Getting more performance out of your team
Behavioral scientists who study what make humans tick point to two types of motivators: intrinsic and extrinsic.
Intrinsic motivators come from internal factors; extrinsic or external motivators come in the form of rewards or disciplinary actions.
Many employee motivation programs are built around extrinsic motivators like bonuses, employee recognition and commission or consequences like poor reviews or job loss. These extrinsic motivators may get the job done, but research suggests that intrinsic motivations more powerfully engage employees.
In his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink points to scientific studies on motivation to make his case that the “carrot and stick” approach only works in limited cases.
Pay is important, Pink argues, but once workers are compensated fairly, intrinsic motivation is much more powerful.
Adobe found that while 88% of U.S. workers come to work in order to support themselves and their families, 60% were also motivated by a desire to be recognized and successful, and 51% were motivated by a desire to make an impact on their society or community. (These last numbers were higher for millennials: 68% and 58% respectively.)
According to a recent Business Pulse survey from The Alternative Board (TAB), 44% of business owners believe that offering their employees more trust is one of the most effective ways to motivate them, while 24% believed employees were motivated by more transparency, 21% by more control and only 11% by incentives.
This isn’t to say that intrinsic motivations are better than extrinsic ones since every human being is motivated by a combination of both. And some jobs, like sales lend themselves more toward extrinsic rewards.
So what do you do with this information? Two things…
- Look at yourself. Where have you held yourself back? Where could you be doing better? And how could you motivate yourself to step up your game?
- Look at your team. Evaluate all the different roles and people within your company and understand which motivations will work best for which role. Use motivators as levers to drive people into the right activities and outcomes.
Should you use extrinsic or intrinsic motivators to drive business forward? The answer is both – for yourself and your team.