Motivation or own goal...

Our steps towards motivation sometimes fire back: that which inspires us is not sure to inspire others.

The first important rule with regards to the notion of motivation is that it doesn’t matter whether the individual feels happy about it or not. Most people (99.99%) start to sing if they get a payrise or a bonus. There is no lack of happiness.

The only question is whether the following day, the following week or a few months later performance really improves as a result of the bonus. Because motivation is only real if we can see improvement as a consequence.

There are very few who would not feel above the clouds as a result of a better company car, a bigger refund of expenses or an appointment. But will the expected increase in performance follow the bursting feeling of happiness? Or much rather we would see a sort of ego-inflation, indolence or weaker performance? The truth is that in most cases we no longer pay attention to this. Neither the employee, nor the employer recognizes what has actually changed as a result of motivation.

Every motivational tool (our institute examines 16 main and 42 combined variations) can basically produce three kinds of effect. (1) It improves performance (2) it doesn’t change the effectiveness indices or (3) it has a definitely detrimental effect. This latter is usually referred to as a demotivator. In football terms, this is the own goal. We give a payrise to someone and in exchange their performance drops.

As regards to money for instance, in Hungary only 6% of the employees would step on the gas if they are paid more. 57% would definitely slam on the brakes - others would only shrug. At the same time all will be happy.

The “oh but” techniques are no different either. The manager selects and shows off an employee as an example, whom he thinks is the model to follow. The person is given the title of the Employee of the month, of the year, of the decade, he is commemorated as a separate item on the agenda at every meeting. What will be the result? In Hungary the “oh but” type motivators prompt 64% of the employees to slam immediately on the brakes. Only 10 or so will get wings, the others will go away mumbling to themselves.

In addition to the two aforementioned motivation techniques, there are 14 other ways to achieve partial results. We can motivate our employees with a prospective promotion, with the possibility of professional development, with using direct control, gifts, etc. We can even combine these but the results will remain of three types anyway: performance will improve, remain the same or drop.

If we would like to play safe without risking eventual own goals, it’s worth mapping the motivation preferences of our employees in advance. Of course not what they think about it but much rather those motivators which derive from their personality and which may be hidden even for themselves.