The High Five feels good and extremely satisfying...the inner self is beaming. The medal says finisher and given to everyone who finishes the run. Is this what keeps people working out and coming back for more? The question bothers me through the day. The feeling of finishing a 5 km run in the morning and appreciation by your wife, daughter and close friends means much more than many accomplishments at work.
It makes me think about the motivation at work. Every monday morning many of us sing the monday blues and only few of us are looking forward to the work and excited to come in. This puzzle has been solved by MIntzberg and he makes me dwell on his famous theory of motivation, Mintzberg’s hygiene and motivators. Hygiene is needed for us not to feel demotivated but motivators are the ones which keep us coming back time & again. We need to view the motivators closely as most of them turn to hygiene very very quickly. In most of the cases, the little (or most of) which satisfied us in the past no longer works for the current. For the current, one has to find new motivators, howsoever small they may be. And the cycle is continuous.
We all have read,analysed, followed many theories of motivation & recognition in the corporate and managerial world. Strangely most of them though available to us and proven many times over do not have many takers.
The motivation to succeed is most prevalent in all humans, when an employee joins an organisation, she comes motivated to give her best and give the organisation and job a great shot. What happens to her within 6 month of joining is another story, she is frustrated and needs constant extrinsic motivation to complete a challenging task or project. All of us scramble to find the reason for her disengagement and why she no longer gives the best shot to the job any longer.
All of us find many ways to motivate(& engage) her but the most oft quoted solution is money in some form or the other. The manager fights with everyone who has the power to give money (HR, manager’s manager) and builds a case to get it for her. In many cases he manages to get the money and excitedly shares the same with her, explains to her the work she has diligently done and all the good things being recollected from the past, he tries to build the bond of engagement once more. This building of bond is usually is more complex than just giving a salary increase or a bonus. The moments when she needed the recognition are history now and have minimal impact on her current motivation or engagement, she needs the current to be recognised than anything else and having paid the money most of us believe the price for engagement and loyalty has been paid and one should get these automatically now. Manager gets frustrated as he does not get the same warm response he is expecting after having fought for money and putting his credibility at stake. What he does not recognise is that he is trying to amend the past where the current needs accolades and empathy.
That is the reason I would like to borrow motivation and achievement mantras from the sports world (which besides the money for few individuals) keeps most others motivated by the passing on shards of cloth and pieces of metal (the wonderful medals and ribbons routine). It seems to work wonderfully well and keeps people coming back for more all the time. What is at work here? Most of us know the answer intuitively, we all love to be praised in front of our friends, colleagues, loved ones and the world. This recognition holds far more value for us than the recognition money brings. Most of the time we cannot even share the money numbers for various reasons (company policy, jealousy etc.).
As I examine the sports world and the ribbons and medals a bit more, I realise that a high five from my yoga trainer after every asna done well is what keeps me motivated to do more and no high five to me but to my fellow yoga learners motivates me to do better next time and earn that high five. No money exchanging hands here (infact the order is reversed here, I am paying money to the trainer and still need the high five).
What is the secret sauce, I wondered, till it dawned on me that what made me feel special is the recognition of my efforts and completion of a task well done, it need not to be at other people's expense. It was not rocket science. As managers we need to constantly give recognition to the small tasks done everyday and find people doing the right things.
I believe that we need to use recognition tools more often than money, if we do that we need not use the crutch of money to buy loyalty and excellent results. People crave recognition most of the time (so says my personal experience). Recognition by another human being of my work and worth gives all of us a high.
So let us get to work and find the reasons to give those High Fives.
