motivation | Behavior Matters!

Tag: motivation Page 4 of 13

In order to maximize motivation leaders need to provide an opportunity for employees to satisfy the four drives: Acquire & Achieve, to Bond & Belong, to be Challenged & Comprehend, and to Define & Defend. Leader’s can begin to influence and start to fulfill each of these drives by using some of the systems and processes they already have in place. Alterations and enhancements to those systems and processes can help the organization be one in which employees can satisfy their drives and become highly motivated!

We attempt to map the connection between each of the four drives and the different organizational systems/processes that impact them.

Drive A: Achieve & Acquire

This drive is primarily satisfied through a company’s Reward System. This drive is met when companies have a total reward system that: highly differentiates top performers from average performers and average performers from poor performers; clearly ties rewards to performance; recognition is given for outstanding performance; pay is above competitive benchmarks in the city/industry; and top employees are promoted from within.

Drive B: Bond & Belong

This drive is mostly met through an Organizations Culture. Organizations who’s culture is one that: embraces teamwork; encourages the development of friendships and bonding; one in which employees can depend on their peers to help them; a culture that values collaboration; a culture that celebrates and shares; and a culture that is focused on the “employee first” are crucial to this drive being met.

Drive C: Challenge & Comprehend

This drive is fulfilled primarily through Job and Organizational Structure. Organizations need to ensure that the various job roles within the company provide employees with stimulation that challenges them or allows them to grow. Job roles that satisfy this drive should: be seen as important in the organization; jobs should provide personal meaning and fulfillment; roles should engender a feeling of contribution to the organization; organizational structures that provide growth opportunities within the company; learning offerings (training, seminars, etc) that provide employees with new skills and knowledge, job sharing/rotational opportunities that can provide new challenges are the key to fulfilling this particular drive.

Drive D: Define & Defend

This drive is met mostly through an employee feeling alignment and connection to the organization. This can be done through a company’s Vision/Reputation and their Performance Management System. Organizations that have a strong vision or positive reputation in the marketplace can help create that alignment with employees. The company should be perceived to be: fair; providing a valued service or good; ethical; and good stewards. Organization’ performance management systems can also help through giving insight into the company’s vision. Performance management system should be one that is: open and transparent; perceived to be fair; provides direction; and that is trusted by employees.

What great leaders need to do:

Rightfully or not, many employees look to the company to provide them their motivation for work. While many of these motivations are inherently in a company, good leaders know that they have to work at it constantly to ensure that they are satisfying all four drives.

1. Focus on all 4 Drives:

It is important to understand that all the good work that a company or leader does in these four areas can be ruined if one of the four drives is lacking. Research shows that weakness on fulfilling one of the 4-Drives “castes a negative halo” on how the company or leader performs on all the other 3 drives. It is important then for a leader to ensure that they are identifying and addressing any issues that they see in any of the four drive areas.

2. Individualize motivation:

It is also important to know that individual employees each have a unique 4-Drive Motivational profile. In other words, some employees will respond or require greater satisfaction of the A drive, while others will focus in on the C drive (or B or D). Each employee will perceive how the company or leader is performing on these differently. Good leaders are one’s who understand those differences and can focus specific employees on the satisfiers of their specific needs.

3. Communicate effectively:

Leaders need to be able to effectively communicate how their systems, policies and structure align with the four drives. In other words, they need to be able to explain to map out the connections between what the company is doing or providing and how that would satisfy one or more of the drives. For instance, a leader could discuss the reason that they are sponsoring a community service event is not only to help the community (drive D) but also to provide an opportunity for employees to get to know each other and their families (drive B) and to give them a chance to learn a new skill (drive C).

4. Experiment:

Good leaders need to constantly look for ways of enhancing each of the four drives. This is an ongoing commitment that requires leaders to be focused on looking for different ways in which they can provide the opportunities for employees to satisfy their needs. They should implement new structures and processes and see how they work.

Next steps:

We can help you or your company use the 4-drives to increase motivation. We offer assessment, consulting and workshops on this. You can contact us at 612-396-6392 or kurt@lanterngroup.com

Let us know what you think – leave a comment below!

The motivation of Calvin and Hobbes

On April 24, 2011

In Employee Motivation, Uncategorized

Oh the motivation of a Saturday morning when I was a kid…need I say more?

Saturday Morning Motivation

Wouldn’t it be great if we all woke up with this type of enthusiasm everyday!

32 ideas to make life a little better

On April 19, 2011

In Gratitude, Motivation, Uncategorized

Over the last few years I’ve used 3×5 index cards to jot down things that I need to do more often. These were often written in response to a particular need I felt I had or a specific situation. Some where just thoughts that I had to try to make my life a little better. It started simple with a note to “Go outside and play with the dog.” It expanded to 32 ideas that have helped me stay grounded. Here is what the two cards look like (notice they are stapled together – I should have used a larger index card):

Whats important to me

I have this posted on my bulletin board in front of me everyday. I don’t always do these…but I often do. It helps ground me and keep me motivated. It helps me escape the trap of working all the time. I hope that it helps keep me balanced. I thought you might enjoy.

Here are the items in case you can’t read my bad handwriting along with some additional commentary:

1. Go outside and play with the dog

2. Take a five minute stretch break

3. Focus on the BIG stuff

4. Drink tea

5. Write thank you’s

6. Call old friends [We never seem to do this enough]

7. Eliminate the trivial

8. Clean up after yourself [this was in response to my overly messy desk]

9. Appreciate the moment

10. Get involved

11. Surprise someone by doing something nice

12. Take a walk

13. Notice the little things

14. Cook a good meal (at least) once a week [ok, I just added in the “at least” – really, just once a week isn’t nearly enough]

15. Enjoy the mundane

16. Have coffee with acquaintances

17. Escape e-mail

18. Drive out and watch the sunset [I live in the city and it is hard to see a good sunset on the horizon like in my youth in Iowa]

Moving to the second card…

19. Think ahead, not behind [I tend to worry too much about what I should have done and not what I need to do]

20. Make a commitment a week

21. Watch less t.v.

22. Keep a journal

23. Buy flowers

24. Appreciate touch and smell

25. Take big breathes [I find that it helps to calm one self and refocus energy]

26. Change the negative patterns

27. Move around – change the scene

28. Motivate yourself

29. Embed beauty in your memory

30. Stop-think-act

31. Pay for memories [not things]

32. Write down good stories

33. [Express your gratitude] – I need to add this to the card!

If you have other ideas or comments to add to this list – I would love to hear them. Add them to the comments section below!

Repost: Expanding on Dan Pink – How to Drive Employee Motivation

On April 1, 2011

In Employee Motivation, Four Drive Theory, Incentive Compensation, Incentive Plans and Sales Awards, Leadership, Motivation, Uncategorized

[This article was first published in September of 2009]

It has been interesting how much attention has been paid to Dan Pink’s latest message on motivation that was presented at TED. The number of tweets, blogs, and other messages about this have been huge. We ourselves highlighted the speech here on this blog a couple of weeks ago (http://wp.me/pypb9-31 ).

What I find interesting and a little worrisome, is the idea that many are taking from Dan’s presentation that all incentives (or at least most) are bad. I disagree 100% with that concept. I would like to expand the conversation to explore why.

The debate about intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation has been going on for a long time. The candle experiment presented by Pink was done in the 1950’s. Deci & Ryan research from 1970’s and 1980’s suggested that extrinsic rewards can decrease intrinsic motivation. Alfie Kohn wrote about how he thought extrinsic rewards were bad in “Punished by Rewards” in the 1990’s. All of this research suggested a negative correlation between extrinsic rewards and intrinsic motivation.

However, that is not the only research out there! Research based on both real life corporate performance data and academic experiments show a different side to this debate.

First, performance data from a number of sources points to an increase in performance when incentives are used. Stajkovic and Luthans’ meta-analysis of 72 contingent based behavior programs found that money incentives increased performance by 23%, social recognition increased performance by 17%, and feedback increased performance by 10%. BI, a performance improvement company, has shown increases of over 300% between a control group and an incentivized group in sales performance.

Those are hard numbers to ignore!

Also, Paul Hebert does a nice job of highlighting research by the International Society for Performance Improvement that indicate a 22% increase in performance for individual incentives and 44% for team based incentives – (see it here http://tiny.cc/nHfAj – he also discusses some other arguments around Dan Pink’s message).

Second researchers have found that the way that incentives are structured has a significant impact on their performance as well as on the impact they have on intrinsic motivation. Work by Eisenberger, Cameron and Pierce show that extrinsic rewards, if structured correctly, can actually increase intrinsic reward. They state, “The findings suggest that reward procedures requiring ill-defined or minimal performance convey task triviality, hereby decreasing intrinsic motivation. Reward procedures requiring specific high task performance convey a task’s personal or social significance, increasing intrinsic motivation.” Specific to creativity, Eisenberger and Cameron “concluded that decremental effects of reward on intrinsic task interest occur under highly restricted, easily avoidable conditions and that positive effects of reward on generalized creativity are readily attainable by using procedures derived from behavior theory” [emphasis added]. Yet Dan Pink does not reference any of their work in his book (see here for some research articles that point to how extrinsic rewards can increase creativity: Eisenberger, Armeli, and Pretz, Eisenberger and Rhoades, and Eisenberger, Cameron and Pierce)

In our own work, we’ve seen that when individuals are given a choice in choosing levels of goals and subsequent rewards, they have an increased motivation to choose (and achieve) higher goals than what management would have given them.

That being said, Dan Pink has gotten the discussion flowing on this – which I think is very good. He has also highlighted the fact that most organizations only see one lever to pull when trying to impact employee motivation – i.e. pay systems. As he points out, there are other aspects that influence employee’s motivation. This is vital. To improve performance, creativity, and accountability businesses need to look at more than just rewards! I hope that this will help expand the use of other motivators!

Dan talks about Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose – these fit right into the Four Drive Model of Employee Motivation. Autonomy and Mastery align with our Drive to Challenge and Comprehend, while purpose fit nicely with the Drive to Defend. What Dan leaves out is the power that the Drive to Bond has on motivating employees.

Overall, I think the discussion that will result from Dan’s presentation is great, I just hope that it doesn’t get boiled down to the simple sound bite that “incentives are bad.”

UPDATE APRIL 1, 2011

Let’s start with the positive: Dan’s book has done very well and has helped focus people on the the need for looking beyond the pay system to help drive motivation throughout the business. This is a very, very positive impact.

Now for the bad: the mantra that “incentives are bad” has been one of the larger themes to arise from the success of his book. This is not a positive impact. It has led to a number of non-experts jumping on the bandwagon expounding their personal belief that all pay-for-performance measures should be gotten rid of. That incentives themselves are bad. And that people will be 100% fully motivated if we can just figure out how to make jobs more autonomous, provide mastery and have a purpose. Of course, this doesn’t really account for a lot of what really happens in the world as we know it.

Moving forward, I would like to propose that the discussion around this topic is good – as long as we look at all the research and at how incentives should / should not be used. We need to look at all the tools in our tool belt – that includes things such as Mastery, Autonomy and Purpose – but also includes other things like rewards.

Let me know your thoughts – click on the comment section below!

Kurt

Taking some time to recharge

On March 28, 2011

In Employee Motivation, Motivation, Uncategorized

I feel that it is important that we take time for ourselves to recharge. When I say that, I mean more than just finding the ten minutes a day to have some quiet time or even an hour a day to exercise (although both of these things help).

I mean that we are able to fully disengage from our main line of work for a week.

I just did this – I took a vacation!

Yes, I checked in on e-mail a few times (and even posted here), but for the most part, I took the time off and enjoyed my family, relaxed, forgot about real life and absolutely enjoyed myself.

I recommend this to everyone.

I think it also:

Recharges us – coming back from vacation, I feel much more motivated to do work. It feels new again.
Refocuses us – time off allows us to refocus our energies. I think that it provides a perspective that allows us to better identify the important tasks that we need to do. It helps us prioritize!
Enlarges us – we come back with new experiences that help us look at things differently and I would say more creatively. We tend to grow in different ways while we are on vacation. This gives us a broader
Encourages us – this time for ourselves makes us realize that work is an important part of who and what we are. I tend to miss it when on vacation (or at least parts of it).
Reminds us – of the reason that we work – both the intrinsic aspects that make us appreciate the work we do as well as the extrinsic aspects that provide us the means to take a vacation. It makes you realize that there is more to life than just work – but how important work is to our life.
Inspires us – I had the opportunity to spend a week with one of the nicest, most thoughtful, most resilient people I’ve ever had the opportunity to meet. His life story and his attitude on life inspired me. We get the opportunity when we take time off to be inspired by any number of different elements.
Connects us – to new people, new places, new ideas. We come back from our time away with more connections that can serve us well in the upcoming days, months, years…

So make sure that you take time off to recharge yourself. Make sure that you don’t shortchange your vacation, or miss it, or do too much work over it. Remember…the time off is important to our overall motivation and well being!

I’m sure there are many more positive aspects to taking time off. Please let us know your thoughts on this.

Layoffs and employee motivation – observations from the outside

On March 7, 2011

In Communications, Employee Motivation, Leadership, Uncategorized

My wife’s company has just gone through a layoff of 125 people. This layoff was announced a few weeks ago and came as a surprise for most people (mostly the employees working there). Of course I had concern for my wife’s job and those of her co-workers…but I also had a curiosity of seeing firsthand from a very close proximity the effects that the layoff had on motivation. This is a qualitative look from my perspective and as such, should be taken with a grain of salt – but still, I think there are some useful nuggets here.

Here are a few observations that I saw:

1. Layoffs suck motivation out of people

From talking to people and listening to my wife, the overarching fact was that this layoff sucked the motivation out of almost all the employees. They were nervous. They were mad. They were making contingency plans. They were talking one-on-one or in small groups about what was going on. They were frightened.

What they weren’t doing was being motivated and productive.

Any company that thinks its employees are going to be motivated because they are afraid of losing their jobs, needs to rethink that assumption. From what I saw, it acted in exactly the opposite way. There was a sense of apathy and one of giving up once the upcoming layoff was announced. People started updating their resume’s, they added people to their Linked-in network (I got quite a few of these from my wife’s co-workers), and they called their friends and acquaintances (either to prospect for jobs or to have a sympathetic ear to vent to).

My wife said to me one day during this, “I feel like I’ve been at a funeral for a week.”

2. Communication is vital

From the time of the announcement of the layoffs to the final layoff occurring took a total of 10 days. During that time, there was a great deal of confusion, fear and anxiety. The communication coming from the company was limited and often led to more chatter at the “water cooler” than it prevented. I would be hard pressed to say that the communication put forth by the company helped much in alleviating any of the discomfort and anxiety that the employees were going through. I know that the company was limited to a degree by certain laws about what they could or could not say, however, that is not an excuse for having people be confused about the reasons for the layoff and how they would happen. I think that any company that is going through or thinking about a layoff needs to think very hard about their employee communications. Specifically, they need to let employees know:

Why the layoff’s are occurring and why this layoff is necessary
What are the alternatives that they looked at and why they were rejected
What the process is for the layoffs themselves
What is the criteria that they are looking at to determine who is going to be terminated
Where can employees go to receive more information
When they can expect more information if it isn’t available now

It is important to communicate about resources people can go to regarding dealing with the stress of the layoff, but that should be just a part of the communication campaign.

Also key to this is to make sure that whatever is communicated is followed through. If you communicate that layoffs are not going to start until next week, don’t layoff directors this week (even if it is only a handful). The damage that does to trust, motivation and stress is significant.

3. The unknowns are the worst

Most of the anxiety, anger and stress that I observed were caused not by what was known, but by the unknown. This plays into much of what I discussed in the communication section – but the entire process would have been better if there would have been more transparency in the process. The biggest unknown that faces an employee is will they have a job or not – but that isn’t the only one. Unknowns also include: what are the layoff criteria? How will the different departments be impacted? What do I do about my on-going projects if people on them might not be here in two weeks? What is going to happen after the layoffs are done? How will we cover the increased workload? What will happen to the people let go?

4. After the fact

The big challenge now comes after the fact. What will the company do now that the layoffs have occurred and the survivors are left. From the few people I’ve talked to (including my wife) there is a feeling of “survivor’s guilt” going around (e.g., “why was she let go instead of me – she has 3 kids and is going through a divorce?”). There is also sense of “is this the end?” Will there be more layoffs in the future? What is going to happen next? How will my job be effected?

This is the moment that the company needs to shine. They have put in place listening sessions with senior leadership (kind of a venting process as much as an information transfer) – this is a good start. There is need for more. They need to communicate their plan for growth to ensure that this will not happen again. Employees need to feel like they are not just numbers in a big machine that are expendable at any moment, but instead feel like they are a vital component to the success of the company. They need to be heard and appreciated. A new energy needs to be instilled – one that drives motivation up and not down.

There is an opportunity over the next month or so for the company to do this. If it doesn’t happen, I fear that it will be a long climb back to the level of engagement and motivation that was there prior to the announced layoffs.

Have you gone through a layoff? Let us know what you feel about how it impacted motivation – good, bad or ugly.

What Motivates You? Challenge

On February 23, 2011

In Employee Motivation, Uncategorized

One of the biggest motivators for me is when I’m being challenged. My friend and sometimes collaborator Paul Schoening used to do this to me all the time when we worked together. He would go out and sell something that we hadn’t done before and hand it off to me – “here, figure out how to do this.” It drove me crazy…but also motivated me.

One time in the mid 1990’s he sold a team building program that involved teams building boats out of cardboard, plastic and duct tape. He had seen it somewhere…

Of course, we had never done it. We were going to be doing this in a month in Puerto Rico…thus the challenge – how to put the program together to make sure that it delivered what we had promised.

So I created a boat model and had to test it to see if it worked. Of course, this was in March in Minnesota and there was still snow on the ground. So I asked another friend who had a mini-van to help me transport the boat to a stream that wasn’t covered in ice. We trudged through the snow and I braved sitting in this cardboard boat wrapped in plastic and duct tape in the stream.

It floated (whew!!)

The program was ultimately a success and we ended up selling many more of these team building sessions.

What I remember was the motivation that I had in overcoming the challenge. I spent a lot of time working through how to do it and think about the various aspects of the program and how it would play out. I was fully engaged.

What motivates you? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Today I Am Grateful For: Being Unmotivated

On February 17, 2011

In Employee Motivation, Motivation, Uncategorized

Yesterday was a very unmotivated day. Really. I don’t know why, but I was lethargic, lazy, and procrastinated most of the day away. I accomplished next to nothing.

The funny thing, I realized it as it was happening. I also knew what I should do to get myself going…I mean I develop motivational programs for a living. I know the theories and the research behind this. I know the tricks of what I could do to jump start myself…I just didn’t want to do any of those things.

So I didn’t.

But it made me realize again, how tricky this motivation thing is. How we too often tend to think that we can fix someone’s motivation – even when they don’t want it to be fixed.

It makes me think harder about what we do when we try to motivate people. It makes me realize that the answers are never as simple as we would hope. It makes me realize that we need to work harder at this stuff to make sure we aren’t just giving people the same old same old…I mean hell, if I can’t get myself motivated some days…

I’m grateful for yesterday. It grounds me. Makes me realize that we need to think about this more and figure out other ways…ones that maybe I won’t just blow off when I’m feeling a bit lazy….

Tell me about your yesterday – were you motivated?

The power of a “thank you”

On January 27, 2011

In Communications, Employee Motivation, Gratitude, Uncategorized

The power of a simple “thank you”

I just received an e-mail “thank you” from a client that we did some work for earlier this month.

It was short. It said some nice things about the work we did. It said other nice things about how he wanted to work with us again.

In all, it probably took two minutes to write and…

IT MADE MY DAY!

It was unexpected and unsolicited. It showed appreciation and fed into my drive for achievement and recognition. It touched on specifics of the works we did.

So with a couple of minutes effort, this person just put a smile on my face (and my employee’s face). What a powerful simple act that we too often overlook.

A well thought out thank you can do wonders for you in what it can do. I’ll relate another story from a long, long time ago…

The first incentive compensation communications project that I worked on would not be called one of my most favorite projects. Time lines were extremely tight, the industry I was working in was new to me, the project scope kept changing and morphing, and the client was very demanding and brought an “East Coast” demeanor to the project (for a kid from “Minnesota Nice” this was pretty harsh).

I ended up working on Christmas and New Years (going to bed at 1:00 AM News Years Eve only to wake up at 3:00 AM to work on the project). The stress and long hours that I put in were definitely not compensated for and in the end I was not only exhausted physically but worn out mentally and in every other way possible.

I swore that I would NEVER work on another project like this ever again!

I DOUBLE and TRIPPLE swore that I would NEVER work with this client again!

HELL, MY WIFE SWORE that I would never on another project like this again!

But then…when the project was done and all the deliverables delivered…I recieved one of the nicest e-mail thank you’s I’ve ever received from the “East Coast” client mentioned above.

It highlighted the fact that he knew that this wasn’t an easy project, that the scope had changed, and even that he could be hard to work with. It also went on to state that while the process was challenging, the final product that I ended up producing was the best that they had seen and had gotten great reviews from his internal customers and the sales force. He thanked me for the hard work and passion that I had put into his project.

It made my day back then…and made a little chink in clear “never working on this stuff again” promise I had made to myself.

Needless to say, it took another 9 months and somehow forgetting about all the stress and long hours and other painful stuff, but I signed up to work on the project the next year…the thank you note having done much to sway my opinion on that. I’ve worked with this client every year since (and yes the projects have improved – it’s amazing what planning and actual expertise can do to make life easier) and incentive compensation communications is our biggest product now representing over 60% of the work we do.

It in effect changed my life…

All because of the power of a “thank you.”

I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences with thank you’s – leave a comment below.

The lost art of sales incentive communication

On January 19, 2011

In Communications, Employee Motivation, Incentive Compensation, Incentive Plans and Sales Awards, Leadership, Motivation, Uncategorized

“The new compensation plan is only as good as the sales representative’s understanding and acceptance of the plan.”

This quote is from the December 2010 issue of World at Work’s Workspan journal. I found it very familiar as we’ve been using the following line in our proposals since 2003 “You can have the best incentive plan in the world, but it doesn’t make a difference if your people don’t understand it or buy into it.”

I believe this with all my heart.

In fact, much of our business is built around this belief. We work with many of our clients creating communications campaigns that drive understanding and help build buy-in to their incentive plans. We tend to think about this in a holistic way with many touch points along the way. We don’t just craft a cool looking brochure and leave it at that. Our ideal process involves upfront analysis with interviews of participants and managers to better understand how the current plan is perceived and used. This analysis also provides us with much needed information as to some of the barriers that we will face in trying to communicate the plan. Then we need to think about how to break through the deluge of information that a typical sales representative is bombarded with. We also work very hard at trying to craft words and visuals that explain the incentive plan in a very easy to understand manner – crafting multiple messages, charts and images. The overall flow needs to be right or the impact is lost. It is important to understand what medium the message is going to be presented in and where it comes in the continuum of communication touch points – is it the first message that is intended to generate excitement in a flash e-mail; the main presentation at the National meeting that needs to show how a sales rep can maximize their payout with this plan; or the detailed plan books that are the legal documents that contain all the minutia that an incentive plan has? We then look at follow-up interviews and focus groups to make sure the message got through and that we didn’t miss anything. Throughout the year we want to communicate to the field using quick reminders and little teasers to keep the plan top of mind.

It is both an art and a science.

Which gets us to the title of this post.

Tag: motivation Page 4 of 13

4 ways great leaders can impact employee motivation using the 4-Drive Model

The motivation of Calvin and Hobbes

Repost: Expanding on Dan Pink – How to Drive Employee Motivation

Those are hard numbers to ignore!

Taking some time to recharge

I recommend this to everyone.

Layoffs and employee motivation – observations from the outside

What Motivates You? Challenge

It floated (whew!!)

Today I Am Grateful For: Being Unmotivated

The power of a “thank you”

IT MADE MY DAY!

The lost art of sales incentive communication

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