I'm asked often by managers, "How do I motivate my people?" While I always appreciate the question, it's really the wrong question to ask. The reason being is that if we have to motivate our people as managers, we're working too hard. The reality is that the best people don't need motivation, inspiration yes but not motivation.
There are three primary forms of motivation. Once you understand how they work, it can be very helpful to us as leaders to use the right form in the right situation.
The first form is fear motivation. Fear motivation is highly effective and will work, for a while. The problem with threatening someone with their job or pay cuts or whatever is that you have to constantly ratchet up the level of fear in order to get the motivation to work. People become numb to fear motivation. It's a short term strategy. Unfortunately, it works in the short term and makes people think that it can work forever.
The next form of motivation is incentive motivation. Incentive motivation is based upon gain. New money that they would earn in commissions, bonuses or other compensation. Incentive compensation is the equivalent of the carrot. If pain motivation is the stick, incentive motivation is the carrot. Again, it's effective although not as short term effective as fear motivation, it still works. Again the problem is, is that eventually it runs out. People become comfortable with the amount of money that they've earned, they don't feel the need to earn any more. They get caught in a financial comfort zone. By the way, this can occur at $40,000 a year, $400,000 a year, or $4 million a year. Most people that are motivated by money eventually run out of gas and hit a level that won't take them to the next level.
The ultimate form of motivation is intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is designed to have the person become the best person they can be. It's not a matter of how much money you make, it's a matter of how good can I be? It's a drive from within. It's endless in terms of supply. We can always strive to be better. If our goal is to be the best person we can be, the best salesperson, the best spouse, the best human being ... we never give up. We're always motivated.
Look for these people. These are your 'A' players. These are your stars. Regardless of what happens in their life, they typically bounce back. When you hire these people, they typically will not have all of the technical experience that they need to do your job. Don't worry. Because of intrinsic motivation, they have the inspiration and motivation to learn your products and services. Regardless whether they know them on day one. These are your 'A' players. Hire them, move the rest either up or out.
That's why we don't need to ask ourselves the question, "How do I motivate others?".
You might also be interested in:
