Motivation | Guy Harris: The Recovering Engineer

Archive for motivation – Page 2

Mar
21

Employee Motivation: Interesting Ideas to Consider

by Guy Harris

I’ll leave the video to do the talking in this post. The ideas that Dan Pink presents are definitely worth considering. I suggest leaders (including parents) should learn from this talk and find ways to apply the concepts to their situations.

1 Categories : Leadership Skills, Video

Feb
11

The Positive Runs Out

by Guy Harris

This afternoon, I recorded a webinar on employee motivation techniques. During the webinar, I discussed a model of human behavior that helps to explain why people do what they do. The main learning point from this model is that people generally do what they do because of what they expect to happen after they do it.

After the webinar, I was speaking with my friend and colleague Kevin Eikenberry. We discussed the webinar, and, as we spoke, I remembered an event from a training class I lead on this topic one time. During the training class, I made the point that only positive reinforcements encourage people to give high-level, maximum effort.

A class participant challenged me on this point, and our conversation went something like this:

Participant: “Are you saying that I have to keep giving people positive reinforcement for their workplace behaviors?”

Me: “Yes, that’s exactly my point.”

Participant: “Why don’t they just do what they’re supposed to do. I told them they were doing a good job once. I shouldn’t have to keep telling them.”

Me: “Well, you’re probably right about that. Is it ok if I ask you a question?”

Participant: “Sure.”

Me: “Do you have to keep paying people for them to keep coming back to work?”

Participant: “Of course I do.”

Me: “Well, you paid them once. Why do you have to keep paying them?”

Participant: “You’re kidding, right? I have to keep paying them because the money eventually runs out. If I stop paying them, they’ll go somewhere else.”

Me: “It’s exactly the same thing with reinforcements and high-level performance. If you stop giving encouragement, praise, and other positive input to people; eventually the positive runs out.”

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/minnellium/ / CC BY 2.0

This article is from the Motivation series. Use the links below to read more from this series.

2 Categories : Leadership Skills, Parenting, Persuasion

Dec
1

The 5 Be’s of Motivation

by Guy Harris

This post first appeared as an article in a newsletter I used to publish. I included it here to make it easier for people to find and as a reference source for other posts on this blog.

It’s not true in every organization, but it is true in many. Managers (leaders) often don’t understand their employees. They don’t know how to motivate, inspire, and correct people effectively. As I work with my clients, I hear the same questions repeatedly: “How do I get my employees to …

Quit complaining?”
Do more than the bare minimum?”
Contribute in meetings?”
Show up on time?” etc.

I also hear all kinds of answers for each situation. Some proposals are good, and some are not. The good suggestions show an understanding of human nature and an effort to apply behavioral principles. The bad ones usually feel good to the manager, but they violate some basic principle of human relations and interaction.

Human behavior is a complex subject. However, events that appear to be random, isolated behaviors actually fit into predictable patterns for most people. If you understand the patterns, you will know what to do in most situations. I’ve developed the Five Be’s of Motivation to reduce some of these patterns to five easy to remember and apply principles.

So, let’s get started…

1. Be Positive

People pretty much do things for one of two reasons: to avoid pain or to pursue pleasure. As a leader, you constantly work between these two options. If you use negatives – like verbal reprimands, threats, or other punishments – to drive behavior, people will do just enough to avoid the pain. You will condemn yourself to bare minimum effort from your employees. If you focus on rewarding good behaviors, you improve the odds that you will get cooperation and extra, discretionary effort rather than conflict, complaints and bare minimum performance.

Noticing unacceptable behaviors and stopping them with punishment is easy. It takes effort to recognize good behaviors and praise them. You need to do both; but the more you recognize the good, the less likely you are to see the bad.

2. Be Specific

Make sure you speak only about specific behaviors. Whether you administer discipline or offer praise, the more specific you make your words the better.

Emotional involvement (anger) from a negative situation often makes specificity a bigger challenge during discipline. For example, an employees consistently challenges you in meetings. Many leaders get angry with the situation and tell the employee to “stop being rude and inconsiderate.” Unfortunately, “rude” and “inconsiderate” are interpretations rather than behaviors. A better statement would be, “I don’t appreciate it when you interrupt and challenge me. I see those behaviors as rude and inconsiderate. I won’t do it to you, and I don’t expect you to do it to me.” (I suggest you do this in private.) Depending on the situation, you might take further disciplinary action based on company history and workplace rules. Whether you take further action or not, focus on specific behaviors and not your interpretation of the intent or motive behind the behaviors.

Here are some examples:

Rude, inconsiderate, disrespectful, arrogant, obnoxious, flighty, unfocused, smart aleck, and pushy are interpretations.

Interrupting, rolling eyes, speaking loudly (or softly), shrugging shoulders, looking away, walking away, and tone of voice are specific behaviors.

3. Be Certain

People generally act based on what they expect to happen to them in the future. Whether it’s avoiding pain or pursuing pleasure, it’s still about expectations for the future. Your employees need to know — without a doubt — what to expect from you based on their actions.

Make sure that everyone clearly understands the rules of conduct in your workplace. Ideally, you will write down anything that is mission critical to your operation. I don’t suggest that you make your employee handbook look like the Code of Federal Regulations, but you should have a few well-written and clearly defined behavioral expectations for your business. People need to know the rules. They need to know what to expect when they follow the rules – and when they don’t.

4. Be Consistent

Consistency works in close partnership with Certainty. It is Certainty’s twin in the daily struggle to create a high-performing, results-oriented team. If you don’t consistently apply your workplace rules, your employees will never develop a sense of certainty.

Consistency applies to both positive and negative behaviors. If you say that you will reward certain behaviors, then always reward them. If you say that certain behaviors are unacceptable, always act to stop them.

5. Be Immediate

Act now. When your employees do something worthy of praise — do it now. When they need correction — do it now. Delayed consequences have very little impact on behavior.

I’ll illustrate the point with my behavior.

I like cheesecake. Eating cheesecake offers me both immediate and future consequences. The future consequence is negative – I could develop a weight or blood pressure problem. The immediate consequence is positive — it tastes good and gives me pleasure. When I have the opportunity to get cheesecake, I find it difficult to resist even though I understand the negative consequences. Why? The immediate, certain positive tends to overshadow the future, possible negative.

Acting immediately has an added benefit when the behavior is inappropriate. If the behavior continues without correction, you are likely to get angrier every time you see it. As you get angrier, you will probably have more difficulty keeping your response proportional to the behavior. Act now and you will be better able to maintain self-control.

This article is from the Motivation series. Use the links below to read more from this series.

1 Categories : Leadership Skills, Parenting

Apr
2

Praise matters – Give four atta-boys for every one gotcha

by Guy Harris

This post is a reprint of an article first released in a newsletter I used to publish.

Some of my clients are already in leadership roles. They want to become better leaders or to improve their team environment. Some are not yet leaders. They want to develop leadership skills in preparation for advancement. A few weeks ago, one of the people I work with in this latter category had an experience that very nearly destroyed a good working relationship. All leaders and prospective leaders can learn from this person’s experience

The person I coach works hard, gives their energy, and devotes extra time to make a positive contribution in their organization. Like most people, they are imperfect. They contribute far more positive than negative to their team. Still, they found themselves on the receiving end of a disciplinary discussion. Every story has two sides, and this one is no exception. The supervisor had a valid point, but it became far more negative than necessary because of the way they handled it. I will share the employee’s side of the issue and how that perspective impacts team performance.

Aubrey Daniels, a highly respected behavioral analyst and author, states that high-level team and individual performance only comes as the result of positive reinforcement (praise, rewards, time-off, etc). Anything negative (punishment, penalty, criticism, correction, etc) will only create “minimal effort.” The reasoning and data to support this statement lies beyond the scope of this newsletter. You can read more on the topic in Bringing Out the Best in People by Aubrey Daniels or Whale Done by Ken Blanchard.

For the purposes of this article, I’ll focus on one issue. Aubrey Daniels calls it the 4:1 Rule. Simply put, the rule states that people need to receive at least four positive inputs on their behavior for every one negative input – if they are going to respond to the positive and give “maximal effort.” Previously, I have written on the dual need for leaders to both Confront Negative Behaviors and to Create Hope. My previous articles hit on both sides of this issue. With this article, I hope to tie the two sides together.

Few, if any, leaders will move through their careers without discussing negative performance issues with team members. Unfortunately, leaders often fail when they confront negative issues in a formal and threatening manner and then do nothing meaningful to recognize positive contributions. I understand how leaders fall into this trap. I see it in many places: parents with children, teachers with students, and supervisors with employees. The problem takes on different forms in different organizations. Regardless of the environment, though, it still comes down to the same root problem – most of us find it easier to notice what people do wrong than we do to notice what they do right.

Now, let’s get back to the person mentioned above. They are committed and dedicated. They work hard. They produce results. Still, they had one negative behavior trait – a trait they were already working to improve. The first time the supervisor mentioned the behavior, they chose to comment formally. When this supervisor mentions positive contributions, they do so casually, informally, and infrequently. The net effect is this: the employee feels devalued. As a result, the employee, a person who naturally enjoys contributing new ideas and looking for opportunities to help, acts more cautiously and reservedly in their work environment. In this case, the supervisor has “motivated” the employee to invest only enough effort to avoid trouble and confrontation. The employee’s desire to make a major positive contribution is, at least temporarily, softened and muted.

I recognize the necessity of formal disciplinary processes. However, I do not recommend, except in extreme situations, that leaders implement them at the first sign of a problem. I do recommend starting with performance coaching and informal discussion to help the employee see the problem in their behavior. If the behavior is extreme, or if coaching efforts fail to improve performance; then, leaders should apply more formal approaches (official verbal reprimand, written reprimand, etc.). Formal approaches tend to feel very negative. When leaders resort to formal approaches too soon, they have to work doubly hard to overcome these negative feelings to get back on a positive relationship basis.

Leaders must confront negative behaviors, and they must also create hope. They should confront negative behavior quickly But, they need to find ways to praise and reward positive behaviors as well. Ideally, they will offer at least four positive comments for every one that is negative. Highly effective leaders consciously work to provide at least four times as many positives as negatives.

0 Categories : Leadership Skills, Parenting

Oct
15

Create Hope

by Guy Harris

This post first appeared in a newsletter I used to publish.

Leaders must create a climate of hope if they want the people they lead to stay motivated and energized. James Kouzes and Barry Posner put it this way in The Leadership Challenge: “The climb to the top is arduous and long. People become exhausted, frustrated, and disenchanted. They’re often tempted to give up. Leaders encourage the heart of their constituents to carry on.”

Recently, I heard of a study conducted by psychologists at Duke University. In this study, they put rats into containers with water that was too deep to stand in and far enough from the top to keep the rats from escaping. The rats had to either tread water or swim to survive. In my search to locate the source document, I found two different descriptions of the experimental set-up. At this point, I’m not sure whether this story is urban legend or real. Whatever the case, it makes a good point for illustration.

As the story goes, the researchers put one set of rats in the water and allowed them to swim until they drowned. This apparently took about 17 minutes. Then they put another set of rats in the water and removed them at about 15 minutes to rest. The second set of rats were then put back in the water and continued to swim for 36 hours. The researcher’s conclusion? When the rats had the hope of rescue, they fought for survival much longer.

It sometimes seems easier to threaten and push and prod people than to encourage, to create rewards and to inspire hope. The natural order of things tends towards negativity. Creating a positive, hopeful environment takes work and focus. The benefit is that people, like the rats in the story above, will hang on longer and work harder if they have hope in a bright tomorrow. Remove that hope and you have nothing but fear and intimidation to drive behavior.