Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

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  1

  AguilarJ

  08/27/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  Which may me true for those people high-up in the ladder. Lower level jobs, which have less paying salaries. A motivation of self worth ONLY is not likely to motivate a person that is living check to check. Used correctly, and yes, with the above motivators, an employer can have a more productive employee.

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  2

  gormanw

  08/27/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  Dan is right by keying in personal motivation. I was reading recently that self actualization in one's work is a stronger motivator than money alone. (http://managerqanda.blogspot.com/2009/08/easy-ways-to-make-your-employees.html) Why else would there be cops and teachers??
  
  Ultimately there has to be a balance between compensation and actualization. No job will be perfect, but effective management can help get it pretty close.

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  3

  tramky

  08/27/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  Pink must be talking to management, and it wouldn't be on HERE if he wasn't. Make sure that capital doesn't transfer to the people doing the work, the mantra of corporate management as regards anyone else except themselves & contractors with whom they are involved in contracts.
  
  Self-actualization through work. What is that?
  
  In the end, when your employer dumps you in the street after things have gone badly for the company, self-actualization won't help your discovery that your financial security has NOT been achieved while you're subjugating yourself to the company. And when age discrimination--meaning cost discrimination due to your age--kicks in, you'll really understand the impact of agreeing with the concept that you didn't deserve the money anyway.

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  4

  js75270

  08/28/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  You can make all the generalities you like about what motivates people, but the fact is people are individuals, and as such, their motivation is as individual as they are. The mistake is thinking everyone is motivated by the same things.

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  inosend

  08/28/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  thanks to the 1st & 4th(js75..) responders. People can theorize all they like as if human beings were objects/variables in a physics equation but the issue still remains that human beings have free will and we don't all want the same thing. How hard can that be to get across?

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  Jkottemann

  08/28/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  As a casual observer of healthcare workers over the past 20+ years, I have come to appreciate that when an employee says "they don't pay me enough to do this job", it is rarely about the money and almost always a reflection of broken processes and poor working conditions. But healthcare organizations decided to repeatedly throw money at the problem rather than fix it. As a result we have great nurses leaving the profession, people going into nursing for the money and patients complaining about the poor level of care. If management would learn that sometimes they need to listen -- ask a question then shut up and listen.

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  jasonkozar

  08/28/09 | Report as spam

  This is nothing new

  Herzberg told us all of this decades ago.

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  conlad

  08/28/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  #6 got it right. Managers are enablers, so if you want someone to be better, ask and listen, and listen well and then reach a compromise for future results. You will go a long way doing that.
  
  Money, after all, is just a maintenance issue: want someone to do something, pay him or her a fair wage (what is a fair wage is an altogether different discussion). Want someone to do that better? Find other ways because money alone will not be good enough (look at what happened in the financial services, they got paid so much that they ended up not knowing what they were doing, as far as they did something it was ok). It's at that moment that you should sit down and listen what worries this person and what he wants to do in the future. Your incentives should follow that path.

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  9

  CubeRules.com

  08/28/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  Even though this may be "old," too few people understand this. And, yes, each person is an individual...that's why "autonomy, the urge to direct their own lives" is different to different people.
  
  The idea that you can't get satisfaction from your work while knowing full well the company can lay you off in a cold-blooded minute is false. One should try to work on that which is satisfying, knowing full well the world changes. Of course it does.
  
  That's why managing your career is much more about knowing what you want, why you want it, and working to go get it then getting self actualization from a company. A company certainly isn't going to give it to you -- they want you for your job skills to achieve their profit goals. That's not new either.
  
  The money is important to the work. So are the benefits. But business is social and social needs are a strong contributor to job satisfaction.

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  hGilani

  08/29/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  #9 got it absolutely right... Of course first you have to give them the fair amount of money (definition of fair is again different for everyone) to do the work.
  
  But it's all about How To Do the Work in A Better Way!!! Isn't it? Management comes to play here then. Money alone will get you work in a reactive environment alright, but when it comes to be proactive its a different story altogether.

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  trikester

  08/30/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  if this is the case, then our corporate CEOs are all paid WAAAAY too much, and that this overpaying of CEOs are actually hurting the companies that they manage.

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  geo115477

  08/31/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  I don't get it if a 20 year old American soldier in Iraq can be motivated to perform why not the "lower level employee" could it be leadership? As a healthcare employee serving in a director role for the past 20 + years, I applaud the casual observers comments.
  Leadership is missing at most levels of the healthcare environment. Google the latest Joint Comission sentinel event alert, "Leadership committed to safety" this accrediting body points at Leadership as the single most important item lacking in providing " obstacles", discipline (not disciplinary action) and motivation that will lead to a patient safe environment.

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  ivana235

  09/04/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  Please alert when the video for Mastery is on.
  
  This reminds me of the self-realization in Maslow's theory.
  
  I absolutely agree that there is no motivator as the intrinsic ones, but to feel them in the real light, external factors should be fulfilled.
  
  Personally, I am a part of work that is very significant and I stick to it only because i feel that, although I do not feel positive about the org I am in - so the intrinsic motivator wins. Yet, I always carry with me the overwhelming feeling of unfairness and "values" I can never comply with that exist within the org - should that be fixed, I am certain that I would be motivated to be even more productive and committed than I presently am.

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  Arun (sreearun)

  09/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  Everyone talks about the same, including Dan. In his talk, Dan mentions something like "given your people are financially compensated 'fairly'" and then goes on to mention the effects of the intrinsic motivators he was talking about.
  
  I would say that if we are targeting rewards at "Self-actualisation" levels, then there is an assumption that the person no longer requires to be motivated on the other levels that precede it as in Maslow's Needs hierarchy.

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  jillcurry

  10/15/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are useful in motivation. Maria Montessori is the founder of all of this information and much more. It would be a blessing for psychologists to acknowledge this fact. Every term used in this presentation belongs to Maria Montessori, founder of the Montessori Method for education. All of which is based on student centered learning directed by the childs curiosity and time alotted to explore until the child expressed a need to move on. This is the moment of mastery.
  Extrinsic motivators are needed for survival, intrinsic are needed for self-efficacy (the way we perceive our abilities). The greater the efficacy the greater our performance. Extrinsic motivators enable us to hunt for food, shelter, and breeding. This is not new science its nature in balance.
  Give credit to nature not a professor, speaker, or successful company. People will perform when the work meets their inner image of self. The will remain if the effort provides payment to satisfactorily take care of natural needs. Again, the extrinsic financial reward provides the means to survive in a community in and out of the workplace.
  
  Jill Curry, M. Ed., Conservative, Entreprenuer, Listener, and Observer of the natural environment in which we inhabit.

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  lornaolynn

  10/22/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  Good bye Boredom and Monotony Hello Engagement and Autonomy - Keep the Faith

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  drjimsellner

  10/23/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  To all of those who say this is nothing new, or it's all about Montessori.
  
  "Everything i've learned, i've learned from someone else." and
  
  i don't know about you but i am discovering, re-discovering stuff every day through other people views, research and opinions - which to me it the antidote for "psychosclerosis - hardening of my mind."
  
  So, thank you everyone for your comments. i did not realize Montessori is an originator of these concepts. My mind is a little softer today as a result of your comments.
  dr. jim sellner, PhD., DipC.

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  mphcoach

  10/31/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  Saying thank you and recognizing that people are valued goes a long way
  
  Martin Haworth
  Super Successful Manager!

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  mphcoach

  11/19/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Motivation: It's Not About Carrots or Sticks

  It's the small courtesies that so often make the difference.
  
  A manager who is able to notice small things and relate to them with every member of their team will be a special sort of manager and will create the motivation momentum that will make the difference.
  
  Martin Haworth
  Super Successful Manager!