Wondering how to motivate imployees is a management fail
KEY POINTS
- Great leaders do not ask this question.
- Below-average managers confuse employee motivation with a failure of management systems to deliver desired results.
- Approaches that improve outcomes for colleagues and organizations are hiring systems, clear expectations, rewards/results alignment.
Simplifying a half-century of research in motivation theory and expectancy theory into one sentence, the literature concludes, “People do what is in their best interest to do.” People don’t “lack motivation.” Rather, they are motivated to make choices and to spend their time based on the value they expect to achieve.
- Hire right. Hiring is hard. Managers typically get it wrong 50% of the time (as defined by regretting making the hiring decision a year after someone starts).
- Clarify expectations. Is Pat supposed to sell or just install? This sounds like a ridiculous question, but many large and small organizations have poorly defined job expectations that result in a diffusion of energy by colleagues. A clear set of measurable outcomes, with results reviewed frequently (either verbally or on a performance dashboard that others can see), is an antidote to unclear expectations.
- Align rewards to results. If it is more valuable to an organization for a colleague to deliver higher output, then it only makes sense for the organization to reward the person accordingly, if not proportionally. Attempts to “push” employees to deliver greater output, without any increase in rewards they can expect, is illogical because it is disrespectful.
There are two big implications. One, if you are a manager and you find yourself beginning to wonder how to “motivate” employees, instead consider looking at the management systems that are influencing the choices colleagues are making about how to spend their time. Second, if you are searching for a job, do your homework and try to join an organization that seeks to align your interests with those of the organization rather than treat you like an “asset” from whom financial value is to be extracted.