Motivation Made Simple

While the sports world is full of peak-moment stories, one commonly held theory of unsurpassed performance held fast – until 1954 that is.

The theory went like this: No runner can break the four-minute mile. All the medical journals said it was “humanly impossible.” So there you had it. A barrier beyond which no human could go. Until May 6, 1954, when Roger Bannister tore through that barrier in 3:59.4 minutes and opened the field for 45 others to go on to break the incontrovertible four-minute mile.

So how did we go so quickly from believing that a four-minute mile was “humanly impossible” to saying “46 people have done it”? What changed was their belief in what was possible.

What do running statistics have to do with the science of motivation? Plenty. Motivation was once a matter of “Sell 3,000 widgets before noon and we’ll send you to Maui,” which worked well enough – as long as you didn’t expect to sell any widgets in the afternoon.

“Management methods for years were based on the tradition of ‘command and control,’” says Alexander Hiam, author of Making Horses Drink (Entrepreneur Media, 2002) and Motivating and Rewarding Employees (Adams Media Corporation, 1999). “You’d just tell people what to do, then make sure they did it by creating positive and negative consequences.” The negative consequences were usually pretty cut-and-dried: Those who didn’t meet goals or follow corporate policy were fired.

But most corporate managers preferred the carrot to the stick, and rather than constantly threatening to fire their employees, instead looked for ways to fire them up with incentives. “The most basic element of motivational psychology is that you reward positive behavior,” says Marty Brounstein, principal of the Practical Solutions Group and author of Coaching and Mentoring for Dummies (Hungry Minds Inc., 2000). Brounstein delineates five basic types of rewards:

1. Incentive programs: monetary rewards (or a trip or a car) for good performance. Employees are working toward a set goal and payout occurs at regular intervals or at the end of a sales contest.

2. Spot bonus: a discretionary bonus or gift (such as a gift certificate to a restaurant). This is given on the spot; companies can budget for these small perks, but to the employee it comes as a surprise – an unexpected windfall for doing something well.

3. Positive feedback: such as praise.

4. Public recognition: such as being named “employee of the month,” getting a new title, or moving into the corner office.

5. Private recognition: An employee is taken to lunch, receives a letter of thanks, or is given unexpected time off.

These types of rewards are what the experts call “external motivators,” i.e., those incentives initiated and created by the company in hopes they will make their sales reps more productive. Managers should make sure these rewards are:

Timely: “The key is to acknowledge the behavior the minute they do it and keep the reward short term,” says Brounstein. “The longer a person has to wait for good performance to be rewarded, the less likely the reward is to have a lasting effect. An end-of-the-year bonus may force employees to wait too long between the effort and the payoff.”

Specific: Praise is a key aspect of motivation, but a vague compliment such as “Great job” or “You’re doing great” is meaningless. “Don’t overdo praise,” cautions Dr. Arthur Pell, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Managing People (MacMillan, 1998). “Gushing something like ‘What would we do without you?’ sounds insincere, so be very specific about what they did correctly. Also, be public in your praise. Some managers praise in private and criticize in public, but you’ll have better results if you do the opposite.”

Well understood by the reps: “Managers need to clearly define what criteria they’re rewarding and how,” says Brounstein. “Don’t say ‘You’ll get a bonus if we have a good year’ without explaining what constitutes a good year. Employees need to know what percentage of the profits is being paid out, how that number is figured, and when they’ll get the check.”

Tailored to suit individual needs: Cosmetics queen Mary Kay Ash often told the story of how she won a contest in her first sales job only to learn that first prize was a fish light. (As in, “a light you can use to go fishing in the dark.”) She was predictably underwhelmed and vowed that when she had her own company she’d create incentives which were valued by women. While your company may not be dishing out roses, jewelry, and pink Cadillacs, it’s important to offer incentives that have meaning to the individuals on the sales team. “Not all people are motivated by the same things,” says Pell. “You might want to try a cafeteria approach, saying ‘We’re offering a choice of several rewards – which would you prefer?’ That way, individuals choose their own motivator, whether it’s money, more time off, or something else.”

Reflective of the big picture: Incentives are empty gestures unless they’re a reflection of how much management values their employees overall. If a husband ignores his wife 364 days a year but brings her roses on Valentine’s Day, what’s the worth of those flowers? Not much. The wife is likely to see them as an afterthought or even a bribe. Likewise, if a company does not treat its staff fairly throughout the year it’s doubtful that a year-end bonus is going to suddenly make everything okay. Rewards should be an outward sign of a good relationship between management and staff – a gesture much like flowers from a loving husband – and not an emotional Band-Aid meant to magically heal all wounds.

The problem with motivating exclusively with goodies is that once the goodies dry up, so does the good behavior. “The downside of external motivation is that when the big sales contest or other challenging assignment ends, the excitement fades,” says Pell. “As performance sinks back down to its previous levels, managers constantly have to come up with new ways to reward, and you can’t just keep doubling commissions forever. The same incentives eventually get stale. After a while everybody in the company has been employee of the month at least once and it doesn’t mean anything anymore.”

Even worse, managing exclusively through external motivators can create what Hiam calls “learned helplessness” in the sales staff. “External motivation might work for a while,” he says, “but the unintentional side effect of the ‘command and control’ approach is that employees become dependent upon management to tell them what to do. As the business environment becomes more competitive and challenging, you need people who can think on their feet, take the initiative, and face problems without having to constantly turn to their supervisors for help. We need to reexamine the question of how we motivate.”

Money may be a universal incentive to work – after all, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who wouldn’t like a bit more of it – but that doesn’t mean it’s the only motivator, or even the best one. “People like money and gifts,” says Brounstein, “but they also want recognition, challenging work, autonomy, a good company atmosphere, the chance to learn more about their jobs, and opportunities to be creative.”

“Empowerment” is the umbrella term for these qualities, and Hiam defines this as “sharing your power with the people over whom you have power.” Empowered employees are involved with planning, provide regular input to their bosses, have the authority to make daily decisions about their jobs, and in some cases have profit sharing or actual ownership in the company.

“Involving people in the business makes them know more, care more, and want to do the right things,” says Pell. “The real motivation comes when employees feel they are making a contribution and having an impact. Then motivation moves from being a temporary thing which is inspired by external factors like sales contests to a lasting frame of mind which is inspired by the people themselves.”

Turning your sales force into a group of self-motivators can be one step in a system of motivation that includes rewards, fair compensation, and regular attention to the needs of the sales team at all levels.