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What Motivates Employees: Do You Ever Wonder “Why” They Work?
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It’s interesting to me how often themes seem to converge across the various news and blog sources I follow. Today is one example – “Why” seemed to crop up rather frequently.
Here are just three examples.
From a perennial favorite of mine, the Blanchard Leader Chat blog, is this post on what motivates you at work. I was most fascinated by the list author David Witt started the post with – a list for meeting attendees on “why are you here?” These were the possible answers (quoting):
If you notice, each of the answers gets at a different level of motivation, including extrinsic (I have to be here to get paid, or, I’m just going through the motions) and intrinsic (I want to be here for several reasons).
Broadening this beyond just meetings, it’s important for any good leader or manager to pay attention to why their team members come to work every day. Why do they contribute? Do they need extrinsic motivation or are they already intrinsically motivated?
What could you do to help those needing extrinsic motivation to move into the intrinsic group? Could you make the core values of the organization real to them so they are more in alignment with personal values?
From Forbes, comes this article questioning the role that open workspaces and perks like foosball tables and free soda play in employee engagement. As the author says:
When companies like the one I visited recently tell me their workplace culture and trendy furniture builds employee engagement, I try to make them see that they’re focusing on the wrong part of the equation. They’re focusing on what, not why. What can tell you a lot about a company, but it’s why that tells you it’s a good company to work with.”
She goes on to pose five important “why” questions employees ask, including the one I started this post with:
You will be far better served helping employees frame and answer these questions than leaving it up to chance and circumstance. Give them reasons to understand your core values in relation to their daily work. Help them connect living those values with appropriate recognition and reward.
Finally, from Envisia Learning comes this introduction (and free download offer) to Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It.
I’ll be looking into the book myself in coming weeks, but I’m intrigued by the methods the authors suggest of helping employees understand why they should change instead of merely informing employees of change. The “Enlighten, Encourage, Enable” method briefly outlined in this post makes sense as an approach to change management.
What are the “Why” questions you are regularly asked or do you ask yourself?
You can find more from Derek Irvine on his Recognize This! blog.