Why Motivation Is Free

by R. Gately, PE, MBA
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gately/pp09ybuy.htm

Managers are seldom equipped psychologically to talk to their people on a personal basis. One reason is that many people are managers because of their technical ability not because of their people skills.

We should reward our technical experts with higher salaries but not with promotions into management. We would be far better off if we promote to management the people who have good managerial and people skills and poor technical skills -- which will solve two problems:

1 - Improve the technical aspect of the team
2 - Improve the managerial performance as well.

As long as the top executives do not know how to select future effective managers, management will be stuck with the Peter Principle. When managers are asked to list the ten top motivators for their employees the list looks something like this:

Managers Perceived top ten motivators for their employees.

Money Items

1 - Salary
2 - Bonuses
3 - Vacation
4 - Retirement
5 - Other Benefits & Perks

Communication Items

6 - Interesting work
7 - Involved in decisions
8 - Feedback
9 - Training
10 - Respect

Note that the managers rank items that are equivalent to "money" as the top five motivators. However, when employees are asked to rank their top ten motivators the list is:

Employee Motivators as reported by Employees

Communication Items

1 - Interesting work
2 - Involved in decisions
3 - Feedback
4 - Training
5 - Respect

Money Items

6 - Salary
7 - Bonuses
8 - Vacation
9 - Retirement
10 - Other Benefits & Perks

Note that the employees rank items that are equivalent to "money" as their "bottom five motivators".

The managers' top five motivators are the employees' bottom five motivators. The managers' top five motivators are more related to the need of the managers to avoid personal contact with employees than the needs or desires of the employees.

Managers pick the top five motivators because these are the things that managers can "give" their employees without ever having to ask what the employees want or need,i.e., no involvement on a personal level is needed and all decisions can be made behind closed doors--while avoiding personal contact even to the detriment of the organization.

By the way, managers give the same sequence as their employees when asked to rank their own motivators.

Robert F. Gately, PE, MBA
GATELY CONSULTING