Tool Box
Issue No. 50 - December/ /
How to achieve results through others
by Daniel Lock
People motivate themselves: this article looks at how to set up structures and enable change.
Let’s start with what doesn’t work.
The carrot and stick approach is as old as the hills - and the method of lazy managers. At best you will achieve temporary compliance. Over the long term loyalty will decline and quality of work will suffer dramatically.
In fact, people are motivated for many reasons, certainly much broader ones than money and punishments. While it is true people are motivated by rewards it is the rewards they value as individuals which matter.
Herzberg’s definitive study showed more money did not drive motivation in line with the additional cash, although inadequate pay was a dramatic de-motivator. The very individual nature of motivation is why blanket motivation programs don’t work and often backfire.
Fear doesn’t work
The big stick approach – fear – can move people, but at a cost of ill will, eroded loyalty and dissent.
Bullying managers may threaten people who refuse to work overtime, or are not ‘team players’, with financial pressure or threats to bar promotion. But neither explicit nor implicit, passive aggressive behaviour works in the long term.
When the big stick is not present and visible, the threat ceases to work. Using force to get things done doesn’t work as well as appealing to people’s values.
We probably all remember peer pressure at school; well, it never really changes. We are all very much influenced by the company we keep.
In organisations peer pressure, ‘normative pressure’ as psychologists call it, is often a favoured tool to attempt to motivate staff. It’s the old story: everyone else is doing it, so should you.
Again, this moves people to action, but not lasting change. They recognise sales pitches from the snake oil salesman: ‘don’t be the last to miss out’. We are being manipulated to their end.
People are smart,...
