The shocking truth about motivation - that you must know
- Tue, November 16 2010
- Filed under: Nonprofit leadership
On today’s theme of scarce resources, here’s advice on managing your organization: Don’t feel huge bonuses get brilliant thinking. (Not that we had the money to pay big bonuses anyway.)
Pay people enough to take money off the table as a motivator. It doesn’t really work anyway.
How do you create amazing, innovative thinking at your organization? Daniel Pink says:
Via Autonomy: Let great people be self-directed. Get out of their way.
Via Mastery: Challenge and mastery, along with making a contribution, make people feel a wonderful sense of transcendent purpose. Purpose maximizers do more than profit maximizers.
Comments
I agree. Sometimes money is not the most important factor to motivate the employee rather than having a job that you find interesting and attract you. Also, putting to much pressure on the top of the organization where they get huge rewards can lead to poor performance. High incentive for difficult tasks lead to worse performance
I totally agree. Money is something we all like but I don’t see how the perspective of a big bonus should help my work. It would only make me less effective because of the pressure. What I need to achieve my goals is a deadline. If I have one I’m going to finish my task on time so I can be proud of myself and that is what keeps me going everyday.
Dear Katya,
I liked Drive, but I liked the Strengthsfinder more.
Reason? Drive was a little simplistic. Gallup interviewed over 2 million people over 30 years to find out what really motivated them at work.
They found that we all have strengths that need to be nurtured and respected at work. There are over 50 different strengths. When you discover your strengths, it helps you understand more what motivates you and what doesn’t.
I wrote a post on that here, would love to get your thoughts:
http://www.wildwomanfundraising.com/discover-strengths/
Mazarine
If, according to the study, high rewards lead to worse performance, why still companies are giving huge bonuses if it’s going to harm them?
I agree, but without giving them a credit for what they’re good at, they might get tired and feel less motivated. Should a raise or a reward still be a part of it?