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by Rick Baker
On Feb 11, 2014
In business, should we reward the efforts people make or the results people achieve?
I've seen the following conflicted pieces of advice from the 'experts', the psychologists and the behavioural scientists:
- reward efforts and don't reward results,
- praise efforts and reward results,
- set small, short-term goals and reward results as they are achieved, and
- be careful when you reward result...you may not like the behaviour behind the results.
And, over the last 10 years, there has been much said about how to apply rewards.
For example:
- Is money a reward that motivates people? Some argue "No", intrinsic rewards are the drivers behind motivation,
- Should we use negative rewards? [I wrote a bit about that in no carrots, no sticks...no donkeys, inspired by seeing Dan Pink in action in 2011], and
- celebrate failures.
In the 2007 book ' INFLUENCER', Patterson, Grenny et al recommend:
- Intrinsic rewards come first.
- Social support, encouragement, and rewards are the essential second step.
- Then apply extrinsic rewards.
Consider the above 3 steps for Influencing.
Step #1: Consider your work-situation and the people you work with. When work-tasks are being doled out, do you think any of your people ask themselves questions like: " Can I do this thing?", " Do I enjoy doing this thing?", and " What's in it for me if I do this thing?" Likely, you will agree - most people do ask themselves those intrinsic-motivation questions. And, if their answers to those questions are negative then their intrinsic motivation to do the work-tasks will be low. And the next domino...your ability to spark their flames of motivation will be small, perhaps non-existent. You may be able to force the people to do the work, using a 'stick'. However, the behaviour that follows will be lacklustre and the positive results [if they happen at all] will be short-lived. And, of course, think about yourself. How do you behave and perform when you think the tasks are beyond your capability or offer little of interest to you in return for your effort?
Step #2: Again, consider the real people in your work-situation. Does your work environment contain social support to enable change? As one example: when changes are in the works do your people rally around the change, helping one another perform the new behaviours? Or, is change more like a bunch of singular events where every man is expected to change for himself and every woman is expected to change for herself? Is the former succeeding? Is the latter failing? In summary - What do your real-life experiences tell you about Step #2: Social support, encouragement, and rewards are the essential second step?
Step #3: How much time do you spend considering the effect extrinsic rewards have on your people? For example, does money help motivate your people? Does an annual cost-of-living raise motivate another year of top-notch behaviour? Do you see direct evidence of that? Does a year-end bonus help motivate another year of top-notch behaviour? Do you see direct evidence of that? Can you identify a direct connection between any of those sorts of routine money additions and your people's positive work-behaviour? Or, are money increases more like a 'necessary evil'...a necessary evil because they are required to keep your people from leaving to work elsewhere?
When I think through these sorts of questions - how they apply to people I have worked with and how they apply to me - I know:
- There are times when money motivates behaviour...this motivation is highest when money is short; this motivation is lowest when financial independence has been achieved.
- I know intrinsic rewards work...when work-tasks are enjoyable, regardless of why they are enjoyable, it is easy to spend the time doing them; when tasks are not enjoyable and the other benefits linked to the tasks are not clear or large enough it is easy to say "I'm too busy" or procrastinate
- Social support does influence behaviour...most people go the extra mile when they feel they are part of a unified team; most people struggle when they are forced to perform in isolation
by Rick Baker
On Jan 30, 2014
Take Immediate Steps to Improve Communication
When communication gets off track, straying from the desired direction, good leaders work to improve communication so it returns to the right track. Good leaders do not let interpersonal conflicts fester. They know success relies on a level of harmony between followers. So, when dysfunction is evident they address it. Good leaders communicate to ensure their followers' harmony and focus.
Design Tools to Help People
Tools serve people...making their lives easier, making their lives more productive, adding quality to their lives...assisting them as they build. Good leaders know the power inherent in tools. Good leaders ensure their people have access to good tools. And, to maximize opportunities for performance good leaders ensure their people have customized tools...creative, customized tools.
Focus on Solutions
Leaders see solutions. Solutions and solution-thinking are around the essence of leadership. Good leaders connect with followers who are like minded about solutions. Some followers are naturally solution-oriented, others need to learn that problems are the routes to solutions, growth, and opportunities. Leaders do 2 things to promote solution-orientation: they lead by example...and...they teach.
Seek Simple
When people go about business things can get complicated and that can happen quickly. Good leaders know the difference between simple, complicated, and complex. Good leaders conserve their energy, saving it for the complicated and complex things. One strategy that ensures energy is conserved so it can be put to best use is Seeking Simple...separating wheat from chaff...helping followers do the same.
Understand Business Contains Only 3 Things: People, Process, & Situations
"People, Processes, & Situations" is an example of seeking simple. Good leaders know success is all about people...so good leaders invest time connecting with, serving, mentoring, and strengthening good people. Good leaders ensure processes [including tools] serve people, helping people convert actions into results. Good leaders know situations have a most-powerful effect on behaviour, so they plan for and construct situations.
by Rick Baker
On Jan 22, 2014
Thought Tweet #918 Regardless of the situation, you can choose to lead. [Choices are limited: leading, following, perhaps one other thing.]
The Thinking Behind The Tweet
Business Contains Only 3 Things: People, Process, & Situations.
Regardless of the situation, you can choose to lead.
If you do not choose to lead then you may choose to follow.
If you do not choose to lead or follow then what are you choosing?
by Rick Baker
On Jan 21, 2014
Thought Tweet #917 Where people connect with IT Systems: that's a place where huge improvements hide under people's complaints.
The Thinking Behind The Tweet
When I hear people complaining about IT hardware/software/network I immediately dig deep to find the hidden improvements & opportunities. When an IT problem is solved it almost always removes a people problem. So, 2 problems get fixed at the People-Process interface...and that opens doors for opportunities.
Business Contains Only 3 Things: People, Process, & Situations.
When the situation looks like a problem at the people-process interface...know P=2S+O is the route mindset.
by Rick Baker
On Jan 21, 2014
Motivation def’n: the force that influences people to act
Measuring motivation: an ‘ability of consciousness’ that differentiates human beings from other animals
You’re human – so, naturally, you measure other people’s motivations. You observe people. And, automatically, you measure their motivations.
If you are skilled at measuring motivation then you may enjoy harmonious and low-confusion interactions. If you are unskilled at measuring motivation then you likely experience regular challenges and conflicts when you interact with other people.
Motivation and Influence are siblings. If you want to be a leader then you want to be able to influence people. And, your influence will be maximized when you understand and make use of other people’s inherent motivations.
Dale Carnegie taught, “Win friends and influence people.” Generations earlier, Abraham Lincoln said, “If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend.” Yes, friendship or at least willingness to work in harmony is helpful in influencing other people’s behaviour. However, there is a more-important thing. More important than friendship is the ability to accurately assess other people’s motivations. For some leaders, the key to accurate assessment is the gift of natural ‘empathy’, the ability to understand other people’s feelings. For other leaders, the ability to accurately assess other people’s motivations is a learned skill…it is a planned & learned personal strength.
Fundamental to this learned personal strength:
- a broad and deep understanding of human nature,
- keen powers of observation, &
- knowledge of the power situations hold over people's behaviour.
How about you?
Do you possess a natural gift that allows you to understand other people’s motivations?
Or…
Do you work continuously to improve your ability to understand other people’s motivations?
Or…
Are you just winging it?
by Rick Baker
On Jan 16, 2014
Link to Part 1
Bringing Process to People - What does that mean?
There's a spectrum of answers to that question. The spectrum ranges from Delegation to dumping. Since dumping just creates a pile of garbage we will focus on delegation. Delegation is about assigning and transferring authority from one person to another. So, delegation is the decision-making engine of business.
Delegation is a business Process performed by People. To be more specific, delegation is the Process of assigning and transferring decision-making Processes to People. People can do this Process directly [face-to-face] or indirectly [using tools ranging from memos to phones to email, etc.].
While that's a laborious description...based on how poorly many business people handle delegation it is of value to try new tactics to cause them to give the process of delegation more thought.
There's more to Bringing Process to People.
In summary, there are 2 ways business Processes meet business People:
- Delegation - introduced above
- Tools - created by people to assist work performance and to assist delegation
In business, tools range:
- from monitors to metal lathes
- from wrenches to robots
- from software solutions to 'STRENGTHSFINDER' assessments
- from French curves to Facebook
- from 1-Page Tools to a truck for two men
About Delegation & Tools
When business people delegate they are Bringing Process to People in two different forms:
- They are Bringing Future-Work Process to People - setting expectations and transferring responsibility & accountability.
- They are Bringing Delegation-Communication Process to People - possibly consistent with setting expectations and transferring responsibility & accountability or possibly not consistent with those objectives.
In general, Canadian business people do not invest enough time designing clear work-process and they invest even less time - often, no time - designing ways to delegate effectively. We Canadians need to remedy these shortfalls so we are better able to influence people, inspire action, and grow business wealth. Delegation is a good place to start applying our remedies. After all, Delegation is the Decision-Making Engine of Business.
If we want our business people to excel, we need to prove we care about keeping our decision-making engines humming.
We can use a range of tools to help keep our engines humming.
1-Page Tools are particularly helpful because they can be customized to fit specific needs and each individual's learning style.
...to be cont'd
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