Purpose and Motivation at Work

What drives your staff? What motivates them to turn up each day? Some will say it's all about the paycheck. This is undoubtedly true in many cases - yet it is not satisfactory for anyone involved. You will never get the best from your team if it is only about the money. And, by definition, your people will not be enjoying their jobs much either! It follows that finding better motivations for work will be good for you, and good for your staff as well.

Mourkogiannis (2007) identifies four "moral traditions" that potentially give purpose to individuals and organisations. These are discovery, excellence, altruism and heroism. I'll discuss each in turn.

Discovery

This is the desire to have new ideas, think new thoughts, and learn new things. This drive is often found in those doing research at university, or plugging away in cutting edge start-ups.

Excellence

This is the desire to create products of the highest quality possible. Think of Steve Jobs and Apple. This drive can be found in any organisation - alas, it is all too rare.

Altruism

This is the desire to better the human race. It often drives those that work for NGOs and other charity organisations. It's a little harder to tap into for those of us in commercial organisations.

Heroism

This is the desire to be the "very best" at what you do. It differs from excellence is that the focus is on your own ability rather than what you are producing. A potentially dangerous drive that can border on narcicism, yet I believe it can be legitimate with an appropriate amount of humility.

As managers, we want to try and tap into these higher motivators, so that our team are not simply turning up to collect their paycheck. Does a team member lean toward any of these drives? If so, what can you do to support and nurture this inclination?

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Mourkogiannis, N 2007, 'Purpose: The starting point of great leadership', Leader To Leader, 2007, 44, p. 27

Good to Great (Jim Collins)

Good to Great is a mega-bestselling business book by Jim Collins. His thesis is that there are several identifiable characteristics common to "great" companies - by which he means companies that greatly exceed market average returns over a period of 15 years. Collins identified the following lessons from these "great" companies -

1. Level 5 Leaders - appoint leaders who blend personal humility with strong professional will
2. First Who...Then What - focus on getting the right people on the bus, then figured out where to drive
3. Confront the Brutal Facts (yet never lose faith) - Be excruciatingly honest about your current position, but keep believing you will prevail
4. The Hedgehog Concept - focus on doing one thing very well
5. A Culture of Discipline - be disciplined in everything
6. Technology Accelerators - use technology to accelerate change, rather than igniting it

Collins attempts to show these lessons have been empiracally derived from the data. I don't think he quite makes his case, and I certainly don't believe this is the magic formula to success that Collins claims. But the concepts are generally sound, imo, and are illustrated by interesting case studies. It's a useful book that will prompt many to re-examine their leadership style and strategy.

Open The Front Door

This is a helpful little management technique you can use when you want to change behaviour. It's called "Open The Front Door", which is a mnemonic device for the four step process - "Observe Think Feel Desire".

The first step is to state what you have Observed. For example, "I saw you slam the door."

Next step is to describe what the observation made you Think, that is, what conclusions you drew. For example, "I thought you must be angry with me".

Third step is to state how this makes you Feel. For example, "This made me feel sad and hurt, and a bit angry myself."

The final step is to state what you Desire, what you want to happen. For example, "I want us to be friends again."

It's a simple tool, but surprisingly effective in practice. Here's what you might say to a staff member who is on the Internet too much -

"Hi Jenny, I've observed that whenever I walk past your desk, you always seem to be on Facebook. This makes me think that you either don't have enough work to do, or you have work that you don't want to do. I feel frustrated by this because there is a lot to be done, and everyone else in the team is working really hard. What I desire is for you to be fully productive during work hours. How can we achieve this?"

You don't have to use the exact keywords, of course - equivalent words are just as good, and might suit your style better. Some people might think such an approach is too confrontational, but I've used this technique a number of times, and found that it really helps open up effective communication. Give it a go...