How to motivate Employees: Pressure Vs Pleasure!
We had our monthly employee meeting yesterday and it was so interesting to hear our employees talk about what motivates them the most. When I asked them to share with me whether there are driven by Pressure or Encouragement, some of the things they said were surprising
“It’s different all the time” said one employee, “with some managers I am more motivated if they encourage me, while with others I do more when they tell me that I am not doing a good job”
“A deadline drives me to achieve more”
“I can’t perform under pressure, I do worse”
“If you encourage me, I stop performing. I need to feel under pressure”
The lesson to learn was that everyone is so different! To help people achieve more in their lives, you need to first get to know them. Pay attention the next time you put someone under pressure, focus on the result and you will soon know what works best for them. Managers, who pay attention only to company results, most likely lose sight of what makes people achieve more. Whether you use pressure or encouragement, every employee feels good when they set goals and learn to achieve them. If you switch your train of thought from company results to employee results, you might have a chance to win both. Balance is also the key; you cannot constantly put some one under pressure! Remember encouragement is the food for the soul and can make any of us feel better about ourselves and in turn do a better job at work.
posted by Farid Dordar @ 10:42 AM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
This is an encouraging article as it enlightens employers that not everyone should be treated the same to get results.
It is also good to see that you "practice what you preach", and that you take the time to get to know your employees. They are the most important part of any successful company!
Well Said /\
I believe that the key here is to respect all employees as important players on the team. When an employee feels valued (not manipulated)(not disposable) then you WILL see amazing results. Validating and helping employees set goals and obtain them requires each party to work as a team; making the VICTORY that much sweeter.
People move, live and grow by two simple forces: Fear and Greed!
In the corporate world, we don't use "greed"… instead we use "encouragement" “inspiration”, “motivation” and stimulation (sounds better)
On the “fear” side we have all corporate words for it: “deadline”, “function”, responsibility”, “quota”, “performance”, etc. In all those words is always shadow of hanging axe! Just incase!
This is not just our corporate world, look at TV ads, our political system and even your supermarket. There are always “sales” and “specials” [greed] and “limited time only” [fear]
The point is: People are the same, they all operate based on the same engine: Fear-Greed combination. The only difference is the percentage of those ingredients in each of us!
Sean
Well said Farid. People are different. You normally build your success by surrounding yourself people talented and professional people. So I suggest even going deeper than ways of treating people. Hire people who have the following characteristics:
1. People who think Outside the Box
2. People who think Differently
3. People with the power of unleashing creativity
4. People who understand the secrets to Managing UP
5. People who put themselves in your Customer’s Shoes
I do not agree with Sean about fear and greed. If you manage to become a professional in what you do with hard work and persistence, there will be no fear, and there will be no greed because. The doors are all be open to you! People with no talent or limited resource always have that fear you are talking about and since they cannot measure up to the rest they become greedy.
To better understand people you are working with I suggest everyone reading some books on organizational studies, specifically "Organizational Behavior".
Arash Dorandish
Farid - I highly recommend you check out "neurlinguistic profiling" if you haven't already. In short, there are "away" and "toward" people; most are predominantly one within context (i.e. "work" or "fitness"). "Away" people go to the gym because they're getting fat, then quit when they see some results. "Toward" people are goal motivated by getting a black belt, six pack, etc. Internally, I keep notes on each employee as to their profile, and then know if I should threaten to fire them or come down hard with repurcussions from missed deadline (an "away" person), or offer a bonus for having the desired goal complete by a certain deadline (a "toward" person, who is also better to give praise to along the way vs. create a bit of fear). Ideally, a manager can offer both, to maximize management agenda and maintain a fair environment. Other neolinguist profiling "tags" one can label is not just introvert/extrovert (which is a sliding scale bell-weighted toward the middle), but things like "judger" or "percieved" i.e. one who molds their world-view to fit incoming data, or one who finds a pigeonhole to place data within.
If you'd like, I have a more detailed article on this I'd be happy to email/fax it to you.
Best regards,
RogerV, CEO,
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