Perfectly Motivated People: What’s Your Definition?

Employee engagement is one of the topics that makes headlines in today's strained economy.  In an article on CNNMoney.com Less Pay. More Hours. Unhappy Workers. it was reported that many American workers have admitted to doing the bare minimum to keep from getting fired.   Unfortunately morale isn't the only thing affected by just getting by; productivity also declines.  To further the point, in a survey by the Workforce Institute at Kronos, 40% of those surveyed report that productivity has been negatively impacted and of those, another two-thirds admit that employees are less motivated then before.

Sales & Service Excellence published an article on Perfectly Motivated Employees; specifically how to grow and reinforce individuals who find work highly motivating. In understanding human behavior from a science perspective, everything that we do is perfectly motivated by the conditions and history that surround our work.

If your employees are doing work at a minimum, the systems of management perfectly motivate them to do that. Organizations that can benefit from those who are motivated because they do what needs to be done to fulfill the mission are rewarded with employees that seek ways to do things better, cheaper and faster.  We all need to be reminded, whether at work or in our home life, we are all perfectly motivated to do what we do.  When you understand behavior, a management approach can be implemented that does indeed motivate employees to achieve more and in the right way because they want to and do create a workplace that is valued. The question is, "Are you doing all you can to cultivate these folks in your own organization?"


 

Posted by Aubrey Daniels, Ph.D.

Aubrey is a thought leader and expert on management, leadership, safety and workplace issues. For the past 40 years, he has been dedicated to helping people and organizations apply the laws of human behavior to optimize performance.