Understanding What Motivates Anyone is Not Easy Because Each Individual Has Different

Motivation is commonly misunderstood and is a source of much frustration for managers. In the simplest terms, motivation is a need that makes people engage in behavior to satisfy that need. For example, if you are thirsty, you will be motivated to get something to drink. That is the only thing that can motivate you to get a drink. While this example is simple, most motivation problems are not because the majority of our needs are unknown to ourselves and others. Additionally, people have multiple and often conflicting motivators.

Another major aspect of motivation is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivators drive people to do things because they like to do a particular task; no external incentive is necessary. For example, someone who is intrinsically motivated to meet challenging objectives would likely do well in a sales position with challenging sales goals. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, drives people to do things to get an external reward. For example, someone does a job, even though they do not like it, so that they can earn money.

Motivators at Work

Managers and others often think of motivation in general terms, e. g. "they are a very motivated group." Such usage leaves the effective manager wondering, "what are they motivated to do?" One must think about what people are motivated to do and whether it is consistent with what one wants them to do. For example, a manager may conclude that one employee is motivated to socialize and the other to innovate. Both are motivated, but the behavioral implications of these two motivators are quite different. The manager of the innovator will likely have an easy time getting creative ideas and products from that employee. It might be harder to get innovation from the one who is motivated to socialize. In fact, this example illustrates the value of selecting employees who are motivated to do the job; they are easier to manage. They will do their work well and with less managerial effort and are also more likely to improve the processes involved with their work. Therefore, having a fuller understanding of motivation is of value to managers who want employees who are motivated to do what management wants done.

You Can't Motivate People

Most managers think that they can motivate their people to work. The truth is that you cannot motivate anyone to do anything, although you can make them do things. There is a big difference! With self-motivators, their intrinsic motivators make them perform. When you make people do something, you have to watch, monitor, and push them to do what you want. Think of a drill sergeant getting recruits to perform. While a work situation is not that extreme, pushing is similar because it involves a lot of management effort. Pushing is no way to work with people in a creative environment where you want people to take ownership of their work. Leaders do not want to engage in a struggle to get people to perform. They want to support people who like to do what their job requires.

Matching Employees to Jobs

The best that you can do is match people to the right job. It sounds easy, but as with most management issues, it is easier to say than do. It requires that you first really know your people, which most leaders do not. For a sales position, you would want someone who likes people. The best person for an analyst job is probably a numbers oriented introvert. This all sound logical, but it is not common sense because it is not done as commonly as one might think. The main reason is that leaders usually don't really know who they are selecting and what motivates them. Additionally, they often are mistaken regarding what is required to do a job. Given these two conditions, there is often a mismatch between the person and the job.

The trick to matching employees is to know what motivates employees. Really understand people before you hire them and/or place them in a job. Know what the job requires in terms of behavior and personality. Once you know both, you can effectively match people to jobs they will find motivating.

Matching Motivation Tips

• Select personnel who are already motivated to do at least part of the job, if not the whole job.
• Understand what is required in a job and what kind of people are motivated to do it.
• Really know the individuals you hire or place in a job.
• Stop using experience as your primary selection criterion (see my article about this topic).
• Learn what intrinsically motivates your followers to perform exceptionally.
• Use psychometric measures & team selection,
• Find out what employees value (e.g., time off, money, status, etc.).
• Expectations formed over life can have a significant effect on what motivates people, so learn what they expect from work. Use this information to help you hire personnel who have expectations that you can satisfy.

Therefore, rather than hiring people and then trying to motivate them, which is ineffective, hire individuals who will be motivated by the job itself. Doing so will allow you to focus on leading them rather than pushing them to do their work. When you focus on leading, you will be able to move the organization toward fulfilling its vision and securing competitive advantage.

Creating Motivating Jobs

Dr. Frederick Herzberg postulated that motivation comes from the job, not from money or other commonly used incentives such as fringe benefits. For example, a fighter pilot is primarily motivated by the challenge associated with flying and completing missions. Money is an ineffective tool to motivate such individuals which is evidenced by their relatively low pay, yet high motivation to do a dangerous job. Herzberg believed that the key to creating motivational jobs was job enrichment. This is the process of giving workers, at the individual or group level, more responsibility for planning, coordination and performance of their own tasks. In doing so, management gives up some of its control and power to the personnel performing the job. Herzberg believed that this made jobs more motivating.

Based on Herzberg's theory, Hackman & Oldham proposed the Job Characteristics Model which is a practical model that is useful in designing jobs that are motivational.

The basic idea is to select core job characteristics that are motivational, which leads to critical psychological states and outcomes such as work motivation, satisfaction and work effectiveness. According to the model, the following characteristics are key to accomplishing this goal. Skill variety is the use of many different skills. Management can either use more of the worker's existing skills or invest in training to develop more skills for use on the job. Task identity is the degree to which personnel can complete a whole job or a major portion it. When task identity is high, employees can see the impact of their work. Task significance is the importance of job to the organization. Management can increase task significance by combining jobs and making job's impact clearer to staff. These three factors, when present in a job, lead to a sense of meaningfulness, which contributes to the outcomes mentioned earlier.

Autonomy has a direct effect on sense of responsibility. When an employee is given more freedom, stronger sense of ownership is likely and therefore accountability and responsibility will follow. When one is solely responsible for a task, everyone knows who to seek when performance is excellent or poor. Therefore, autonomy also contributes to the outcomes mentioned earlier.

Feedback from the job leads to knowledge of results. Although this sounds like "common sense," it is not common practice. Workers commonly complain that they do not know how well they are performing. Reliance on the typical yearly review certainly plays a part in this lack of feedback and therefore a lack of knowledge about results. When an individual has quick and ample feedback about their performance on a task, they will likely experience the outcomes mentioned earlier. Such feedback can come from supervisors, the task itself, customers, coworkers, etc.

When leaders build all these core job characteristics into a job, the individual will be intrinsically motivated by the job. However, they are not motivating the employee. Leaders are just creating a job certain employees will find motivating. The job does the motivating … automatically. There is one major limitation to this model; it is not applicable to all people, only those who have a high need for personal growth. Such individuals like to learn and experience new things. Since not all people have a high need for personal growth, this model should be applied with care.

Tips for Creating Motivating Jobs

• Think creatively when designing jobs and selecting job elements. Merely adding more tasks to a job has little motivational value.
• Job design is likely to be successful with professional or committed personnel.
• Use pay for performance or social motivators (ex. humor) with employees who have low growth needs.
• For more ideas, check out my book

Thanks for taking time to read my ideas. I write about leadership, innovation, strategy and other interesting topics. If you would like to receive updates with new articles, please click Follow (top of the page) and/or send a LinkedIn invite. We can also connect on Twitter & Facebook. :)

Check out my other stuff:

• Opening Your Mind for Innovation
• Bureaucracy is the Enemy of Creativity
• Want to Innovate? Put Passion First, NOT Profit!
• Micromanaging ≠ Attention to Detail
• I Love Generalizations!
• Leadership vs. Management
• Sad but True, You Can't Motivate Anyone
• Conventional Wisdom isn't Wise!
• Are You Hooked on Experience?
• 10 Speaking Tips to NOT Annoy Your Audience
• Stop Being So Nice & Start Being More Real
• Humor: Leadership's Swiss Army Knife
• Get a Real Strategy to Win
• Is Leadership Common Sense?
• Conflict is Necessary for Innovation
• For more ideas, check out my book

For over 15 years, Eric has helped managers become unconventional leaders. Eric partners with leaders to help them create competitive advantage based on creativity, flexibility and risk-taking, so they can innovate and win. Originally from New York City, his ideas are delivered with a sense of humor, 100% honesty and street smarts! For more information go to:

www.CompeteOutsideTheBox.com.

Rebel, Innovate & Win!

tittleaftessed.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140625234722-12357314-you-can-t-motivate-anyone

Share this post