MOTIVATION AND PAY!

What are your motivations? Better would be to ask what interests you, gets you involved, excites you, is a source of pride once done (and you might want to do even better next time). Many staff will say ‘Money!’ when asked. Problems: does money actually raise people’s performance (or merely satisfy wants), and do you as manager have any control over pay and rewards?

Levering pay
If you have some control over pay, lever it to get better performance from employees (eg with on-the-spot bonuses to raise performance, or reward for performance you want repeated – but make it very clear that you want the performance repeated, at an even higher level).If you have no control over pay, do not let it take over the minds of employees! Pay is usually between 3rd to 7th in lists of people’s motivators if they are honest. Leaving aside money, things like interesting and important work, challenges, involvement in decisions, freedom to do the job their way, trust, and praise motivate people from gardeners to CEOs.

Pay is too often a sterile and temporary route to motivation. Some people enjoy bonuses and piece-work pay, but once the same bonus gets paid every year it loses impact and becomes part of the expected overall pay package. Piece-work pay will not necessarily raise performance unless a pay-for-quality or outstanding work element is included.
This may mean differentiating between better and weaker performers: a sensitive exercise.Try paying three labourers working together on a garden project three different daily amounts.

The garden labourers will expect fairness of treatment from their point of view (concerns about current equity). Staff who work more independently of each other might learn that the amount of effort they put in to the job produces a certain level of performance, which managers can encourage by attaching, in due course, pay to that certain level of performance (focus on future expectations). Big organisations with fixed scales of pay and annual increases suffer from excessive concern about equity and rules; smaller business have a chance, at least, to lever pay (as in pay for results and on-the-spot bonuses – managers: just make sure performance results, speeds and quality rise, and that employees make the connection with expected money).
 
Satisfaction and motivation differ
Satisfaction and motivation are not the same. Ask yourself: ‘If I have had a good lunch,do I want another straightaway?’ (hunger may not be a motivator for some time).

Immediately after an employee has received a satisfying bonus, money may not motivate them: it has a short motivating life.Similarly, it is not always good for managers to worry about satisfying employees by giving them easy work. Why not stretch them?
Why should you let staff enjoy too much satisfaction from doing their current work at today’s (or yesterday’s) standards?Stretch people as much as possible, so they keep seeking job achievement satisfaction, and increase their performance into the future,striving forhigher and ever receding, but still reachable goals (if their motivations and skills enable this).

‘A bit faster next time please, to reduce our production costs.’ or ‘even higher quality, please, to attract new customers.’ contain all-important ‘why’ reasoning behind attempts to motivate people (and leave a motivating ‘how’ up to them).
What about stress?Clearly, too much is bad: stress-related breakdowns and absenteeism, and lowered performance through stress should be avoided. But organisms flourish with some degree of stress (trees are stronger if bent by wind when young rather than being staked, most Impala become fit enough to outrun lions, staff and managers who enjoy solving urgent, difficult problems).

Self-actualisation

If you believe people want self-actualisation (becoming what they are capable of becoming), why not help them on their way with some simple encouragement?
For example, allow some employees and teams to work at a role rather than task level by explaining how they can contribute to the business.

A dentist’s receptionist who has potential may be demotivated and stressed from under-utilisation if she / he merely books people into fixed 30-minute slots. If she / he is empowered to ask patients about their problem, make judgements about the best use of the valuable time of the dentist (a key role), and invoice patients, then some self-actualisation may begin. At the other end, expect senior managers to have high levels of desire for self-actualisation, to see their roles as achieving ever higher results, and to bring in innovations, for their own growth and for the good of the business.

Hopefully, boards, CEOs,rules and tradition do not constrain senior managers who want to make a difference and to add value.
Tightly-specified jobs are limiting. Flexible roles which enable individuals and teams to be self-directing encourage growth. Such roles allow hands-off managers to emphasise the ‘why’ and to leave the ‘how’ to good staff and teams.

(A famous saying is: ‘Just tell them the what, when, and, above all, why, and you will be surprised by the results!’.) Hands-on managers who detail every aspect of the task are likely to depress workers’ motivations and stunt their growth.
Highly motivated people will still want or need pay, but for committed professionals contributing at the very top of their game no amount of money will make them improve: they cannot, for they are already giving 100 per cent.
Their driver is self-actualisation.

Next week: Dealing with underperformance.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: