In college I studied Organizational Behavior in Governmental Systems, and reviewed the work of the leading Motivational Psychologists. Unfortunately, most people do not enter supervision or management positions with any real training or experience in workplace motivation, other than antidotal.
The truth is that many people don’t feel motivated at work, and there’s a very simple explanation for this: The motivational techniques used by most managers don’t work.
What we see being used (and you can reflect on your own organization) are standard motivational tools like promotions, bonuses, employee of the month awards, pep-talks and free-pizza-nights that backfire and are downright harmful to the drive, energy and commitment of employees. It only leaves them feeling manipulated, cynical and demotivated.
According to one Gallup study I came across 60-80% of workers are not engaged at work. They feel little or no loyalty, passion or motivation on the job. They’re putting in the hours, but they’re not doing a great job and they’re certainly not happy at work!
Here is where the Motivation 101 course comes in… There are four different kinds of motivation. Only one of them works and unfortunately, many managers focus exclusively on the other three.
These are the four different kinds of motivation:
First, motivation can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is when you want to do something. Extrinsic motivation is when somebody else tries to make you do something.
Secondly, there is positive and negative motivation. Positive motivation is when you want to get something - motivation towards some goal. Negative motivation is away from something you want to avoid.
Combine these two dimensions and we get four kinds of motivation: extrinsic negative; extrinsic positive; intrinsic negative; and intrinsic positive.
Extrinsic Motivation does not work. … If a reward — money, awards, praise, or winning a contest — comes to be seen as the reason one is engaging in an activity, that activity will be viewed as less enjoyable in its own right.
Alfie Kohn has studied motivation extensively, in his book “Punished by Rewards” he shows in detail that extrinsic motivation has some serious drawbacks:
1. It’s not sustainable - As soon as you withdraw the punishment or reward, the motivation disappears.
2. You get diminishing returns - If the punishment or rewards stay at the same levels, motivation slowly drops off. To get the same motivation next time requires a bigger reward.
3. It hurts intrinsic motivation - Punishing or rewarding people for doing something removes their own innate desire to do it on their own. From now on you must punish/reward every time to get them to do it.
Negative Motivation does not work. Heart patients who’ve had double or quadruple bypass operations face a very simple choice: They must stop eating unhealthy food, smoking, drinking and working too much or they die.
Faced with the ultimate negative motivation, 9 out of 10 are still not able to make simple lifestyle changes. Which is why you see many patients coming in for their second or third heart operations. And which is also strong evidence that negative motivation does not work.
In one doctor’s program using positive motivation heart patients were instead taught to appreciate life (rather than fear death). They practiced yoga, meditated, got anti-stress counseling and got a healthy diet; all aimed at making them enjoy life more. The result: 2 years later, 70% of the patients maintained their new lifestyles.
What does work? Often we act as if people are not inherently motivated, rather that they go to work each day and wait for someone else to light their fire. This belief is common among managers and employees alike… There is nothing wrong with supervisors and managers being concerned about the motivation and morale of their people, it is just that they are not the cause of it. So with extrinsic motivation out and negative motivation out, we’re left with only one combination: Intrinsic positive.
This completely changes the role of the manager as motivator. Let me say that again for anyone who might have been giving this entry a quick scam. This completely changes the role of the manager as motivator. Rather than being the source of motivation (kind of a silly idea in itself), the manager must help employees to find their own intrinsic motivation.
I have been in a job interview on more than one occasion when a panel member asked, “How do you motivate employees?” I mostly get a glassy-eyed, slack-jawed response when I begin to describe helping employees to discover meaning and develop skills at work. I tell them that I believe people want to do good work. It is up to supervisors and managers to create a happy, positive work environment and people are naturally motivated. Even better: They motivate themselves and each other.
I am sure it has cost me more than one job, by the fact that I didn’t jump straight to the notion which says you bribe people to want things using pizzas and promotions. I think managers reach for the old motivational tool box because one of two reasons: a) it is just easier and requires less investment on their part; or b) they have not had a positive experience or the training to draw from.
For those supervisors and managers that have not had the intrinsic positive experience, I hope this discussion will spur your interest in exploring the subject further. For the employees of those supervisors and managers, before they can roll out the next employee contest, tell them what you have learned about intrinsic motivation, and what you really need is:
- Challenge - Being able to challenge yourself and accomplish new tasks.
- Control - Having choice over what you do.
- Cooperation - Being able to work with and help others.
- Recognition - Getting meaningful, positive recognition for your work.
- Trust - When you trust the people you work with, intrinsic motivation is much easier.
- Happiness at work - People who like their job and their workplace are much more likely to find intrinsic motivation.
I guess it would be a subset of happiness, but many management coaches and motivational speakers today will tell you that you should have fun at work. One of those is Jody Urquhart (even her name spells fun) who has 13 Steps to Creating a Fun Workplace, as one example.