It’s nothing short of remarkable that after more than half a century following the discovery of what motivates people, that managers still don’t get it. It seems that irrespective of the evidence, they prefer to believe that known non-motivators motivate and known motivators don’t.

In this article, we’re going to consider three questions.

1. What motivates people?
2. What doesn’t motivate people?
3. Why managers expect non-motivators to motivate, and why they consistently ignore the things which do?

This third question is particularly important, because if you understand why you do it, then you’re less likely to repeat the error.

 

What motivates people

In the 1950s, Frederick Herzberg did a famous study in which he identified various factors that gave people job satisfaction. When people are satisfied with their jobs, then they’re motivated to do them better.

In this context, satisfaction isn’t mere acquiescence. It isn’t saying, “Mustn’t grumble. No one listens”; and it doesn’t assume that you might as well accept things as they are because that’s your lot in life.

That’s fatalism.

You’ll never motivate anyone if you propagate that attitude. And there are managers who do just that.  They say, “If you come to work and do what I tell you to do, then you’ll get paid.”

In case you’re wondering, that doesn’t motivate anyone to do anything except to show up, and that’s only until they can find something else where they’re given a little more credit for their intelligence.

 

When we speak of motivation, we mean that people come to work excited about accomplishing the tasks before them, that they are eager to get started, and somewhat disappointed when it’s time to go home.

Isn’t that how you’d like your employees to be?

If so, then read on.

 

Job satisfaction

There are six things that give people job satisfaction and which, if you provide them, will motivate your staff. (You should be taking notes. This is the Holy Grail of motivation.)

• Achievement
• Recognition for that achievement
• Responsibility
• Work itself
• Promotion
• Personal growth

Let’s unpack these a bit.

 

Achievement

What is achievement?

It’s evidence of progress that is a direct result of your personal effort.

Why does it motivate?

Because it makes us feel good about ourselves. It makes us feel like what we did mattered. Everyone wants to matter.

 

Recognition for achievement

All of us want recognition for what we do well. That doesn’t mean that there has to be a ticker-tape parade with 76 trombones. Quite often a genuine expression of gratitude is all that’s necessary.

When was the last time you thanked someone for doing a good job?

To look at it another way, how often do you say nothing because, as far as you’re concerned, people are just doing what you pay them to do?

Do you see the difference?

 

Responsibility

All of us want some measure of responsibility. That means that we all want to be able to make decisions. We want to be able to exercise some judgement. To look at this another way, we don’t want to be micromanaged.

Few things are more insulting than treating us like we’re still at school.

 

Work itself

This is one area where nearly every organisation fails. Something like 70-80% of people are bored in their jobs. Why?

Because they’re capable of so much more.

If you insist that applicants are graduates, then you must give them work that’s commensurate with their skills. Otherwise you’re lying to them from the outset. You’re telling them that they need the skills of a graduate, when in fact they don’t. Don’t use a degree as a means to weed out people, and then give them work that a 15-year old can do. It’s disrespectful.

You’re the manager. Figure out how to make their jobs more challenging. If you want to breed complacency in your organisation, then give people work that is as easy as falling off a log.

Just don’t be surprised when people take naps at their desks.

 

Promotion

All of us want to advance professionally. Increases in pay are nice, but that’s not why we want to be promoted. We want to be promoted for all the reasons mentioned thus far.

It’s official recognition for what we’ve achieved, and with it comes greater responsibility and more challenging work.

 

Personal growth

We also want to grow personally. We want to be better people. We want to help others. The happiest people in the world are others-orientated. When we grow personally, we also grow professionally. And professional growth helps us to achieve more.

It’s a cycle.

 

These six things are what REALLY motivate people.

 

What doesn’t motivate

The first thing that you need to understand is that those things which don’t motivate are not the opposite of those things which do. Instead, these are things that people expect.

If you do them, then you won’t motivate anyone; BUT if you fail to do them, then you will demotivate people.

This cannot be overemphasised.

And this is where managers really mess everything up.

So what are they?

• Organisational policies
• Supervision
• Working conditions
• Pay & benefits
• Good relationships with co-workers
• Job security

You can probably see already why people become demotivated when you interfere with these things.

 

Organisational policies

Take organisational policies for instance. Do you apply them equally to everyone, or is it that because rank has its privileges they only apply to those who are at the bottom of the “food chain”?

It wasn’t all that long ago when senior people had their own eating areas, loos, and transport; and in certain quarters, that’s still the case.

Or how about reserved parking places?

Should the boss always have one, whether in the office or not? Doesn’t it make more sense for the people who are at work to have a place to put their car?

If you’re at the top of the organisational chart, these things may seem trivial to you; but rest assured that the implications are not lost on those at the bottom.

 

Supervision

Studies have shown that people leave their jobs, not because they hate the work, but because they dislike their supervisors.

Think about it.

Is this a problem where you work?

If you’re a manager, then you’d do well to fix it; that is, of course, unless you have a rather large recruitment budget.

 

Working conditions

Whatever you may think about unions, this is one reason why they were formed in the first place. People expect to have good working conditions.

It’s amazing how many managers there are who work in warm, cushy offices, but don’t give a fig for the conditions that those underneath them have to put up with day in and day out.

Years ago, there was a TV programme called Back to the Floor. New MDs or other company directors were sent into the “trenches” incognito to see what their employees really did.

It was an eye-opener for all of them, though unfortunately not all took what they witnessed to heart. If you don’t look after your staff, there’s no way that they will look after you.

You can count on it.

 

Pay and benefits

People expect to be justly compensated for what they do.

It’s a disgrace that this country even discusses the idea of paying a “living wage” never mind that so many feel that they shouldn’t have to. If your employees can barely make ends meet, then you need to do something about it. Henry Ford paid his workers more than anyone else in the industry and by quite a margin, too.

Granted, there are those who waste what they earn. As a matter of fact, we all do to a certain extent. Where are you in the league tables of pay in your industry?

If you’re anywhere except at the top, then you need to reevaluate your priorities, because without your staff, you have nothing. And lest you think that there’s a queue of people waiting to fill any vacancies, remember that there’s a skill shortage already in this country. Unemployment in this country is at a 42-year low, and it’s going to get worse.

 

Good relationship with co-workers

Employees expect to get on with those that they work with. If you have a toxic worker, then you need to deal with that person. If you fail to do so, then eventually that will negatively impact the rest of the workforce. Is it unpleasant to counsel these people?

Yes; but guess what?

You’re a manager. If you’re unwilling to do the difficult work, then you’re in the wrong job. Anytime things at work become sufficiently intolerable, for whatever reason, those who can leave will. And usually that will mean the best people you have.

Is it worth it to you to ignore the toxic individual when you stand to lose the most talented or the most productive?

 

Job security

Job security has become less certain in the past 30 years.

Notwithstanding the recessions of the early 1990s and the one in 2008, organisations in the West dissolved what in HR circles was once called the psychological contract.

The psychological contract was an unwritten understanding between organisations and employees that as long as they came to work, did their jobs, and didn’t embezzle the company, then they’d have a job for life. Very few people nowadays have jobs for life.

In fact, organisations now look awry at those who stay in one place for more than four or five years. Funny how times change.

That said, people prefer to change jobs when they want to, rather than having the organisation push them out the door. If they are worried that their jobs might be in jeopardy, then rather than focus on the work in front of them they’ll be distracted by what they’ll do if it stops.

Productivity will go down. So will morale.

This may be one reason why organisations try to keep their financial health a secret. They don’t want their employees to know how bad things are. Such news, however, can’t be kept quiet. Ever heard of the Internet?

It’s much better to involve your staff early on. No doubt they will have ideas for how to help the company; but they can’t help you if they don’t know, and you sure don’t want them to find out from via social media.

So, if you do the things that are known to motivate people, then you’ll be amazed at the level of productivity your organisation experiences; and, let’s face it: Productivity in the UK is much less than where it should be.

It’s no one’s fault but ours.

On the other hand, if you insist on interfering with the things that people expect, then you shouldn’t be the least bit surprised why they’re demotivated.

So now we have to ask a different question.

 

Why do managers expect non-motivators to motivate, and why do they ignore those things which do?

There are at least two reasons.

 

It’s easier to do

The first reason is that it’s easier to change the things that are known not to motivate.

It’s easier to give people a slight pay increase, though such rises rarely do more than keep pace with inflation. It’s easier to buy a new kettle. It’s easier to walk around the office and say “Good morning” to everyone before you go into your office and shut the door.

What’s hard is redesigning jobs so that they challenge people and enable them to grow. It’s hard to promote people, especially now that hierarchies have been flattened. And for some reason, it’s particularly difficult to show gratitude. It’s well past the time to recognise that the employees are on your side. They’re not the enemy. If they succeed, then you succeed.

And if you make them your foes, woe will follow.

 

It’s easier to measure

The second reason is that the changes made with things that don’t motivate are easier to measure. This may account in part for why some organisations pay incentive bonuses. In order to attract certain talented people, they feel that they must pay them upfront just to get their attention. In truth, all that does is cost your organisation money.

That’s because all it will take is for another one - a competitor, for example - to come along with a better offer. For some people, changing jobs is like change utility providers.

And here’s another thing.

Albert Einstein is alleged to have said that, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts”. Just because you can measure it doesn’t mean that it matters.  There’s a real danger that if you change something because you can measure it, that you’ll make it worse than it already is.

 

Conclusion

Those things that motivate, those which don’t, and those which demotivate, have all stood the test of time.

Although there may be “variations on a theme”, the principles themselves are immutable. Changing those things which are known not to motivate in the expectation that they will won’t make any difference, no matter how logical it seems to you. The more sensible approach is to examine that which is known to motivate and figure out how to make them more likely.

You should also look at the things that are known not to motivate to see if your organisation has done anything to make them into demotivators.

And recognise that the absence of demotivation is not, in itself, motivation.

 

 

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