WHAT DO THEY WANT?

What do people actually want from their work? What is it that really motivates them?

What is it that gets them out of bed in the morning and makes them reasonably happy to go to work and do a good job?

You might be thinking, ‘It’s different for each individual’, and you’re probably right. There is no such thing as a simple all-encompassing solution and that’s not going to make your job as a Motivational Manager any easier.

In Chapters 4, 5 and 6 we looked at three factors that I like to call The Three Secrets of Team Motivation.

• 1.Spend quality time;
• 2.Give feedback and coach;
• 3.Be a believer.

My experience of managing teams tells me that spending quality time with each person, giving Confirming and Productive feedback and believing and empowering them will make a massive contribution to motivation at work. Of course, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: ‘You don’t motivate people at work. You create the environment in which they motivate themselves.’

As well as The Three Secrets of Team Motivation, there are other factors you need to take into consideration if you want to make people happy at work.

Let’s look at some of the motivation theories that have been around for several years. As I’ve said before, I’m a very practical manager and I only want to give you information that will make your life easier. However, I believe that it’s important to understand these theories and how they might affect you. I’m sure you will have heard of some, if not all, of them. Nevertheless, here’s my understanding of their influence on the day-to-day working environment.

THEORY X AND THEORY Y

In 1960 Douglas McGregor, an American social scientist, published his book The Human Side of Enterprise. In it he examined theories on the behaviour of individuals at work and formulated two models, theory x and theory y. He advanced the idea that managers had a major part in motivating staff and he divided them into the two categories.

Theory x managers (authoritarian management style) believe that:

• Their staff are lazy, dislike work and will avoid it if they can;
• Their staff prefer to be directed and dislike responsibility;
• Their staff need explicit instructions and need to be threatened if they don’t do what they’re supposed to do;
• Their staff are relatively unambitious and want security above all else.

Theory y managers (participative management style) believe that:

• Their staff really want to do their best at work;
• Their work is as natural as play or rest;
• Staff will direct themselves if committed to the objective of the organisation;
• Staff usually accept and often seek out responsibility under the proper conditions;
• In modern industry the intellectual potential of the average person is only partly utilised.

McGregor maintained that many managers tend towards theory x and get poor results. Enlightened managers use theory y, allowing people to grow, which in turn produces better performance and results. He suggested that theory y may be difficult to put into practice in large manufacturing, shop floor operations. However, it would be more appropriate in the managing of managers and professionals.

The bottom line to McGregor’s theories is: staff will contribute more to the organisation if they’re treated as responsible and valued employees. Theory y, as you might gather, has replaced theory x as the dominant management philosophy in many organisations.

In the organisations I work with now, I see both theory x and theory y managers. I can think of one very large organisation in the UK who primarily have a culture of x management. They mainly employ service engineers and attempt to control them by a whole range of policies, procedures and productivity management tools. When they attend my seminars, the engineers complain about their managers and the managers complain about the engineers. I still have a lot of work to do there!

One company I’ve worked with issued an instruction to their sales force about a particular task they had to complete as part of their daily work. The instruction was delivered by letter from the Sales Director. It stated that this task had to be carried out, he didn’t believe it was happening and anyone caught not doing it would receive a first written warning. Each sales person had to sign and return a copy of this letter.

This is theory x management. It comes from a Sales Director who doesn’t believe his sales people are carrying out the task so he threatens them with dismissal. This organisation has regional managers who could have easily monitored the sales force performance on this task. The letter from the Sales Director is a further contribution to an already demotivated sales force.

I’ve witnessed theory x and theory y management styles and theory x is a much harder route to go. As a manager, you make life so much harder for yourself and you still don’t get the results.

WHAT ABOUT YOUR MANAGER?

I hope that as you read this book you are identifying characteristics in yourself and confidently making decisions that are best for you as a Motivational Manager. But what about your manager, the person you report to – are they theory x or theory y?

Many managers that I meet on my seminars and workshops complain about their managers. They say, ‘Alan, I believe what you’re saying and I want to be a better Motivational Manager. However, my boss doesn’t treat me in the way your proposing. He’s a theory x manager.’ We then go on to discuss how difficult it is to motivate your team when your manager doesn’t motivate you.

There is no magic wand that will change your manager overnight. Remember – you can’t make people what they’re not. However, I believe that a continuous subtle education process over a period of time can produce results. Let’s look at how you can deal with a theory x manager.

You may be unsure about the makeup of an x manager so here are some typical characteristics in no particular order:

• Results driven, arrogant and intolerant;
• Deadline driven;
• Detached, aloof, doesn’t invite suggestions;
• Doesn’t thank or praise;
• Poor listener, communicates one way;
• Issues instructions, directions, threats, never asks;
• Seeks to apportion blame;
• Doesn’t delegate but think they do;
• Doesn’t build teams, not concerned about morale;
• Anti-social, unhappy.

As I write this I can picture at least one manager I’ve worked for who displayed many of these characteristics. Do you remember I told you about the manager who tore up my report in front of me? He was that manager – typical theory x.

How do you deal with this person?

• 1.They are results driven so talk to them in terms of results you’ve achieved, what you’ve done, what you’re going to do and when. Don’t ramble on about how you’re going to get there – just give them the facts and figures
• 2.Don’t talk to them about human problems or issues in your team. They don’t understand and have no interest. If anything does come up, tell them that you’re dealing with it and it will be sorted. I told my ‘x’ manager after I had separated from my wife; I didn’t discuss it beforehand or seek his understanding. When I told him he said, ‘All I’m interested in is how it affects your ability to do your job and if it doesn’t, that’s fine.’
• 3.Always do what you say you’re going to do. If you think it isn’t possible, be sure of your ground and back up your reason with facts. Don’t tell them what you can’t do – tell them what you will do. You may have to point out that to do a certain task within a set timescale will mean that you’ll be unable to allocate enough time to another task. Ask which one they want you to do.
• 4.Be assertive; that means not being passive or aggressive. Passivity and aggression are two natural built-in fight or flight programs that all humans have. Assertiveness is none of these; it’s a learned skill and I suggest you read a book on the subject. It’s about communicating your needs in a calm, clear and specific manner.

Be aware that your ‘x’ manager may just be a product of the culture in your organisation. Remember what I said at the start of this book; many managers learn from their managers.

If, like me, you’ve been managed by an ‘x’ manager, then you’ll be aware of your level of motivation. Make sure you don’t fall into the ‘x’ culture. I’m sure that if you’re reading this book you’ve already made that decision; just make sure you don’t become infected.

HERTZBERG’S TWO FACTOR THEORY

Frederick Hertzberg divided human needs into two categories that had a strong bearing on motivation; he called them Hygiene factors and Motivating factors. He believed that these factors were equally as important in terms of job satisfaction; however, they worked in different ways.

Hygiene, or environment, factors include:

• Salary
• Working relationships
• Working conditions
• Job security
• Style of management
• Type of work
• Working hours

According to Hertzberg, Hygiene factors don’t motivate people to do their best at work. However, if they’re inadequate they can be demotivating factors. In other words, they can adversely affect your job performance.

For example, if your team worked in a cold draughty office they could become seriously demotivated and they wouldn’t do their jobs as well as they could. If you moved them to a warm and comfortable office it would make them happy initially but it would-n’t exactly motivate them to become consistent top performers.

I experienced something similar some years ago. The telesales team that I was responsible for were complaining about the state of their desks. How they were falling to bits and how the rough edges would catch and tear their tights. I knew that the office furniture had seen better days so I made the case to my boss to order new workstations. These were duly installed and I phoned through to the office to get the reactions. ‘The team are really pleased,’ said Christine. ‘The new desks make such a difference.’ A few weeks later I visited the site where the telesales office is located. ‘What do you think of the new workstations?’ I enthusiastically asked one of the team. ‘Oh, I suppose they’re all right,’ she nonchalantly replied. I’d expected a lot more enthusiasm for all the work I’d done. However, I soon realised that the new workstations were now taken for granted and in no way would they contribute to the motivation of the team.

Another example of how the work environment could be a demotivator but not a motivator struck me one lunchtime. I was sitting in the new staff restaurant at one of my clients and was admiring the range of facilities; fabulous décor, comfortable seating areas and really bright and clean environment. There was a superb range of food on offer from a salad and a sandwich to full three-course meals. This got me thinking about my first job in the engineering factory and the lunches I used to eat there. That was like something out of a Dickens novel. Long benches and tables that everyone sat at in a soulless room; it reminded me of the dining hall at Alcatraz. I asked some of my fellow diners in this fabulous new restaurant what they thought of the facilities. ‘They’re okay,’ shrugged a few of them. A couple of them had minor complaints but on the whole it was a feeling of complete disinterest. They accepted these facilities as a given and they certainly couldn’t be regarded as a motivator. However, if you’d asked them to eat their lunch in the ‘Alcatraz’ dining room that I’d experienced then this would have been a huge demotivator.

These are two examples of working conditions (Hygiene factors) that could cause people to be demotivated if they were inadequate. However, they do not contribute to motivation if they are satisfactory or even excellent. If you look at the other factors that Hertzberg listed you’ll understand that lack of job security could be a demotivator. However, telling a team member that they have a job for life is hardly likely to motivate them.

If a member of your team has poor working relationships then it could be a demotivator. Having good working relationships may contribute to their happiness at work but it won’t be a motivating factor.

Hertzberg also listed salary as a Hygiene factor, a very controversial subject, and we’re going to look at it a bit further on.

Hertzberg’s Motivating factors include:

• Achievement
• Responsibility
• Recognition
• Advancement
• Challenge
• Work itself

These factors in a job are what Hertzberg suggests would encourage people to strive to do well and motivate them to do their best. Nonetheless, these factors are probably not motivators if the Hygiene factors are not satisfied.

To use my example of the telesales team, it would be hard to motivate the team members using recognition, challenge or any of the other factors if they were working in a poor environment. And of course, improving the environment alone doesn’t motivate them.

MASLOW’S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS

Probably the best known motivation theory was conceived by Abraham Maslow in the 1940s and 50s and is known as The Hierarchy of Needs. What this states is that our behaviour from moment to moment is dictated by the circumstances we find ourselves in. The lower needs have to be met before we are motivated towards higher accomplishment.

The five categories of need in the hierarchy start with Physiological and end with Self-actualisation. Let’s run through the needs and then we’ll come back to how they affect your job as a manager.

• Physiological – these are the very basic human needs such as air, water, food, sleep, sex and shelter.
• Safety needs – when the basic needs are more or less met, we start to think about protection from danger. We need the security of a home and possibly family in order to feel safe. We need to feel physically safe but we also need psychological safety such as job security.
• Social or affiliation needs – once the first two needs are satisfied, love and belonging are next on the ladder. We need social acceptance, to give and receive affection and a feeling of belonging and acceptance by others.
• Esteem or ego needs – there are two types of esteem needs; first is self-esteem and self-confidence. This comes from a feeling of competence, of mastering a task. Second are the respect, recognition and attention of others.
• Self-actualisation – at the top of the hierarchy, once all the other needs are met, is the desire to become everything that you are capable of being. Of maximising your potential to make a lasting and significant contribution.

The hierarchy is often best illustrated by the Robinson Crusoe story of a man shipwrecked on a desert island. Put yourself in Robinson’s shoes (although he probably lost them in the shipwreck). Imagine crawling up the beach of the deserted island. The first thing you probably think is; ‘where do I get some water? What am I going to eat?’ (Physiological needs). You’re hardly likely to be thinking, ‘I’ll build a hotel on this island and make myself a fortune!’

The next thing that goes through your mind is security. ‘Are there any hostile locals on this island or wild animals who might want me for their dinner?’ So, just like Robinson, you build a shelter or a stockade (Safety needs).

Once that’s done you set off to explore and to your delight and excitement you find a footprint in the sand. Eventually you meet man Friday and you satisfy your need to belong and feel accepted (Social needs).

Man Friday thinks you’re such a wonderful person when you show him how clever you are, share what you know and all the things you can do (Ego needs).

Once all this is in place you realise that you can’t just sit about on the beach all day, you need to make something of your life. So you do all you can to get back home and become all you know you can be (Self-actualisation).

All this theory is great. However, let’s translate Maslow’s hierarchy into your workplace.

Say a new person joins your team. Your company gives them a salary so that they can buy food, pay the mortgage and buy clothes. So, temporarily, they are not motivated by these basic needs. Of course, this new team member is on a three-month probationary period, so although their job security is not immediately affected, they are motivated to perform well in order to continue their employment.

The new member of the team will possibly feel uncomfortable at first not knowing any of the other members. They will be motivated to become a part of the group, to be accepted by their peers. Social and affiliate needs are highly motivational for most employees until they become part of the group.

You will then find that the new person wants to do well in their job and have that recognised by the other team members.

When all of these needs have been met, the individual may start focusing on promotion; they may come after your job.

You’re possibly having thoughts about one or two members of your team and realising that they don’t fit the Maslow pattern. Now that could be true. However, you might find that certain members of your team are having their needs met outside the workplace.

I was chatting with one of my seminar participants over lunch one day; he appeared to be a bit of a loner in his team and not really interested in job promotion. However, he told me with much enthusiasm about his role as match secretary at his golf club. He went on at great length about all the competitions he had to organise, all the work he had to do and how important his role was in the club. I asked him if he got paid, and of course the answer was ‘no.’ However, I recognised that his Social and affiliation needs and his Esteem and ego needs were well satisfied in his role as match secretary. So I wouldn’t dismiss Maslow or any of the other theories we’ve looked at. It’s really important to understand or at least have a good feel for what actually motivates each of your team members.