Secrets of Motivation

Why are people motivated to do things in working for you, or for anyone else? The truth is there is no one single factor which motivates all people all of the time. Also, different people are motivated by different things at any particular time. But the biggest mistake that leaders make with motivation is not even trying to understand what motivates most of their followers most of the time. And the worst situation is thinking that those who follow you are motivated primarily by one thing, when in fact they are motivated by something entirely different.

When all else fails, social scientists look to their employees. In fact, this is not a new question, and scientists have studied many employees to determine what factors employees consider most important to them in their jobs.

My psychologist-wife tells me that one particular survey instrument has been given to hundreds of thousands of employees in many industries over many years. As a result, the results have been known for sometime. They are not secret. One of the studies based on this instrument was sponsored by the Public Agenda Foundation and reported by John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene in their best selling book book Re-inventing the Corporation.

Before I give you these results maybe you would like to take this survey instrument yourself. I've given this little survey myself it to thousands of leaders in my seminars. All you need to do is to rank the factors listed in the order of importance you think your employees would put them. Take a couple of minutes to do this before going on. Rank each factor in its order of importance to those who work for you, "1" being most important, "2" being second most important, etc.

Many times I offer an award for anyone who is able to get the top three correct in their actual order. Sometimes those who are doing this exercise work in teams. Then, if they get the top three successfully, they all get the award. Despite the fact that these teams or individuals are frequently experienced managers in high positions in their organizations, very few get the top three motivators correct, much less in their actual order of importance to employees.

Are you ready to see the actual results reported from the averages of hundreds of thousands of employees from many industries? Ranked from the most important to employees, here they are:

Yes, that’s right. The order of importance is exactly as listed, with “work with people who treat me with respect” number one! Is this surprising to you? Did you think that job security, high pay, and good benefits were the most important motivators for employees? Many do. Ninety percent of those leaders that I survey put one or more of these: job security, high pay, or good benefits in the top five. That is, they thought that these factors were the most important to their employees. But these three factors are usually far down the list. Yet, the results after asking hundreds of thousands from many different industries, is conclusive. This is what your employees really want above all else. They want to work with people that treat them with respect. They want the work to be interesting to them, and they want recognition when they do a good job.

Now this doesn't mean that job security, high pay, and good benefits aren't important. They are. But these other factors are more important. I could name many organizations in which high pay, benefits, nor even security are present to any great degree, yet the employees are highly motivated to achieving the goals of the organization because the top three, and other more important motivators are in place.

There are also many organizations in which employees are not highly motivated and the turnover of people who leave the organization is constant. Yet, the pay, benefits, and security are all pretty good.

I once worked as an executive recruiter. It was my job to find unique top executives for my client companies according to detailed job specifications that we prepared together. Usually the candidates for these positions were already employed at high positions in other companies. So a good part of the job was convincing these high-flying executives that it was worth their time to look at a new opportunity.

Yes, compensation, benefits, and security played a part in their decisions. But even though inducements to move in compensation alone could be 30% or more, many executives just weren't interested. For those that were interested, the increased salary and benefits were usually important as signals that the new job was truly more important and a better opportunity. And yes, some executives left for jobs for lower salaries, fewer benefits, and less job security. This was either because the position presented a greater opportunity to them in other ways, or because they were dissatisfied in their present positions despite the higher pay and benefits.

Max DePree, is former chairman and CEO of Herman Miller, Inc. Herman Miller, Inc. is the furniture manufacturer that Fortune Magazine named one of the ten “best managed” and “most innovative” companies. It was also chosen as one of the hundred best companies to work for in America. DePree says, “The best people working for organizations are like volunteers. Since they could probably find good jobs in any number of groups, they choose to work somewhere for reasons less tangible than salary or position. Volunteers do not need contracts, they need covenants.”2

What do these all have in common? Well for one thing, none of them will cost you very much to implement compared with pay, benefits, or providing perfect job security. For another, these are factors that you can improve regardless of restrictions or limitations on salary or benefits placed by your parent organization.

Think about what this means to you as a leader who wants to motivate his people to higher performance. You can probably improve most of these factors considered important by employees today, and they will probably cost you very little in time or resources.

Treating People With Respect Wins Over People and Wins Battles

Isn't it within your power to treat people with respect and insure that others that work for you do the same? Certainly every human being deserves to be treated with respect. Many outstanding leaders maintain you should treat those that work for you with even more than respect.

Mary Kay Ash, the woman who built the billion dollar Mary Kay Cosmetics Company told me that you should imagine everyone you see wearing a huge sign saying, "MAKE ME FEEL IMPORTANT." That's not only important for women selling cosmetics.

The night before the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon, the Emperor of France, went from campfire to campfire in his army. At every stop, his men gathered around him. Napoleon joked with his men and thanked them for their loyalty. He assured them of victory and explained how he had arranged for medical aid to come to them as swiftly as possible if they were wounded. 3

Napoleon was an emperor with the power of life and death over his soldiers. So, as an all-powerful leader, he could have treated his followers imperially and with disdain. Many leaders with far less power “lord it over” their followers. Do you think the Emperor Napoleon treated his men with respect? You bet he did, and you can bet this respect was returned as well.

“Promise us,” demanded a veteran grenadier, “that you will keep yourself out of the fire.”

“I will do so,” Napoleon answered; “I shall be with the reserve until you need me." 4

James MacGregor Burns, an American political scientist, wrote an outstanding, scholarly, book called simply, Leadership. 5 In fact, the book was so outstanding that it won the Pulitzer Prize. Burns is the genius who made explicit the contrast between what he called transformational and transactional leadership. Listen to his succinct advice: “In real life, the most practical advice for leaders is not to treat pawns like pawns, nor princes like princes, but all persons like persons." 6

If You Want People To Go All Out, Make Their Work Interesting

Can you provide interesting work, or can you make the work that your people must do interesting in some way? There are many opportunities to do this if you think about it. This is why turning striving into a competitive activity can increase the productivity of your organization.

You would think that a battle is just about an interesting endeavor as you might imagine. How can a battle be made more interesting? Well English Field Marshall Montgomery found a way. Here is Montgomery's famous order to his men before the Battle of Al Alamein in World War II:

"The battle which is now about to begin will be one of the decisive battles of history. It will be the turning-point of the war." 7

Who wouldn't want to do their best in one of the decisive battles of history, in one that would be the turning point of World War II the biggest war of history? Montgomery motivated his army to top performance and they defeated the Rommel and his "unbeatable" Africa Korps.

The importance of providing interesting work is not a brand new concept. More than eighty years ago, Professor Warren Hilton wrote:

"It is not enough to have a mere general passion for success. Mere indefinite wishing for success will never get you anywhere. Besides this general passion, you must have definite interests continually renewed. You must give the mind something specific and tangible and immediate to work upon. You must incessantly add new details. Otherwise interest, attention, and activity will wane.

“Your biggest problem is how to keep your efficient output of mental energy at a high level. The solution lies in maintaining interest . . . . You must continually devise new ways of renewing the interest of your men and inspiring them to concentrate their attention upon...the mission. You cannot give a young man ...monotonous and routine duties to perform and expect him to take the interest that you take in your business. You must make his work interesting for him. . . . Keep his and your interest alive by trying to discover new things in old surroundings and new aspects to everyday tasks." 8

Recognition For Good Work Is Only Fair . . . And It Pays Dividends

How many different ways can you think of right now to recognize good work? How many different awards and rewards can you give to those who work for you? How many different ways can you think of to publicize your followers' success? How many different personal ways can you say "congratulations, we're proud of you?"

Former President of Israel, Ezer Weizman was commander of the Israeli Air Force in the early 1960's. In those days, the Israeli Air Force was poorly equipped. It was a small air force that had not yet gained the world-wide reputation which it established only a few years later.

General Weizman knew every pilot in his Air Force by first name, and that's how he addressed every pilot. He knew every man's personal problems and interests. He sent flowers to every pilot's wife who gave birth. He coined the Air Force's recruiting slogan, "The Best for the Air Force." Whenever he picked up the phone, his opening sentence was always, "Well, what's news in the best air force in the Middle East?" Gradually, his men became convinced that despite their small numbers and outmoded equipment, they were the best.

War came about a year after General Weizman was promoted to Chief of Operations of the Israeli Defense Forces. His pilots didn't let him down in combat. They destroyed 352 enemy aircraft in the first few hours of the Six Days War of 1967. 9

Everyone Wants Recognition

Believe me, I don’t care who they are: everyone wants recognition. Connie Podesta and Jean Gatz, two management consultants, wrote the book, How To Be The Person Successful Companies Fight to Keep. In it, they report that one CEO confided his frustration and distress: “I have worked so hard to turn this company around. I have managed to keep our profits up without laying off one person. I provide excellent benefits, and I’m willing to pay for my employees to go to school. I spend a great deal of money on picnics, parties, and celebrations because I want them to enjoy their jobs and feel as though this is a family they can count on. Very few of them have ever said thank you or even seem to appreciate how hard I try to make this a great place to work. On the other hand, if one little thing goes wrong or I have to say no to any of their ideas, some of them threaten to quit. And others won’t speak to me." 10

“Tough,” you say. “The guy has to learn to be more thick-skinned.” “If he can’t take the heat, he should stay out of the kitchen!” Oh yes, that’s all very true. But my point is here is someone who has made it to the top of a company. He’s making good money and has power and responsibility. And yet, even he craves recognition. If this is true of a person in a position of considerable power, think how true it must be for everyone else . . . including everyone who would follow you and me!

Yet, there are so many ways to recognize your employees. Management expert Bob Nelson actually identified over a thousand! He published them in a book entitled 1001 Ways to Reward Employees. 11 Better get a copy!

Make Sure Your People Have The Opportunity To Develop Their Skills

Do you create the opportunity for those in your organization to develop their skills? Can you provide special courses in-house? How about a few hours off every week to complete a college degree? Maybe you can hire a physical fitness instructor to work with employees during lunch or after work. Sometimes an employee has the ability to do this, or has unique knowledge about which he or she is willing to instruct other employees. All you need to do is ask.

Please don't forget the requirement for you and other leaders in your organization to act as teachers. Of course by teaching, you also learn. One of the most famous German aces in World War I was a young Captain by the name of Oswald Boelcke. Boelcke is especially noteworthy because the tactics he developed ninety years ago are still in use by fighter pilots today.

Boelcke went to extraordinary lengths to insure that new pilots assigned to his squadron became acclimated to their dangerous work. He would do everything possible to insure an early victory for one of his new student-pilots. That included giving up opportunities to shoot down enemy planes himself and thus raise his total score.

It was Boelcke who developed the idea of "Hunting Squadrons." We would call them fighter squadrons today. He was given command of one such squadron himself. Though he spent much of his time teaching, he still managed to down 40 enemy aircraft despite the fact that he died fairly early in the war on October 28, 1916 from an aircraft accident.

Boelcke's teaching probably helped his country's war efforts more than his personal aerial victories. And his teaching might have helped him gain his victories as well, despite lost opportunities. To quote the New Testament: "Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?" (Romans 2:21).

In summary, as a leader, one of your main responsibilities is to inspire those you lead to do their best. Some of the most powerful motivators you can use won’t cost you a penny. Put them into action today!

1 Adapted from William A. Cohen, The New Art of the Leader (Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall Press, 2000)

2 Max DePree, Leadership is an Art, (New York: Dell Publishing, 1989) p. 28

3John Laffin, Links of Leadership (Abelard-Schuman: New York, 1970) p.189.

4. Ibid.

5 James MacGregor Burns, Leadership (New York: Harper & Row, publishers, 1978)

6, James MacGregor Burns, quoted in William Safire and Leonard Safir, Leadership (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990) p. 202.

7John Laffin. Op. Cit. p.265

8 Warren Hilton, Applied Psychology: Processes and Personality (The Applied Psychology Press: San Francisco, 1920) p. 97.

9.Eli Landau, "Ezer Weizman," in Moshe Ben Shaul, ed. Generals of Israel (Hadar Publishing Co., Ltd.: Tel Aviv, Israel, 1969) p.72.

10 Connie Podesta and Jean Gatz, How To Be The Person Successful Companies Fight To Keep (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997) p. 184.

11 Bob Nelson, 1001 Ways toReward Employees (New York: Workman Press, 1994)

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© 2005 by William A. Cohen, PhD

Treating People With Respect Wins Over People and Wins Battles

If You Want People To Go All Out, Make Their Work Interesting

Recognition For Good Work Is Only Fair . . . And It Pays Dividends

Everyone Wants Recognition

Make Sure Your People Have The Opportunity To Develop Their Skills