Beyond the Carrot and Stick: How To Motivate Employees and Help Them See Even Small Tasks as Big
Think about the last time you felt really good about your job. What was happening? Who was there? Take a moment … we’ll wait.
Chances are you didn’t think about the direct deposit that lands in your bank account at the end of the month or even the health insurance or stock options that you considered major perks when you originally came on board. These things are important – they allow us to live healthy, full lives. But as humans, it turns out we are motivated by so much more.
So what did you think about? Maybe a kind word from a colleague regarding something you accomplished? Perhaps you thought about the moment you solved a complex problem or saw a project you had been working on for months go live.
In our last post, we introduced Daniel H. Pink’s book Drive, in which he lays out the difference between external and internal motivation. He argues that businesses should rethink how they motivate their employees, citing studies that prove when people are motivated by internal rewards, they are more creative, more invested and even work faster. Pink finds three keys to activating our innate drive including controlling our own destiny, learning and creating, and making things better. He labels them as autonomy, mastery and purpose.
But how can you actually apply this in the work place?
The following story, from Leadership Story Lab’s own Reena Kansal, will help bring these ideas to life.
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Leadership Story Lab in Action
Background
Reena explained, “My cousin recently graduated from college and isn’t thrilled about his job. He is bored and frustrated and thinks the projects he is given are beneath him. So, during a conversation with him, I shared this story.”
Building a Career One Binder at a Time
When I graduated from college, I accepted a job with a litigation consulting company. I was very excited to start my first real job and apply many of the things I had learned over the past few years.
And the job started off great! The first week, I got to meet everyone in the office and go to training with the other new hires – and training was basically one big party.
However, when the second week rolled around it was time to get down to business. So, my manager called me into his office. He handed me a 3-inch binder and said, “Reena, I want you to make four copies of this binder.”
Did he say copies?!? Did I hear him correctly?, I thought. But, I confirmed and I did hear correctly. Then my manager added, “And when you are done with the copies, please tick and tie the binder, too. Thanks.” (Tick and tie is basically proofreading and making sure all the supporting documentation is in the right place.)
As I walked out of his office, I thought, Is this some kind of new hire prank? But he looked very serious. Does he not know that I just graduated with an ENGINEERING degree and that I was hired to help clients’ solve complex problems? And tick and tie! They briefly mentioned that in the training last week, but I didn’t think I would be the one doing it!
As I got to the copy room, I was a bit relieved to find two of the other new hires making copies as well. At least I wasn’t the only one doing this.
As time went on I learned that these binders were very important. They are considered client work product and could be used in the courtroom, so they had to be perfect. In the litigation consulting industry, attention to detail is a very important skill. If you took these binders seriously and made sure there were no errors, managers in the company trusted you and gave you more responsibility.
Overtime, I got better at making binders – something that I learned was not as easy as I first thought. The tedious aspects like formatting in Microsoft Office and learning the different features on the copy machine were eventually mastered. A few projects later, my manager tasked me with creating (not just ticking and tying) one of the charts that went into a binder – that is when I knew I had succeeded. I was on my way to help our clients solve their complex problems.
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Reena’s story demonstrates both of Pink’s concepts of mastery and purpose.
At first, Reena did not understand the true purpose behind what she was being asked to do. When she felt copying the binder was an insignificant task, she felt frustrated and like she was being underestimated.
However, when she realized how important the binders were to the work the company was doing, she saw the task as having real meaning. She realized she was being given a chance to prove herself and therefore undertook her assignment with gusto.
Furthermore, the task was harder than she anticipated. She had to work at it, pay attention to detail and make sure it was “perfect.” Pink uses the term “goldilocks tasks” in his book – which refers to tasks that are not too easy and not too hard. The task may stretch an employee’s skills, but he or she is ultimately able to master it, leading the person to feel competent and like they are contributing.
How can you help your employees see their work as meaningful to the mission of the organization? Are you assigning them tasks that challenge them while giving them the space to grow? And, are you telling stories to illustrate the real meanings behind those tasks? As Reena helped her young cousin see, sometimes it is not about the size of the task, but about understanding the significance behind it.
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To read more about motivation and Pink’s concept of autonomy, see last week’s post.
To learn more about using stories to bring ideas to life in a business setting, contact us.
(Photos for this post are from Creative Commons. No changes have been made.)
