Therefore, a lot of companies are dangling carrots to attract, retain and push employees to perform. It is not only important to fill their pockets but also to stimulate their minds, create an environment for their well-being and also nurture their talent.
Motivation is essential not only to boost employees to perform better, but in the long run, would aid in the growth of the organisation for the better.
Whether its McGregor’s X and Y Theory, Maslow’s Need Hierarchy Theory or McClelland’s Motivation Theory, it is difficult to understand motivation without considering what people need and want from their work. All these theories of motivation encompass the dynamic relationship between efforts, performance and rewards for each individual.
Some of the ways to motivate employees could be either intrinsic or extrinsic:
1. Appropriate compensation and benefits
2. Give recognition, rewards and value to their work
3. Create a hierarchy for transitions and promotions
4. Scope for growth by job rotation, training and development measures
5. Give them a road-map for their growth by aligning their competencies respectively.
6. Create an environment that they would hate to leave.
The US Marines motivate their frontline soldiers by aligning them with missions, inculcating values and creating pride in them. They do this by creating lot of time and energy to cultivate strong values, moulding everybody into a leader, bringing clarity between teams and single leader workgroups.
Motivating people is not as easy as it sounds. It needs clear thinking and hard work. Therefore, having the clarity of goals and expectations complemented by rewards, both tangible and intangible, motivates people to achieve organisation goals.
1. Desire to be great: People have a great desire to contribute to something lasting and get motivated naturally when they feel that they are working on something important, rare and marvelous.
2. Motivating by caring: Showing genuine concern towards employees goes a long way in inspiring them. Whether it’s spending on their ailing parent, sending a child to school or meeting their healthcare concern, it creates a sense of loyalty in the employees and thus helps in retaining them.
3. Motivating people at different levels: Different people could be motivated at different motivation levels. A senior management team would be looking for recognition and ownership (maybe by shares or stocks), the middle management may be in need for opportunities to demonstrate and develop their talents and the frontline staff maybe be looking out for just job stability.
4. Motivating by setting difficult goals: Difficult goals stimulate greater effort and greater performance. This linear relation could be explained by the following equation: Job performance= f(ability + knowledge)(Motivation)
Abilities of a person could also be enhanced by the right motivation. This could be done by constantly exploiting the strengths of a person and ignoring his weaknesses.
5. Motivating problem people: Understanding human nature becomes very critical in this regard. To motivate a problem employee, one should know what drives him. Then identify blocks to his drives and try removing those impediments.
In order to do this:
He should find out how the problem employee looks at the world?
How past events have influenced his expectations and desires?
What factors influence his choices?
What factors in work place act as impediments in fulfilling his drives?
Motivation Agents:
Self Motivation:
External motivation can act only as triggers. The power of motivation from within can be used for sustained motivation.
According to the tenets of Buddhism, social efficiency and organisational effectiveness, flow from the pursuit of the eight-fold path of right conduct:
1. Right vision
2. Right mindedness
3. Right concentration
4. Right speech
5. Right action
6. Right endeavor
7. Right and rational thought process
8. Right livelihood
Swami Vivekananda stresses the value of will power, strength, energy and faith in one’s own self as essential prerequisites for satisfying the various human, cultural and social needs.
Empowerment:
The Upanishads and Vedas and teachings of Sankara tell us about freedom and self-reliance.
“To motivate human beings to perform well, give them freedom and make them rely on themselves,” mentions the Svetasvatara Upanishad.
If you think you can, you can, and if you think you can’t, you’re right! Only if people want to do things and are encouraged to do them they will believe they can. This increases their self efficacy and this will lead to an exceptional performance.
Care should be taken to assign the work to the right person and not by assigning a person to a particular work.
Leadership:
A popular principle from Western management states the “50:50 rule” by John Adair. According to this, 50 per cent of motivation comes from within a person and the remaining 50 per cent from his environment especially from the leadership encountered there.
Leadership is an exercise in human relations. A person does not become a leader by working alone and carrying out his own work but becomes a leader when others think of accepting him as a leader. Acceptance by others for a person requires time, respect for the work of the person acceptance of the person as leader and respect for that leader. A person who is able to inspire and motivate other persons to carry out the necessary work gets accepted as a leader or a manager.
Leadership is also evoked by the halo of trust around him, developed by his transparency of communication, demonstrated through his work. A leader rewards and recognises the team’s work for all achievements and takes the onus of failure on him.
Rewards and Recognition:
Achievements are important and represent a major part of job satisfaction. Recognition of achievement is more vital. Though, it can be minor or momentary, it still acts as a good motivator. A simple “well done” or “great job”, or extending it to an “employee of the month” scheme, or a certificate or a badge, act as definite triggers to improve performance.
The whole is greater than the part:
Motivating people also requires an insight into human nature. It is also difficult to ensure high levels of enthusiasm and commitment during bad times.
Motivating people to take risk can be truly challenging. This can be done by having a frank discussion on the chances of success, making roles & responsibilities clearer, spreading risk across the team and organisation and by supporting the initiatives irrespective of the chances of success.
Effectiveness of people at the workplace depends on how their work will fit into the grand vision of organization and what the future holds for the organization and to them.
With the combination of recognition along with tangible rewards, the way motivation works is thus progressive and cumulative.
But if this system is considered as a panacea, motivation may suffer badly. A suitable mix of rewards, incentives, and recognition augmented by a series of employee engagement activities must be integrated to retain people and encourage them to remain in the organisation.
The most important factor in this mix should be “change”. No reward scheme will last forever nor will a fat salary hike maintain the interest for long. Therefore, excitement and fun and the thrill of new challenges keep the ball of motivation rolling. Even the best performance can be improved!
(The writer is Research Associate and Assistant Manager at Welingkar Institute of Management, Bangalore)