question (see below) should be (and maybe is) How do I Survive or even thrive in a when being taken over?

Here is the actual question...

"I would like to ask you on how an HR Person would still feel motivated and make subordinates motivated in the mids of buy-out?

Honestly speaking, it is quite difficult on my part to retain employees with this kind of issue.  I myself is also affected, and yet should show a different aura infront of the employee though..."

Possible approach...

When my company was taken over I took the advice of my brother-in-law who had a similar experience and did well. He said, 'engage yourself in the process, look positively on the change, work towards the new team goals, become an asset to the merger/takeover team, look to the future and their vision forget the past and most of all stay away from the detractors, the fearful and the resistors.' In other words sell yourself to the new management.

Note: I did also well, became a liaison officer for the staff on both sides was included in a roadshow to explain the new vision and ended up with a better position in the 'merged' company.

Ric

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REINFORCEMENT THEORY – ‘THE CARROT & THE STICK’

Theorists who support this ‘motivation’ approach believe that we need not be concerned about follower’s internal mental states, prior knowledge, learning styles or current levels of an individual’s understanding (internal cognitive events). Rather they argue that ‘reinforces’, (consequences that immediately follow behavior) will, if they are ‘good’ lead to a repetition of the behavior and if they are ‘bad’ will lead to an avoidance of the behavior.

Although this theory is accepted in many circles, (because its easy and we don’t need to think too hard to apply it) experience shows that this philosophy ignores much that is known about human behavior. In addition it is likely (particularly if applied in isolation) to stimulate behavior designed to do as little as possible to avoid the ‘stick’ and as little as possible to gain acceptable levels of reward or the ‘carrot’.

If the object of creating motivated staff is to strive to create excellence and superior performance the danger of using this technique is that the leader/manager will only create a comfortable state of trouble free mediocrity.

Do you ever say to yourself... god this is a mediocre bunch...or that department is a poor performer... perhaps you should look at they're boss and ask him/her to stew his/her carrots over someone else's fiery sticks... 

YOU CAN LEAD A MULE TO WATER BUT YOU CAN’T MAKE IT REPRODUCE

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MOTIVATION - EQUITY THEORY TWO

If our staff perceive themselves as being unjustly or inequitably treated in relation to others and they experience equity tension there are a number of possible courses of action they are likely to choose from:

Change their level of input - reduce their level of effort

Change their outcomes, where reward is linked to output - reduce quality to improve quantity 

Change their self-perception (of worth) - maybe I really am a workaholic 

Distort their perception of others - that guys got a hard job 

Change their referent - I’m doing better than my sister is 

or last but not least… Quit the job

Factors that may be used by individuals judging their input levels include, effort, experience, education, time, perceived competence, skills and knowledge. Factors that may be seen as outcomes include, salary, prospects of increasing financial rewards, promotion prospects, levels of praise and levels of public recognition. 

BEST PLAN WELL ON HOW TO JUSTIFY DIFFERENT REWARD LEVELS WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION OR ITS… “I’M THE CHEAPEST LABOUR HERE” & ITS OUT THE DOOR THEY GO

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MOTIVATION - EQUITY THEORY

This theory states that individuals compare their level of job inputs and outcomes with those of others and then actively seek to eliminate any inequities. In other words if we believe that we are being correctly rewarded for our efforts in relation to others a state of justice exists, however if we perceive ourselves as being unjustly treated in relation to others we experience ‘equity tension’.

The benchmark that is chosen by each individual is important for the leader/manger if he or she is to uncover an individual’s motivation. These benchmarks or ‘referent comparisons’ are:

            Self-inside, experiences in other positions inside the organization

            Self-outside, experiences in other positions outside the organization

            Other-inside, other employees within the organization

            Other-outside, other employees outside the organization

Another interesting aspect of this theory is that comparisons can be made on the employees past treatment in relation to another’s current treatment. This particularly comes into play when you are hiring new staff. If the entry-level wage for an existing employee hired two years ago was $1,000.00 per month and today you offer the same position at  $1,200.00 per month it is likely that existing employees will see this as inequitable. This situation will occur, even if the existing employees are paid in excess of the $1,200.00 you are now offering. 

IT IS HUMAN TO COMPARE OURSELVES WITH OTHERS SO BEWARE OF PERCEIVED INEQUITIES

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Leaders in Tough Times - Remember Maslow?

Maslow

‘Basic human needs are arranged in a hierarchical order’

Townsend

“Individuals constantly move up and down the pyramid depending on how the perceive their current and potential situation”

According to Maslow ‘there are two major groups of human needs: basic including physiological, such as food, water, and sleep and psychological, such as affection, security, and self-esteem. These basic needs are also called deficiency needs because if an individual does not meet them, then that person will strive to make up the deficiency.’

‘The higher needs are called growth needs. These include such things as justice, ‘goodness’, order, unity, glamour, status, beauty and self-fulfillment. Deficiency needs Maslow argued take priority over growth needs. People who lack food or water cannot attend to justice or beauty.’

So in the current climate leaders will need to concentrate on making their followers feel ‘secure’. I would be searching for articles on “motivation”  (Google) and be keeping this issue at the top of my (your) mind over the next 12 - 24 months. Now is the time to be carefully listening to the concerns of your followers and perhaps taking on the “leader as servant” advice.

This is the third time I have been through this situation and it reminds me of how everyone feels during a merger or takeover. During stressful times all questions about work or the company are really just one question in many disguises. What is that question… “What’s going to happen to me”?

This worldwide situation is a paradigm shift and ‘when there is a paradigm shift everyone goes back to zero’ - Joel Barker

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Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy

Self–actualization

Growth, Achieving one’s potential, Self-fulfillment

Self Esteem

Self Respect, Status, Recognition, Autonomy, Achievement

Social

Belonging, Social Activities, Love and Affection, Acceptance and Friendship

***Safety

Security, Protection from danger both physical and emotional

***Physiological

Hunger, Thirst, Sleep, Shelter, Sex and other bodily needs

Ric

Richard Townsend

www.orglearn.org

MOTIVATION… THE LAST EXPECTANCY LINK!

EXPECTANCY THEORY offers one more linkage insight into why many people are not motivated in their job. The last of the three links or relationships is: 

The Reward = Attractiveness relationship (How attractive is the reward?)

In this last relationship the individual’s personal judgments and personal goals come strongly into play. If you offer a promotion to someone who is looking for more intellectually challenging technical problems/opportunites the reward offered will be ineffective. More money may not be attractive to someone who craves more personal time to be with his or her family. 

The key message this theory offers for effective leader/managers is that it demonstrates the need for leaders to have a sound understanding of an INDIVIDUALS goals and aspirations and their perceived linkage between effort and performance, performance and rewards and finally rewards and individual goal satisfaction.

THE OLD ‘LETS HAVE AND EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH AND HAND OUT SOME RECOGNITION’ JUST DOES NOT WORK.

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DIFFICULTY WITH STAFF MOTIVATION… IT COULD BE A LINKAGE PROBLEM!

EXPECTANCY THEORY proposes that an individual will act in a certain way based on the expectation that what they do will lead to, or will be linked to, a particular outcome. The motivation ‘value’ is also linked to how that person views the attractiveness of that outcome. The theory focus’s on three relationships:

The first of these is the… Effort = Performance linkage (How hard will I have to work?)

Looking at this proposition, if employees do not perceive themselves as competent (having the skills and knowledge they need) they may believe that no matter how much effort they exert they will not receive recognition as a top performer. Often this undesirable situation is reinforced by a performance appraisal system that takes into account such factors as loyalty, initiative, courage, third party perceptions on a person’s ability to be promoted and even the employees general presentation.

IF YOU NEED TO INSPIRE FOR TOP PERFORMANCE YOU NEED TO STRONGLY LINK EFFORT TO REWARDS

More on motivation next issue...

p.s. If your an employee that is not getting the desired level of rewards perhaps its time to move on. Follow here for a free blank resume form, you fill in the resume form blank sections under each heading and build yourself a 'personal interview gabbing ad'.

MOTIVATION PRINCIPLES AND WHY WE CAN’T MOTIVATE OTHERS

Points to consider:

All human motivation is basically selfish, i.e. people do things for their reasons not ours.

All people are motivated and they will continually move either towards or away from all propositions.

You cannot motivate other people because all motivation comes from within.

People’s motivation is constantly changing in response to their ever-changing personal priorities.

To utilize others motivation, find out what they want and why they want it and then convince them that you are their best chance of getting it.

MONEY IS NOT A MOTIVATOR, HOWEVER LACK OF MONEY IS A BIG DE-MOTIVATOR!

Worth a thought, MR HERZBERG?

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MOTIVATION, OFTEN TALKED ABOUT… LITTLE UNDERSTOOD!

A DEFINITION

“The emotional forces, wants, needs, urges or drive within us that influence our behaviour” or… ‘a willingness to exert varying levels of effort based on our perception that the level of effort will satisfy some individual craving’.

NEED WANTS URGES DEFINED (HOW IT ALL WORKS)

Needs, wants, urges (cravings), are feelings that make particular outcomes appear attractive. When a craving is not satisfied tension is created within, which in turn stimulates an urge or drive causing us to seek a solution to satisfy the craving and thus reduce our tension. This is similar to the craving a smoker experiences, particularly when trying to quit. Have you ever been enticed by the aroma of a chicken roasting, or meat sizzling on a BBQ, only to have your spouse say something like, ‘lets eat fish fingers and salad for dinner’? You might yield to the request but your tension level will have increased due to the unsatisfied craving for the chicken or BBQ’d meat.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR LEADERS

Successful leaders understand that their followers are influenced by various states of tension and they are able to utilise the fact that when tension is increased the followers will exert higher levels of effort as they attempt to reduce their tension levels. Obviously in a work situation managers (as leaders) ideally need to ensure that the individuals’ cravings (needs & wants)… and efforts, are in harmony with organisational goals.

ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT

Different perceptions of what motivates ‘subordinates’, according to the manager/leader versus those that are being managed/following have been proven in survey after survey over the decades. Still mangers seem to miss the point that time and a ‘subordinates’ personal and work situation is central to everything. Example: Young single employees in an expanding job market may respond to a stimulus of interesting work and public recognition today become engaged to the guy or girl next door and tomorrow their looking for a pay increase and a career path. Then they are pregnant… job security and a salary increase may for many then become a “craving”

AND THE THERE WAS MASLOW (I think)!

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