and Challenges
| Getting People to do their Best Work | |
| EMOTION, NOT MONEY, IS AT THE HEART OF TRUE EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
When reading the article ‘I feel motivated' from Financial Reviews ‘Boss' magazine my belief and passion for MOTIVATING teams was only reinforced. I already knew within myself, through my experience with sporting teams and breaking down the barriers in a social situation that to make people perform as teams you need to make them emotionally connect. It was Nitin Nohria, a professor of business administration, Boris Groysberg, an associate professor at Harvard Business School and Linda-Eling a research director at the center for research on Corporate Performance in Cambridge, Massachuetts, whom performed research that suggests ‘that people are guided by four basic emotional needs, or drives.'
1. The drive to acquire We are all driven to acquire scarce goods that bolster our sense of wellbeing. We experience delight when this drive is fulfilled, discontentment when it is thwarted. This phenomenon applies not only to physical goods, but also to EXPERIENCES such as travel and entertainment.
2. The drive to bond The drive to bond, when met, is associated with strong positive EMOTIONS such as love and caring and, when not, with negative ones such as loneliness and anomie. At work, the drive to bond accounts for the enormous boost in MOTIVATION when employees feel proud of belonging to the organisation and for loss of morale when the institution betrays them. The most effective way to fulfill the drive to bond is to create a culture that promotes TEAMWORK, COLLABORATION, OPENNESS, and FRIENDSHIP.
3. The drive to comprehend We want very much to make sense of the world, to produce theories and accounts – scientific, religious, and cultural – that make events comprehensible and suggest reasonable actions and responses. We are frustrated when things seem senseless, and we are invigorated, typically, by the Challenge of working out answers. Employees are MOTIVATED by jobs and tasks that CHALLENGE them to grow and learn.
4. The drive to defend We all naturally defend ourselves, our property and accomplishments, our family and friends, and our ideas and beliefs against external threats. Fair, trustworthy, and transparent processes and PROGRAMS for performance management and resource allocation HELP meet people's drive to defend.
You can't just pay your employees a lot and hope they'll feel enthusiastic about their work in an organisation where BONDING is not fostered. To fully MOTIVATE your employees, you must address all four drives.
Oliver Sheer Source: © Harvard Business Review 2008 |
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