Carrot or stick?

“It is inconceivable that people are motivated solely or even mainly by external incentives” Frey

Gallup shows that only 29% of workers are engaged in their work. The rest are either not engaged (45%), or actively disengaged (26%).

Unfortunately, this disengagement is costing companies billions every year according to HBR. So, what can organisations do to keep their employees motivated?

It sounds simple, keeping employees motivated seems like an easy thing to do, surely it cannot be that difficult? When it comes to doing it practically in the workplace, it is a lot more challenging, especially when you are dealing with large teams spread geographically and remotely.

In many cases, leaders revert to the old carrot versus stick approach to motivation, offering a carrot as an incentive and a stick as a consequence. Unfortunately, this approach is not very effective, because its sole focus is on extrinsic motivation, rather than intrinsic motivation.

The concept of the carrot and stick is derived from an idiom about a mule. The story suggests that the best way to get the mule to move forward is to dangle a carrot in front of him and strike him with a stick from behind if he fails to move. In this case, the carrot acts as a reward for compliance (moving), while the stick acts as punishment for noncompliance (not moving).

The approach was introduced during the industrial revolution by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. He believed the key to motivating employees is to reward them with things such as money, promotions, and other financial and non-financial benefits whenever they perform efficiently or exhibit desired behaviours, and punish them when they do not perform as expected.

According to Dr. Paul Marciano, there is now decades worth of research showing that the carrots and stick approach, which is commonly applied in the workplace through reward and recognition programs, is ineffective. Actually, the research shows that this approach leads to a decrease in employee morale.

Do you “get what you get” when you employee people? Should you focus mainly on motivating high performers with money and getting rid of the weak ones? Or can companies develop employees? Can you change the way people perform through coaching, great leadership, and intrinsic rewards, such as personal growth and a sense of progress on the job?

I believe it is the latter.

Tapping into people’s intrinsic needs will deliver greater sustained performance and employee engagement. In fact, many of the extrinsic motivator’s businesses employ to drive performance often have an adverse effect. Afterall, only 22% of employees strongly agree that their pay and incentives motivate them to do what is best for their organisation. So, what really drives people to give their best at work?

Reward “good” behaviours and punish “bad” behaviours – that’s the carrot-and-stick approach to motivation that most of us are familiar with. In his book ‘Drive – The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us’, Dan Pink shares his belief that the carrot and stick approach is no longer effective in driving motivation. In fact, drawing on four decades of scientific research into human motivations, he states that “The secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world”. He identifies having a sense of purpose, mastery and autonomy as the key intrinsic motivators. This has subsequently been supported by further research, and these factors can truly release people’s innate drive to improve both performance and achieve personal fulfilment at work. In a nutshell, people are more motivated by internal factors than by external drivers.

We all yearn to do something larger than ourselves. People work not just because it's their job, but because their career is a major part of their waking life. Frankly, it really should not surprise anyone anymore when they hear that a sense of purpose matters more than a massive pay cheque when it comes to getting people to do good work. Intrinsic motivation trumps a pay-check every time. No shit sherlock. Is it not obvious that a feeling of autonomy and the opportunity to learn inspires people more than a bonus? It seems to still fall on deaf ears, gets lost in translation or becomes a ‘row’ on some change managers spreadsheet (sometimes it does not make it onto the rows)

Engaged organizations grew profits as much as three times faster than their competitors. They report that highly engaged organizations have the potential to reduce staff turnover by 87% and improve performance by 20%. (Corporate Leadership Council)

Inspiring and engaging employees is where it is at. This is also not breaking news. Intellectually organisations know that they need to focus more on employee engagement and customer loyalty, but practically, they get distracted by a short-term profit focus or other initiatives like going ‘agile’. Many leaders state that they make employees and the customer the centre of everything they do. Yet, for all the passion and conviction of their words, genuine focus remains theory rather than practice in lots of organisations. It is also not something that you can turn on an off like a tap…and yet, there is always something you can do whether you are a leader responsible for 12 or 5000 people.

Most people come to work wanting to do a good job. What they need is a bunch of leaders who can inspire and engage them to bring their best selves to work. The question is can you achieve both high engagement and performance? Gallup discovered that leaders don't have to choose between creating strong, positive teams or focusing on high performance and accountability.

Great Performance Leaders do both. They focus on creating a team climate where people want to do their best work, they are engagement-focused, and performance-oriented. They develop deep relationships with their people and focus on performance. The research found that leaders who emphasise one approach while ignoring the other risk alienating their team members, lowering engagement, and damaging performance. Great leaders create an engaging climate that promotes peak performance and sustain it. People will never reach their full potential unless leaders focus on both engagement and performance.

Put your people first, not just their numbers. Leaders often fall into the trap of managing the number, and they forget about the person. They spend hours analysing the stats of their teams, but this does not drive performance change. Numbers and facts and figures are intoxicating things, it's exciting to see revenues climb. While there's nothing wrong with enjoying the thrill that comes along with a team that is performing at its very best and generating lots of sales, as a leader, it's important not to forget exactly who is making those numbers go through the roof, your people. It is their behaviour that drives performance.

If not for them (and your customers), you wouldn't have a business at all. It's easy to forget just how important people are to the success of any business. Employees and customers are people, not parts or gears in some big money-making machine. How you make them feel about themselves says a lot about your business. Treat them poorly or like a number, don’t be surprised if their behaviour manifest itself in poor service for customers and lower sales.

People matter.

Treat people like they matter, and they will surprise and reward you with high performance. 

#motivation #leadership #management