Let’s Get Together
If you read my blog entry from last week you may remember my mentioning that writing that particular entry was distracting me from my Accounting studies, but that my professor for the class actually read some of by previous blog entries and provided positive feedback. Well, tonight in class she commented that she read my last entry mentioning her! Fortunately, I performed pretty well on last week’s quiz and hopefully better on the one I took tonight. I was actually planning to come home tonight and park myself on the couch with some unhealthy television and munchies, but my prof’s feedback gave me the stamina to go on!
I do have a point here (I promise), and it is that we are all motivated by different intrinsic and extrinsic factors. You could probably ascertain from the previous paragraph that I am a sucker for praise. When a colleague (or professor, now that I’m a student again) delivers positive feedback, I am willing to go the extra mile and work twice as hard for him or her, which is probably why I spent the entire day yesterday studying for Accounting and not writing this blog entry! (I know, NERD ALERT!) For the record, I am almost equally as motivated by flexibility – hence part of the reasoning for my research study mentioned in last week’s blog entry.
Although I have written about motivation previously, there are so many different dimensions; I felt it was worth covering again. That, and I also recently attended an MBA leadership seminars focused on motivating teams by motivating individuals. I cover some of the highlights of the seminar below in my not so brief manner.
Find the Big Vision, Not Your Vision
Our speaker discussed the importance of inspiring a shared vision. Management Blunder: One of my friends who works for a small nonprofit agency shared that her relatively new boss changed the organization’s mission statement without consulting my friend or her colleagues. She just happened to notice it on their website one day when she was viewing enhancements to the site. Yikes! That is NOT a good way to inspire a shared vision, or to encourage the team to work toward a subordinate goal. A good manager would have involved the entire team in the process of changing the mission statement and worked to help each team member understand how he or she fits into the big picture.
The “ME” in Team
This point speaks to my earlier mention that when a manager recognizes that his or her team members are motivated by different things AND when he has the power to incentivize said team members based on those differences, the team members are more likely to work toward the shared vision together. Our speaker commented on how she motivates some of her people with cash bonuses, some with time off, and in true Carol Channing a.k.a. Dolly Levi fashion - some with jewelry (yes, diamonds are often a girl’s best friend). Obviously, we don’t all possess the reward or legitimate power to make our colleagues look like David Yurman models, but by knowing what motivates each other intrinsically (see next section), we can make a difference.
Individual Motivators
So, what are these individual intrinsic motivators? They include Competency, Autonomy, and Engagement/Relatedness – closely related to the three motivators Daniel Pink mentions in his book (or podcast I listened to on my Swim-P3), Drive: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose. The bottom line is that in order to get people excited about work or a project, you have to tap into their desire to perform a task well (or to master it), to work independently, and to feel like they are working toward the common good or toward a higher purpose. No sweat, right? Once you elevate yourself to good manager status by providing your staff with meaningful, mind-expanding project work while leaving them alone to complete it your job is not done! People are further driven by three different motivation buckets: work
personal, and family. If you’re dealing with someone predominately motivated by work, then you’re on easy street. Otherwise, you’ve got to figure out which of the other two get your employees fired up and provide them with the means to focus on both the job and those external factors. Offering assessments like DISC Profile , StrengthsFinder, and/or Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument® "Whole Brain" can help you better understand what motivates your team members as individuals and how they can best contribute to the team.
Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic
In the end, you want people to be engaged, i.e. “I’m doing it because I’m passionate about it” vs. “I’m doing it because of the carrot, stick, or jewelry”. Our speaker presented us with a scenario: if you returning from a business trip and American Airlines offered you a $300 travel voucher to return to your home airport on the next flight several hours later would you do it? Most of us raised our hands and said yes, with the exception of those eager to get home to family. Then, our speaker asked, what if it happens again the next week, would you take the voucher? I was probably the only loser who raised her hand consistently because I was seeing the dollar signs equating to international trips, but the speaker’s point was valid. Eventually, hanging out in airports for a measly travel voucher that will barely get me home to Cincinnati to see my crazy family is just not worth it. Neither are most of the extrinsic rewards provided in the workplace. The $$$ may keep you from putting in your two weeks, but they are unlikely to motivate you to perform any better.
Moral of the Story
It’s important to keep both kinds of motivators top of mind in order to keep your people a.) engaged in and satisfied with their work and b.) focused on the work in the workplace because you have helped satiate (within reason) the external factors they care about (e.g. financial stability, flexibility, bling). If you have a group of happy individuals, they are much more likely to contribute as part of the team.
What motivates you? Comments welcome!
I’m a Woman
I attended a luncheon sponsored by the Graduate Women in Business organization at my university this week. Our speaker, Cathy Groos of CPG Leadership Solutions, was a fantastic orator and storyteller. She enlightened us with some of the common pitfalls women encounter when engaging in male-dominated conversation. Whether or not you identify yourself as a W-O-M-A-N, I hope you find these tips useful in future communications.
No Apologies Necessary
Women are notorious for over-apologizing. The worst part is that men are socialized to apologize for their weaknesses, and women are socialized to apologize for their strengths. Although this sounds absurd, think about it…we (i.e women) apologize for being aggressive, coming on too strong, or being too direct. Conversely, men are expected to communicate in this fashion. What gives? Groos chalks this difference up to nature versus nurture (namely that women are socialized to be warm and humble nurturers), but she emphasized that being assertive and proud was a far cry from being aggressive. Women can start by catching ourselves in the act of apologizing and letting our communication style speak for itself.
Hedging Your Bets
How many times have you prefaced a conversation with a phrase like, “this may not be the best idea”, but…or “this may not work, but” in order to minimize the risk involved in offering a suggestion? According to Groos, we have to stop wrapping our words up in so much kindness (or uncertainty), because the message gets lost. It needs to have some edge and it is okay if it’s controversial.
Nix Non-Words
In order to be an effective communicator, it is critical that we eliminate filler words from our persuasive messaging, e.g. uh, umm, like, you know (probably the most common). This is obviously easier said than done, and even the best orators are guilty of using non-words on occasion. That said, reducing the use of these fillers in professional communication will make you a more effective speaker and pack your messages with more punch.
Don’t Make it Personal
This tip is about taking the focus of the message away from you. When making a persuasive argument we are often quick to start with a phrase like, “ I have a problem with [insert name of annoying colleague here]”… or “I can’t take on that additional work because”. Groos’s advice was not to start a sentence with “I” if “I” isn’t the subject of the sentence.” Shift the focus toward the project, person, or task at hand by asking, “What additional resources can you secure so that I can make this happen?”
Keeping Cool Under Questioning and Avoiding the three D’s
Gender aside, most of us have a tendency to get defensive when our approach is questioned. This is obviously context-specific, but you know you’ve been there before – don’t deny it. The goal is to avoid the three D’s: Defensiveness, Defeat, and Deferral. It is completely appropriate to acknowledge disagreement, controversy, and differences of opinion.
Groos offered five steps for fighting the urge to go on the defensive :
1. Breathe
2. Build a neutral bridge with words “I understand that there are conflicting viewpoints” or “Let’s go back and discuss again”. Do not back up physically or verbally. Agree to disagree and stand by your recommendation.
3. Repeat, rephrase, and request [clarification]
4. Remember the point you were trying to convey and the desired outcome. Repeat your objective statement. Even if your audience disagrees, they will respect that you stood your ground.
5. Breathe again, but this time you’ll be in control!
Communications Blunder: This is a story about perception vs. outcomes, which I’ve chosen to borrow from Cathy Groos’s speech. She shared the story of a mother and daughter. I’ll call the mother Beth and the daughter Casey.
One day, Casey brought a flier home from her elementary school, which provided details regarding parental involvement in an upcoming talent show at the school. Upon reviewing the flier, Beth first freaked out since Casey possessed no visible talents and she immediately grew fearful for her daughter’s future drop in self-esteem. Fortunately, Beth noticed small text at the bottom of the page stating that student participation was optional. A wave of relief came over her as she made her way to Casey’s room to try to talk her out of entering the show.
Beth’s pulse quickened when she noticed that Casey seemed distraught and figured that she was just as concerned about her lack of visible talent. You can imagine Beth’s dismay when Casey said, “I am so stressed out. I have SO many talents…how will I ever pick just one?” Casey then went on to list a myriad of “talents” including four square, video games, and the use of her pogo stick. Beth went into the meeting with her daughter based on a perception quite different from the reality she encountered – and with a completely different outcome than what she expected, a perfectly confident pogo-sticking daughter! Moral of the Story: Keep an open mind and be flexible with regard to your messaging. Perception isn’t always reality!