Monday Motivation: The #1 Top Motivating Factor…

Quick question: What motivates people more, the carrot or the stick?

Turns out, the answer is neither.

My friend Bill O’Hanlon pointed me to an article on the Harvard Business Review (HBR) on What Really Motivates Workers

The article points to one survey and one study:

• Survey: HBR asked “600 managers from dozens of companies to rank the impact on employee motivation and emotions of five workplace factors commonly considered significant: recognition, incentives, interpersonal support, support for making progress, and clear goals.”
• Study: HBR conducted a “multiyear study tracking the day-to-day activities, emotions, and motivation levels of hundreds of knowledge workers in a wide variety of settings,”

The number one result on the manger survey (i.e. the one they believed to be the most important when it comes to motivating employees): “Recognition for good work (either public or private)”

The item that the managers ranked as least impactful on employee motivation? “Support for making progress.”

Guess what came out as the number one factor that actually influenced employee motivation in the other study?

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

You see where this is going yet?

Yup, you got it:

The number one top motivator of performance is progress.

Number one on the list of employee motivators, number five of five on the list of things managers believe motivates their employees.

Folks, you can not make this stuff up.

If you examine your own moods and motivation levels, this should come as no shock. I know that sometimes I have days where within about an hour I will have posted a blog post, booked a speaking gig, opened a new lead, and cleared three little annoying things off my day. Even if I do nothing else those days, I feel pretty good. On other days, I do a lot of work, but it feels like little progress is made. At the end of those days, no matter how long or hard I worked, I feel like I wasted a day.

Before we get to what you can take away from this, let’s look at a couple of disclaimers:

• As was the main premise of my It’s Ok to Check Email First Thing in the Morning post, everyone is different. You have to find what works best for you and your people
• The employee study was of “knowledge workers,” who are,”are individuals who are valued for their ability to act and communicate with knowledge within a specific subject area.” The results may be different in other areas such as retail, or manufacturing.
• One study doesn’t necessarily prove anything conclusively, but the results are worth considering.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s take a look at how you can use this yourself:

As a Manager

According to Bill O’Hanlon, “recognition” did come up as number two on the list of what motivates employees, so don’t stop doing that.

However, as a manager, make it a top priority to:

1. Make sure your people are making consistent progress
2. Make it easy for them to keep making progress by giving them the support and resources they need while keeping irrelevant demands off their plates

This sounds obvious, right? Like something a manager should be doing anyway? Sadly, it’s obvious in theory but often overlooked in practice.

You’ve probably been on the receiving end of this; you’re fired up to work on something, but then a manager, director, or executive above you does one of a few things:

• Becomes grossly indecisive and leaves you hanging while you wait for them to decide.
• Keeps changing goals and strategies so you are constantly throwing away hours, days, or even weeks worth of work.
• Drags their feet on securing a resource, answering questions, or holding key meetings, which prevents you from taking the next step.
• Ignores the progress that you are making, and instead focuses only on the final goal, the things you have not yet done, or on vague metrics that have never been clarified.

To keep your people motivated, create attainable goals and incremental milestones, give them the tools they need to move forward, reward their progress, and then get out of their way.

For Yourself

Set yourself up for success by creating a system where you see frequent and consistent progress.

Just apply the same rules that managers should apply to others to yourself:

• Stop waffling and stressing out and make decisions
• Pick a goal and strategy and stick with it (for a little while, at least) so you can see progress being made
• For long term goals, set incremental milestones that demonstrate your progress
• Try to do something every day, no matter how tiny, to move you forward towards your big picture goals
• Reframe how you look at things. Start seeing progress even in the things that feel like a waste. For example, some days I spend hours working on a blog post that I ultimately end up not using. That feels like a waste, but I try to think of it as “creative progress.” (Clearing out the creative junk to leave room for the good stuff to come out).
• On the other hand, be wary of confusing activity and progress. Sometimes we pat ourselves on the back for doing a lot because it feels like progress. That kind of delusion may make you feel better, but it’s a poor substitute for the real thing and won’t have the impact that real progress will.
• Notice and celebrate your progress and “little wins”

As always, the most important thing you can do is observe and figure out what works for you. You might be best motivated by daily progress, weekly progress, or progress by some random interval. Figure it out and use what works for you.

Spend the next week paying attention to when your motivation is high and low. Then, try setting up some “progress milestones” to keep you and your team on track, even if those milestones are tiny steps forward. You may be surprised at just how much your motivation grows!

(Completely tangential and self promotional note: If you are a professional speaker, or aspire to get paid to speak in the near future, I am going to be doing a coaching program with Bill and Fred Gleeck where we will take a small group of people and work with them to become better speakers, get bookings, and make more money. Stay tuned (and subscribe to either my blog or email list to get informed when we launch!)

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Would you like Avish to work with your managers and leaders to help them get the most out of their teams? Then visit Avish’s Speaking Page now!

About

By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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