Thousands of books have been written on the subject of motivation which have been read by millions of readers. Millions more have attended motivational seminars and conferences to listen to their favorite motivational speakers espouse words of wisdom that light fires under the derrieres of attendees. But there are some people who believe motivational tools are not needed to get people moving and that people just need to pull up their bootstraps and get busy; if only it were that easy. One of my favorite quotes by Zig Ziglar is, “People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily.” This month’s book review is a good motivational read —- think of it as a monthly supply of soap. photo credit: zetson via photopin cc Written about four years ago, Daniel Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is a keeper and one to pass onto your troops. In the beginning of the book, Pink shares his findings on some experiments conducted that prove that the carrot-and-stick type rewards don’t work. Not only that, but they actually demotivate people. These surprising findings revealed that the higher the reward, the more stress is induced which decreases productivity and kills performance. In reality, according to Drive, the satisfaction and happiness of employees focus on three key motivators of our lives. Understanding these three will help you to better manage your actions providing the right motivators for your team members.

I. Autonomy

Pink found that people want to have the ability to have at least some self-direction in their lives. He gives examples of this from Best Buy’s Results Oriented Work Environment (ROWE) program, where employees have no schedules and are measured only by what they get done. Pink also includes Google’s famous 20 percent program as an example. This is where engineers are allowed to use 20 percent of their time to work on projects that interest them. Projects such as Gmail and Google Plus have evolved from these sessions. Pink agrees that not every company can afford the luxury of implementing such sessions right away, but suggests setting up a trial run to see if it will work in your business. Perhaps allotting 10 percent of the workweek to employees for three or six months on a trial basis may deem a better fit for you. Key Point: You don’t want to simply give play time to your team, but allowing members “creative”time, without boundaries, can prove to be extremely motivating and productive.

II. Mastery

People also want the ability to improve themselves in their field of endeavor. For this subject, Pink quotes Harvard Business School’s Teresa Amabile who said, “Intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity; controlling extrinsic motivation is detrimental to creativity.”   The point is that we can no longer keep employees within our boxes of control force-feeding them only the training we think they need to succeed. Allowing team members to seek areas of interest for improvement and then providing those necessary tools will create and develop a more highly motivated and productive workforce. Key Point: Provide choices of training and education for your team members. Don’t be afraid to provide too much in the way of training just so they can go elsewhere. That may happen. But studies have shown that when resources are provided for employees to enhance their skills, loyalty of those employees is increased.

III. Purpose

In the book Drive, Pink states that one final motivator is that people want to have the ability to contribute to something larger than themselves. They want to know that what they are doing is going toward a greater goal. Our global economy and easy access to information has created a workforce of a majority of people who want to make a difference in the world. It used to be that you could show an employee their job description, train them every now and then, and expect them to perform well. Today, most workers want to know that what they are doing is contributing to a larger piece of the puzzle. They want to know that what they are doing counts toward the greater good. Key Point: Keep an open door policy as well as an open book policy for your team members. Share with them how their job contributes toward the success of the business, which contributes toward the success of the customers, which contributes toward the success of the community. If possible, share a piece of the company with them and allow them to take part in organizing volunteer events on behalf of the company. Play a part in providing a purposeful place for them to contribute. Immediately changing your reward system can be detrimental to the health of your business. However, breezing through a copy of Drive may prove helpful in implementing a new system in increments. Understanding what really motivates or drives people gives you an advantage over the competition. Take a test drive (sorry!) of a copy of Drive and learn how to use the three factors of Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose to your advantage.

Johnny Duncan, President of Duncan Consulting, Inc., is a business writer and consultant partnering with business leaders to provide workforce management solutions including leadership coaching, customer service training, people-to-job matches, copywriting, and conflict resolution. He can be reached at johnny@duncanconsult.com or by calling 407-739-0718.