“I don’t motivate my players. You cannot motivate someone, all you
can do is provide a motivating environment and the players will motivate
themselves.”
Phil Jackson, coach of the L.A. Lakers
This quote by Phil
Jackson is by far the best I have seen on motivation. In most business it’s difficult to come up
with a formula to motivate someone. You
can use the HR benefits as a tool for extrinsic motivation but the offer of a
paycheck and bonus doesn’t always motivate people. As we learned in the article by Ryan and Deci,
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations:
Classic Definitions and New Directions,
extrinsic motivation is something that is done “because it leads to a separable
outcome” (p.1). And this can be done because the person wants to or has to.
I found this out first hand when I owned my own business.
When I owned my own
business and had drivers who worked for me I found it very difficult to
motivate them. Most were high school
educated and lacked ambition to further their education. During the interview process, they would answer
all the interview questions with the right answers so they sounded like they
were self-motivators, but once they got on the job their motivation went out
the window. I offered a very good hourly
pay (much higher than competition), health insurance and weekly bonuses. I realized that the job (of delivering
products) was not going to be fulfilling or intrinsically motivating but I
thought by providing a good compensation package I could make up for
it. What I was hoping for was to find employees
that would be motivated by extrinsic factors like “introjection (approval of
self or others)” and “identification (goal oriented)” (Ryan & Deci, 2000,
p. 61). What I found were employees
that were motivated for the first couple of weeks and then quickly weaned. They would call in sick, do a bad job,
steal, or just not show up. The job was
too tedious and there was no room for mobility so they had no real motivation to do a good job.
After reading this
week’s articles I found some really good information that I can use in my new
business venture. My husband and I are
building another distribution business and I am excited to use the tools I am
learning in this USC program to good use. In the article, Engaging Employees in
the Company’s profits, I like the idea of the open-book management approach
(Heymann & Barrera, 2010, p.5).
Although owning a small business makes it difficult to offer profit
sharing, just sharing the sales and relevant metrics once a month is a very
good way to keep people interested in the company. It is also good because it allows for the employees
to offer suggestions for improvement (Heymann & Barrera, 2010, p.13). Also I will have to be mindful that
employees want to feel like their ideas matter and may be used (Heymann &
Barrera, 2010, p.24) so I will have to develop a formal mechanism to put ideas
to work.
I think by
implementing these 2 things right away can go a long way to motivate others to work
hard.
Hi Kristina,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love that quotation. Though I am not a Lakers fan (Go Warriors :)), I think that Phil Jackson demonstrates perfectly what it is to be a good leader, and more importantly for this week's discussion, motivator. When reading your assignment this week, I was reminded of my time as a Manager in the Macy's stores with similar employees working as my associates. It was very difficult after the first few weeks to continue the excitement of the new job, and I found it very hard to find ways to continue to excite and motivate them. The Heymann and Barrera and the other readings this week would have been perfect for both of us as we struggled in our past positions as motivators. What other takeaways from the readings do you think will be valuable for your in your new business venture? Was there anything from the readings that you tried in your past job that was actually unsuccessful? Thanks for sharing, Kristina!
Kristina, thanks for your thoughtful post. I'm glad to hear that the readings for this week have a direct application in your new business venture! It sounds like the Heyman and Barrera article, which talks about motivating employees at all levels of the organization, was particularly relevant. You say that you will try to implement open-book management and will work to solicit feedback and suggestions for improvement from employees. Can you see any challenges that might arise from implementing either of these strategies?
ReplyDeleteKristina,
ReplyDeleteAny post with Phill Jackson, AKA "Zen MAster" automatically gets my attention. I don't want to turn your post into a sport discussion, but ironically in today's news NBA Dallas Maverick owner, Mark Cuban fired Lamar Odom basically for lack of effort. ESPN reported what were the events leading to Odom being released.
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, said "Well, yeah... Everybody goes through ups and downs. Every player does. We tried to put him in a position to succeed. You guys saw it, saw what we did. It didn't work. "And I just asked him, does he want to go for it or not? Is he in or is he out? I think he thought we were playing poker. I just didn't get a commitment. And that was the end.", "We hope it's addition by subtraction," Cuban said.
After reading what you and your husband are trying to do with your new business, maybe its more important to create a positive environment and hopefully that motivates employees to work hard. However, as we see with Lamar Odom, he gets paid 50K a game to play basketball (8m contract) and he's unhappy... sometimes you just need to find better workers. Like Phil Jackson said, you can only create a positive environment.
Damu
Kristina,
DeleteHave loved the "Zen Master" since the Chi-town Bulls days. He hit the nail on the head with that one. I had well paying jobs in production, doing something I absolutely loved. At the end of it all, I was unhappy because I found myself in one bad environment after another either due to the overall culture, the micro-management style, or the inability to find intrinsic value and appreciation in what I was doing due to the environment. I, quite honestly, had reached that point within the department I work now, until I got reclassified. I am hopeful that I can find the satisfaction in this position that drives me to do better, do more and contribute. Time will tell. In an environment currently where many staff members have low morale and motivation due to the culture and lack of the 4 points of motivation being duly managed, I totally agree that an motivational environment innately motivates people.
Thank you all for your thoughtful comments. After reading the materials and sharing them with my husband we found that there are many things we will change this time around.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to open-book management, I see it as a two step implementation. I see implementing the open forum for feedback first, which will be the easy part. And the next step will be to develop a structured meeting that will be useful and beneficial for the employees. The only pitfall to the structured meeting is if the metrics aren't positive (ie the employees aren't meeting their goals, or the company isn't meeting forecast goals)then it won't be productive. I don't want to meet and have nothing to say but "we have to try harder", that is a de-motivator. So I need to have a few options to keep the meeting structured and consistent.
Damu you have a great point about creating a positive work environment. I really tried to be mindful of that, but often times when you own a business you are stressed out and I am sure it is evident by the employees. But I agree I need to pay close attention to how we develop the culture of the company this time around. The great thing is my eyes are open now, I have learned so much from this class, as well as from my experiences in the past.