Intrinsic Motivation - Build Business Success!

Sincere Praise Cultivates Lasting Motivation!

This may seem oversimplified. It may sound like some kind of pop-psychology nonsense. But it is so easy that most managers miss its value altogether doling out praise like it is the most valuable commodity the company has. They only give it out on special occasions. That is as ridiculous as it sounds.

When you congratulate your people when a project or task is done well it increases motivation to do more good work.

The good feeling people get from praise cultivates what truly is your company’s most valuable intellectual property, intrinsic motivation. Praise for good work must be done on the spot or soon after the desired behavior occurs. Each time there is an employee/manager interaction some type of good gesture from the manager should take place. Layer upon layer of kind encouraging words and actions cultivates intrinsic motivation. I am not talking about empty praise, speeches, or obtuse positive speaking, but sincere thanks for good deeds committed by your employees.

2. Happy employees work harder and care about goals.

Here is the good news. Intrinsic motivation is totallyFREE! In fact, you can’t buy it with money. It just is not for sale. You earn it with kind words like, “please” and “thank-you” offered at the right time. Words like,

“Mary, I noticed how well you organized the Smith file.
Thank you for doing such a great job.”

really hit the spot and creates mushroom cloud explosions of intrinsic motivation. It gets better. Mary is not the only one motivated by these 4 seconds of praise. Susan, and Larry were setting nearby and they heard it. They want to get the same thing from you. At this point most people are thinking something like, “What is this guy talking about? He makes it sound like these people are children and simpletons.”

Well, it works every single time. Is what you are doing working?
If you are not using this method, I already know the true answer.

Central theme: Intrinsic motivation is totally FREE!

3. Good compensation is important, but...

Of course, in order to recruit and retain good employees you have to have a good compensation plan. But the money only gets them to show up. The quality and quantity of work completed is in direct correlation to the quality and quantity of residual intrinsic motivational factors introduce into the workplace by management.

Central theme: There is no correlation between compensation and the quality or quantity of work produced.

This has been proven in study after study. About 70% of employees admit to poll takers they prefer being recognized for a job well done and praise from their boss rather than a pay raise. From my experience I would suggest that most of the other 30% feel the same way they just could not bring themselves to say it out loud.

It is quite obvious that extrinsic motivational factors (paycheck, discipline, etc,) are secondary in the development and maintenance of highly productive and profitable employees.
Yes, I did say, "profitable employees."

4. So, why do we throw more money at people?

If what you are doing to motivate involves money in any form pay raises, bonuses, gifts, trips, etc., it is called extrinsic or external motivation. Another way to put it is a performance award.

This only works for short term spikes!

There is an old time belief that if you dangle a financial carrot and you smack 'em with a stick every once in a while, management can get results. The truth is that this method does have an effect on performance, but most likely not the 'desired' effect.

Central theme: Are you looking for short term fixes or long term results?

5. You cannot bribe people to great results!

Take a look at the two charts below. Which one do you want your productivity growth to look like?

With extrinsic motivational endeavors the company must constantly prime the pump with more and more expense piled upon expense. Between each dump of cash productivity slips. When the latest valuable incentive is announced, productivity peaks only to be followed by another sharp decline, and so on.
Does the chart on the left look familiar?
This is not only true in sales teams, but operations teams as well. The reason why people are so looking forward to Friday coming to an end is because of the extrinsic motivation provided by the weekend off. Also, in many cases Friday is payday (extrinsic motivator). The problem is that we do not get a performance peak, but quite the opposite on Friday’s.

6. 'Mary Motivated' versus 'Sally Self'.

Mary Motivated is intrinsically motivated by manager Janet.

Sally Self is not intrinsically motivated by manager Bob. Janet and Bob are both out of the office.

On Friday at 4 PM, Mary is finishing up on the Smith file. She wants to make sure everything perfect. She arranges everything exactly the way Janet wants it, because she knows without a shadow of a doubt that Janet appreciates good work and makes it known, not only to Mary, but everyone in the office.

On the same Friday afternoon, Sally has the Jones file on her desk. It is stacked under the

latest celebrity magazine. She is busy putting on her finger nail polish and preparing for a potential date tonight. She is on the phone talking to friends. She keeps looking at the clock and is just waiting for her shift to end. She knows in her heart that Bob does not care about the Jones file or any other duties that Sally performs. She has never received any intrinsic motivation cultivation from Bob. He has, however, given her the maximum raise over the past 3 years.

Do you identify with ether of these scenarios?

With Sally, her annual pay raise is an expectation, not a reward for good performance. She could be a productive employee, but she just has no reason to perform at a high standard.

What would happen with Sally, if next year, Bob was unable to give her a raise?

Would her productivity seek an even lower level? Is that even possible?

Central theme: Employee's work quality and comitment level is not tied to compensation.

7. So, what do you need to do to fix this?

Intrinsic motivation springs from inside an employee. I

t comes from a sense of accomplishment, a feeling of self-imposed obligation or responsibility, empowerment and ownership of the job. They want to be involved because they feel like there is a purpose for what they do and this brings job satisfaction. None of these things can be achieved by spending money. All of these things make a huge difference in their individual lives and the company they work for.

If employees feel that what they do is unimportant, they feel unimportant and the quality of the work performed is unimportant to them.

Again, as discussed on the first page of this website, this may seem oversimplified. Some people reading this may think it sounds complicated. Your point of view is critical in understanding. It may sound like some kind of pop-psychology nonsense. But it is so simplistic that most managers miss it altogether. The first step to learning this management skill is to practice saying thank you. Constantly recognize little things they do with words like “Mary, I noticed how well organized these files are. Thank you for doing such a great job!” You will find this very difficult to do at first, because it sounds weird and you are out of your comfort zone.

Central theme: Employee's work quality and commitment is tied to how they feel about their self-worth.

This is what you want to cultivate!

8. Extrinsic motivation has its place.

When someone needs to be disciplined, demoted, or fired (other examples of extrinsic motivational factors), make it so. Pay raises keep people in the position. The good paycheck attracts talent to your organization. When great things are done great, financial rewards must be available to encourage additional great things.

The type of motivation we are talking about developing here is the everyday steady moment by moment incremental growth toward multiple ends from sales growth to Total Quality Management.

Central theme: Money is important to attract and keep people, but great growth and TQM only comes from intrinsicly motivated employees.

9. Impact of Great Intrinsic Motivation on your company?

Over the years, the companies I have worked with have benefited as follows:

Enhanced individual and team morale.
Productivity explosion (It is simply a byproduct.)
Diminished tartness and absenteeism.(People who feel important want to come to work.)
Retention of the best employees.(People do not want to leave where they feel not only needed, but respected.)

10.Documentation... What do other professional Researchers Say?

Thomas Malone and Mark Lepper are renowned researchers in the area of motivational techniques. The following is a boiled down version of their research.

1. Make sure each person in the organization (department, work team, etc.) knows how they fit into the larger picture. Make sure they know they have a purpose for being there.

2. Provide challenge by jointly setting aggressive yet realistic goals.

3. Give them the tools and training they need to succeed.

4. Try to build curiosity and creativity into work.

5. Give employees decision making authority and allow them to make choices. If they ask for your advice, first ask what they think and what course of action they would recommend.

6. Make work as fun as it can be.

7. Build a climate of service and cooperation.

8. If possible, figure out how to map work related activities to personal goals. For example, Pam is a receptionist but her passion is art. Ryan asked her to create a new set of corporate logos and she was thrilled.

9. Recognize achievement with a sincere gratitude. Gratitude is more than saying “thank you”. Gratitude is showing appreciation and respect for the person, not just the tasks they perform. However, when you do say “thanks” be specific. Don’t just say, “Cindy, thanks for work on the annual report.” Say “Cindy, thank you for the work on the annual report last week. Without you, those charts would have taken three times longer to create”. State the specific contribution the person made.
Quote from http://ubtowsonmba.wordpress.com/2007/10/12/the-office-business-lessons-season-4-episode-3/

11. How do you motivate people without spending money?

That is the big question!

Let's rephrase the research to get a better understanding...

    1.     Praise. Don’t just say thank you. Tell them why you are saying thank you. When you go to shake their hand at the end of a good day, bring your left hand around and cup the other side of their hand as say something like, “I really do appreciate your hard work on _____ today.”
    2.     Develop constantly and consistently. This goes for the weakest employees as well as the great producers. Give them challenging tasks to help them get ready for promotion. Make sure they know that is the reason you give them harder things to do.
    3.     Give the promotions out internally rather than look outside for new talent whenever possible.
    4.     Make leaders by giving leadership things to non-leaders. When they complete the leadership task correctly, make sure everyone knows how great they did. Announce it at the next meeting or even at the water cooler. In other words, shout it from the mountain top!
    5.     Ask for advice of your subordinates. They will usually come up with the right answer. When they do let them know you agree and give them credit publicly for the solution. Talk about intrinsic motivation. If Mary thinks it is her idea, she will be the chief advocate of whatever it is, kind of like a mini-project manager.
    6.     Metrics, metrics, metrics. Post metrics every day. If employees know where they and others are performing, poor or great, they can self-motivate to improve or self-motivate to continue in current activity. It is important to point out the goal line to ensure they understand at a glance exactly where they stand.
    7.     Communication is critical. People who feel they are in the dark about what is going on suffer a drop in intrinsic motivation. You need to treat your employees like partners. Partners have very few secrets.

12. In a Nutshell.

These few steps are just the beginning. There are many ways to motivate and turn your teams productivity knob to high. The first thing you need to do is to define what motivational factors currently are in play in your organization, both extrinsic and intrinsic. You will be surprised how much information your management team already knows once this concept is explained in detail. They will come up with a long list of extrinsic motivation concepts, but will have great difficulty in even defining intrinsic motivation.

So, here it is in a nutshell.

You must constantly catch 'em doing something right and tell 'em when caught!

It does not cost money to treat people right and cultivate intrinsic motivation.

When it comes down to it, intrinsic motivation is all about improving your bottom line.

Please contact me, if you need additional assistance.

Paris V. Street

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1. Cultivate Intrinsic Motivation and Build Performance