PREFACE:
The concept of what motivates us is truly a thorny subject. We all seem to think that what motivates us ought to motivate others. But in the research that we have conducted we have found that there are literally thousands of different motivational patterns that exist. In a sample of 196 executives, middle managers, front line managers and general employees we found some very interesting outcomes.
We looked at the seven motivators discussed in this article; Aesthetic, Economic, Individualistic, Political, Altruistic, Regulatory, and Theoretical. One area that really stood out was the Economic Motivator. We found a range in scores from 1 to 99, the maximum range possible with a mean score of 57.8. Plus we saw scores all over the place. So when leaders try to motivate using materialistic rewards, they will hit the target on some people and totally miss it with other. For example, we saw a range from 98 to 3 in the Altruistic Motivator with a mean score of 51.0. Once again the distribution of scores was all over the map. If you try to motivate with money, about half of these folks will be left out of the mix.
But the examples above are only part of the story. There are some people that have a fairly high Economic Motivator and also have a fairly high Altruistic Motivator. And with a possibility of 99 different scores on each of the 7 factors you end up with over 14 billion different possible combinations. So there is no way to plan for much variability and the whole concept becomes overwhelming. What’s a leader to do? The best answer is to not assume anything. Seek input from the people you are trying to motivate and if possible conduct a workplace motivator analysis on the people on the team. Eliminate the guess work and you’ll be much better off.
THE ARTICLE:
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MOTIVATORS:
We all seem to know what really turns our crank. You know, what causes us to willingly get out of bed in the morning and do battle with the dragons that are part of our daily experience. Unfortunately, for some people what gets the juices flowing has nothing to do with their world of employment. What too often happens is that people who have the opportunity to create an environment that is truly motivating and can become a real driver for an employee make an assumption that what motivates me is what will motivate others. It’s really hard for some business leaders to accept that some people just are not strongly motivated by money. So no matter how many bonuses you offer, it just won’t make these people work any harder.
Consider this example. Art (not his real name) was running a company and hired a new COO. The COO was given a stake in the business and offered some serious bonuses if he could meet certain growth goals. But the COO was motivated by opportunities to learn and apply new knowledge and by the opportunity to create balance and harmony in the workplace. The part ownership and the bonuses were nice but it wasn’t what made Frank (not the real name) get up in the morning and say “man I can’t wait to go to work today!” Frank needed a place of work where he could feel comfortable and balanced and he needed the opportunity to keep expanding his knowledge and understanding of the business and the people he was asked to manage. After a year and little or no real progress for the company Frank is gone and a new COO is in place. This time the COO is strongly motivated by the incentives offered. There’s a better chance of achieving the desired outcomes but of course they are far from guaranteed.
Essentially we are all driven by certain key needs in our lives. These needs are based in what we value and they manifest themselves in one of seven different forms. These seven drivers are aesthetics, economics, individualism, politics, altruism, regulatory, and theoretical. Let’s describe each of these drivers.
1) The Aesthetic Motivator is based on a person’s desire for form, balance, harmony and style.
2) The Economic Motivator is based on a person’s desire for monetary reward, achievement of intended results, and the attainment of other material rewards.
3) The Individualistic Motivator is based on a person’s desire for independence and the expression of a personal uniqueness.
4) The Political Motivator stems from an individual’s desire for control, personal power, and influence over others.
5) The Altruistic Motivator is based on a person’s desire to help other people and to do what’s in the best interest of the team.
6) The Regulatory Motivator is based in the individual’s desire for structure, order, and routine.
7) The Theoretical Motivator is based on the individual’s desire for knowledge, new learning, and understanding.
SUMMATION:
When we are responsible for leading people it is truly to our advantage to know what motivates them. Making the assumption that they are all motivated by money or material gain can truly work to our disadvantage. Although in my research of 196 business professionals the economic driver was determined to be the strongest driver on average, it was not so significantly stronger that the other 6 drivers can just be ignored. For these American Business Professionals there is almost an equal chance that any one individual will be motivated by opportunities to gain Knowledge or to have Freedom and Independence in the workplace.
There is a better than 50:50 chance that an economic motivator will work but in most businesses flipping a coin for results, even if one side tends to come up 55 times out of a hundred, that just won’t do for every business we’ve worked with. Having knowledge that can increase the odds that you are doing the right things and reduce the risks that you are doing the wrong thing is knowledge most organizations want to have.
If you can attain that knowledge for a reasonable cost what business wouldn’t want it? Actually, we can tell you that there are a number of businesses that look at this process as fluff—too up in the clouds for them. Reality is, however, this is hard science and not as nebulous as those business leaders believe. When behavioral and values assessments are conducted within a business to assist in making key talent decisions, business have a 26% profit advantage. No matter what you believe, ignoring a chance to increase you profit potential by 26% by simply finding out who your people are and then adopting strategies aligned with that knowledge, now that’s just crazy.
Discovering what workplace motivators most positively impact your employees is one of these critical pieces of information. When you know what drives them you have the chance to affect their performance without changing much about the structure of your organization. Even
without conducting the formal assessments a business leader can take the time to ask what employees find most exciting and interesting. Asking questions like would you rather get a bonus or have release time to do volunteer work can give the business leader important information about employees.
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