Eight Secrets of Motivation - Are You Using Them?

Recently, it seems as if I've been seeing discussions of motivation show up nearly everywhere I turn: in books I'm reading on management, in online discussion groups, even in the sports pages (in Chicago, it's common for sportswriters to doubt the motivation of the members of our many losing teams). Much of what I see merely reiterates commonly accepted notions. Of course, some of these commonly accepted ideas are contradictory, so that's what keeps the publishers of management books in business.

Some say that a manager can never motivate an individual because motivation comes from within. Others say that managers are the best source of motivation. They cite successful sports coaches and celebrity CEOs to make their case. The more I read and the more I think about it, the more I have come to believe that everybody is right. Sometimes.

The truth is, no one really knows what motivates us. Several theories have been proposed, the most famous being Maslow's hierarchy of needs. But it's just a theory and very little research has ever been done to test it. Several alternative theories are equally attractive and seem to explain why people do what they do just about as well.

Here's what I think about motivation, at least right now, followed by some ways to apply these ideas to make your business more successful.

Eight Secrets of Motivation

1. All the theories say we have numerous needs. Motivation is the drive to satisfy these needs.
2. The only needs that appear in all the theories are these two: bonding with others and relating to others.
3. We all respond to several motivating factors simultaneously and to opposing ones under different circumstances.
4. Fear of consequences is not a lasting motivator. Eventually fear is overridden by some other emotion.
5. Hope may be the most powerful motivator of all.
6. Some of us respond to contradictory motivators at the same time. For example, someone with a taste for adventure and a desire for safety might travel to exotic countries but spend many hours planning that travel.
7. No single-minded effort to motivate a company's workforce will ever work well for long.
8. Rewards alone have little motivational power. Their value lies exclusively in how they are seen by the people who receive them.

Five Ways to Use the Eight Secrets

As a manager, you can try these approaches based on the eight statements above:

• Ask your employees what they think they need in order to succeed. Then try to find a way to give it to them.
• Ask your employees what they think you believe is needed in order to succeed. Do you get a good match with your answer to the previous question? If not, why not?
• Ask your employees what they think they need to feel like an important part of the company. Then find a way to make it happen.
• Find ways to get employees working together to solve problems that stand in the way of the company's future success.
• Identify the driving forces of success in your company. These might be competition and productivity or they might involve feeling like a family. Whatever you find, make sure that every one of your managers believes in these driving forces. A mismatch at this level of belief could be terminal.

The subject of motivation is a bit like the subject of the golf swing: everybody has his own theory and teaching method. Most of them work well enough at least some of the time. The key to succeeding with either is adapting the best ideas to your own circumstances. Golf advice for a very tall person wouldn't provide much help for someone who is barely five feet tall. If your company operates with a family-like closeness, then it just won't work to set up highly competitive individual contests between your salespeople. Similarly, if your company is thriving as a chaotic hive of creativity, then trying to change behaviors through bureaucratic orderliness will fail spectacularly.

A Few Last Thoughts on Motivation

My most recent reading on management has included books on corporate cultures. Some writers have made very strong cases for the profound power of a company's culture over its managers and employees. At the same time, cultures evolve and sometimes are changed by design.

The extent to which your values and beliefs are aligned with the values and beliefs that drive the company you work for will largely determine your happiness in working there. Further, if you have this alignment of values, you're much more likely to make choices and judgments in your work that benefit the company's long-term interests.

In the last issue, I talked about the power of belonging, particularly in belonging to an organization we admire. Sharing values with the company where you work, it seems to me, could raise that sense of belonging to one of great power and durability.

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