Motivation on the Run

Jonathon wrote a comment about people being motivated either by fear or joy and used the example of people getting to work on time because of fear. Here is part of the comment (click link for complete comment).

I prefer however to break this down to a different group, a more polar list. Good vs. bad.

I say people do things for two reasons:
1.) People are motivated by fear/pain
2.) People are motivated by joy/pleasure

Many situations require a combination of both. The successful situations I’ve seen use fear as a motivator to set structure and lay the ground rules. Then pleasure is used as motivator on top of that to them draw out the wanted result. In fact, I think most situations are just that.

You don’t get a reward for showing up on time, but you will get punished if you don’t. You won’t get punished for not overperforming, and you will get rewarded for over-performing.

My first thought (Jonathon I’m not picking on you, you just hit a nerve) on this topic was how terrible it would be to have to show up on time because of fear. This is something I have never experienced personally, and at different locations I have worked and managed, there were reasons for people to arrive early that had nothing to do with fear. The unfortunate truth is that the statements are probably true to a greater extent than I care to admit.

INCENTIVES
Fun incentives can help boost morale and encourage early arrival. Things like: Last man in bring donuts … first one in gets a free steak lunch (bought by sales manager). If work starts at 8:00 AM, a contest for $100 cash that starts at 7:30 and ends at 7:50 will help employees arrive early (and it doesn’t have to be $100, just an example). Arrival closest to a secret pre-determined time, picks the morning music on the boom box.

If a company has to use fear to coerce employees to arrive on time, it must be a terrible place to work, and is not some place I want to work. Life is too short to dread going to work everyday and if a company can’t motivate it’s employees by any means other than fear, they have a bigger problem than employees arriving on time.

Now I admit that I have made several pre-suppositions. People that read this blog and listen to this podcast are people that are motivated and care about improving themselves and would not be guilty of showing up late for work. That is unprofessional and unacceptable for people with goals and a positive mental attitude.

On the other hand, I realize there are individuals that are not motivated and won’t show up on time for any reason. This is a problem with the hiring process not the motivation process. If the new hires have no desire to arrive on time and help meet company goals, hence their own goals, they need to be dealt with differently; once is warned, twice is gone. And yes, I can be a hard-nose when it comes to deadbeats with no time for them, if they persist in their behavior, but again, this is a hiring problem.

In the management meeting last week, conducted by Acumen Management Group, the one phrase that captures the thought on this is “Hire slowly, fire quickly.” If you have people that do not want to be there enough to show up on time (or any other issues) they are not people that are going to help, and will usually detract from productivity of the other workers.

To wrap up, I think that good hires will motivate themselves and good managers will motivate to the employees strengths.

My long time saying in this matter is, “If it’s not fun, we need to go do something else, because life is too short for misery.” Think about it…