Finding that feeling from within (and it should not be just about the money) to keep doing what you’re doing at your best.
Motivation is the heart and soul of sales. If the sales person has lost their passion for they do every day, it shows in their results. But it needs to be the right form of motivation.
For example, author Daniel H. Pink blames the carrot-and-stick approach, which he terms Motivation 2.0, as a cause of the economic crisis.
Mortgage brokers were supposedly so hungry for commissions that they made questionable loans, he claimed.
Motivation 2.0 results in what Pink calls seven deadly flaws, as cited by executive coach Maynard Brusman. The carrot-and-stick approach results in extinguished motivation; diminished performance; crushed creativity; good behavior crowded out; the encouragement of cheating, short cuts and unethical behavior; becoming additive or obsessive; and fosters short-term thinking.
One of Brusman’s clients is working on increasing his ability to inspire his company’s leadership team to become better at motivating employees.
Brusman said, “One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is 'Am I good at motivating others by appealing to their deeply held values and intrinsic motivation?’ Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching and leadership development for leaders to be better at motivating others.”
Psychtests.com, a Montreal-based company, examined results from its Career Motivation Test and found that men and women and people of different age groups seem to have very diverse views of what gets them out of bed in the morning.
The company said those who believe dangling a higher salary (or commission) in front of employees will get a good, honest day’s work out of them are in need of a serious reality check.
More and more companies are realizing that motivation is subjective, and what drives one person is totally different from what is important to someone else, Psychtests declared.
The company’s analysis revealed that the top three work motivators were achievement (being driven by a sense of satisfaction at reaching goals or rising up to meet challenges at work), learning (desire to gain new knowledge and insight, as well as learn new skills) and inspiration (desire to inspire others, either through creative means or by opening minds to new ideas). The least popular motivator was status, or the desire to achieve a high social standing, title, or rank.
When looked at by gender, men were more likely to be motivated by financial reward and power, while women had a stronger need for a balanced lifestyle and a desire to improve the world.
A desire for change and variety, a balanced lifestyle, improvement, creativity, and independence were motivators that tended to increase with age, while financial reward, mobility (desire to see and experience new places) and status decreased with age. Interestingly, the desire to be recognized and appreciated for one’s work hit its peak between the ages of 25-40, Psychtests noted.
Ilona Jerabek, president of Psychtests, said, “We need to recognize that motivators can be intangible as well. Offering perks won’t work for everyone—they may work initially to draw a new worker, but won’t keep the person motivated for long. In general, motivators like money, status, and power will probably work best in conjunction with other intangible sources of motivation. We’ve seen it—all the money in the world won’t inspire someone who hates his or her job, lacks passion, or feels that his or her work won’t make an ounce of difference in the world. And our data shows this.”
If managers truly want to get the best out of their workers, they need to start viewing motivation as a case-by-case issue. Loyalty and commitment are a result of day-to-day interactions between management and employees that fulfills the needs of everyone involved.
OnPoint Consulting did a survey that found those companies and leaders that consistently deliver results took five actions to motivate employees to achieve those goals.
First was to develop and use action plans. Action plans help to clarify expectations and accountability, align and coordinate individuals and teams, ensure adequate resource allocation and help leaders take action on problems before they derail an initiative.
Secondly, it is not enough to expect top performance; people need to be held accountable. One reason why companies are hesitant to hold someone accountable is because of a lack of clarity of that person is accountable for in the first place.
The third item on OnPoint’s list is to increase cooperation and collaboration. The challenge is to make certain the conditions that motivate people to focus on the group’s best interests without trading off their own are having clear communication, shared goals and clearly defined roles.
The fourth involves enhancing judgment and decision-making. “Two factors improve decision quality. One, involve the right people to include their perspectives and fill in information you may not have. Two, use a systematic process to prevent emotions or biases from clouding the issues or to avoid defaulting to past decisions,” said OnPoint said.
Finally, leaders need to go beyond just saying they are endorsing a change. Their employees want to see their words backed up by their behavior.
“When these elements are in place leaders will see improvement in their ability to execute plans and initiatives, and most importantly, ensure that their mission statement actually rings true,” the New York-based consulting firm said.
Author Jon Gordon said how employees feel collectively adds up to culture, and culture isn’t a “little thing” at all. It’s what will ultimately pull your company out of its slump—or not.
“Here’s what happened,” explains Gordon, author of “Soup: A Recipe to Nourish Your Team and Culture.” “For years, managers were focused on the numbers, and the numbers were good. So morale was up and everyone was happy.
“But then the recession hit and the numbers went down. Well, when you’re focused on numbers and they’re going down, morale goes down. So does engagement—and so does performance. This has thrown managers into a quandary.”
These people have always led by the numbers and that is working. So managers must change their leadership focus but they don’t know where to start.
The new focus, explains Gordon, should be on culture. It should be on purpose and morale and loyalty. And all of that boils down to two words: engaged relationships.
“Engaged relationships are interactive, collaborative and meaningful,” he says. “They are also essential: To effectively lead, coach, work with, or live with someone, you must truly know and have a strong bond with them. No matter how busy you are, you’re not too busy to create these bonds. You can’t afford to be that busy.”
