Overall organisational goals can only be achieved by motivated and engaged staff. First-line managers need to understand the psychology behind employee motivation and why it’s crucial to create engaged teams. First-line managers need to have the skill to pull their staff through difficult times or when staff feel demotivated.
A positive approach to motivation, and practices to support it, will improve productivity, quality, and service performance. Motivation helps people to:
- Achieve goals.
- Gain a positive perspective.
- Adapt to changes.
- Build self-esteem and capability.
- Manage their own development and help others with theirs.
Mark Shuttelworth said that people are motivated by many different things, but mostly by a sense of excitement. The key is to keep people inspired and to keep them focused on reinventing themselves.
Two academic heavyweights, Maslow and Hertzberg, believe that behaviour is motivated by the urge to satisfy needs.
According to Maslow, people are motivated by five basic needs, which he called, the “Hierarchy of basic needs.” (See image below). He argued that only when each lower-level need is satisfied, does the next higher need become important to the individual. For instance, if we are anxious about job security, we will not worry about how satisfying the job is. However, if we feel we have job security, then we will look to the next higher order for satisfaction and motivation.
Herzberg tried to find the answer to: “What do individuals want from their jobs?” He asked hundreds of people this question in the 1950’s and analysed all their responses. He claimed that motivation would be enhanced by maximising the elements of the job that satisfies (motivation needs), while minimising the elements that dissatisfy (hygiene needs). They can be distinguished as follows:
Satisfying elements (motivation needs):
This includes positive aspects such as being involved in interesting work where you get the opportunity to do something that you value, and where your achievements are recognised.
Other motivators include growth, more responsibility and job challenges. Herzberg believed that motivational needs would significantly contribute towards energising the individual and the team.
Dissatisfying elements (hygiene needs):
They occur when certain things are not in place, such as a good salary, good working conditions or pleasant people to work with. Other aspects that can cause dissatisfaction include policies and administrative practices, salary and benefits, supervision, status, job security, fellow workers and personal life. Herzberg believed that hygiene needs will never motivate people but will, in their absence, act as demotivators. Hygiene factors must be present in the job before motivators can be used to stimulate that person. That is, you cannot use motivators until all the hygiene factors are met. Herzberg’s needs are specifically job related and reflect some of the distinct things that people want from their work, as opposed to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which reflect all the needs in a person’s life. Building on this model, Herzberg coined the term “job enrichment” to describe the process of redesigning work in order to build in motivators. See how the two compare below:
Intrinsic motivation involves doing something because it’s personally rewarding to you. For example, reading about something because it’s fun to learn.
Extrinsic motivation involves doing something because you want to earn a reward or avoid punishment. Reading about something to receive praise from an instructor is an example of extrinsic motivation.
Basic principles of motivation
1. People can motivate only themselves. The best a leader can do is to serve as an example and to present a challenge.
2. True motivation arises from a sense of pride, honour, self-esteem and self-worth. People will do good work because they enjoy fulfilling their potential.
3. The sense of pride can be enhanced through love. We must add to the recognition, acknowledgement and confirmation of a person’s value.
4. People are motivated when they are noticed and heard. They want to know that their leaders care about them.
5. Acknowledgement must truly mean something. Support must also be given, not as a technique, but with the heart.
6. Compensation, in the business culture, is a sign of realistic acknowledgement.
7. A powerful motivational tool is faith in one’s team. The highest motivator is belief in another human being.
8. You must develop your people and give them added value.
9. Your example is still the best motivator of your people.
10. Greed is not a source of motivation.
11. Security is not a legitimate motivator.
12. Growth through experience is a true motivator.
13. Always distinguish clearly between good work and unacceptable work.
It’s undeniable the importance and impact first-line managers have. These managers significantly influence employee motivation, performance and productivity.
SELF-MOTIVATION
When I read the first part of the first sentence under basic principles of motivation, which says that people can motivate only themselves; three stories come to mind.
THE UBER DRIVER
The first story is about an uber driver from Zimbabwe who came to South Africa in search of a better life. He is an educated, qualified and skilled person, but decided to leave his home country because of the hardships and poor economy. A South African acquaintance told him telephonically, that he should cross the border and come to South Africa where everything will be in place for him to live here. To his dismay and disappointment, after crossing the border, he found that this acquaintance had no intention of assisting him or even taking his phone-calls.
Because he was in the country illegally, he couldn’t approach any mainstream business to look for work. Destitute he stayed on the outskirts of the town, living in the bushes, washing in a dirty stream and eating from garbage bins. One day, someone told him that he could go to the mall and grab some of the leftovers from people’s plates after they had eaten. He did that, and according to him that was a step up, because at least the food was fresh. The same person who referred him to the food court, also told him one day that there was a place where they put second-hand clothes in a pool and he could go there and find himself something different to wear, and he did. He kept looking out for a job opportunity, but at the same time he knew that his appearance was frowned upon especially his unshaven face, which was a huge embarrassment to him.
At the mall he approached a middle-aged lady and asked her for a bar of soap to clean himself properly. The lady went back into the shop and bought him a bar of soap, a face cloth, some blades for shaving and a sandwich. For a while, the lady continued buying him a sandwich every day.
He eventually told her his story and she decided to take him to her house where he did some gardening at night, because during the day he had to hide from the neighbours and other curious passer-by’s. After several months, she took him back to his birthplace to get his official papers in order and brought him back to South Africa, upon which he applied to become an Uber driver. He told me that when he asked the lady why she gave him the time of day; she said that she knew there was something different about him when he asked for a bar of soap, instead of bread or money.
When I asked him what motivated him to keep on going, despite the hardship he endured, he said that there was a single line echoing over and over in his mind: “This cannot be how it ends….”
THE YOUNG WOMAN AT CROSSROADS
The second story is about a young woman who finished matric and didn’t know what to do with her life. As a result, she did casual work here and there for a three-year period after which she got the opportunity to study Education at a teacher’s college in Cape Town.
In the first quarter of her studies, much to her dismay, she felt that she had forgotten most of the work that she had learned at school, and she struggled to understand things that she knew she could easily understand before. What further frustrated her, was that the students who came to study straight from matric seemed to know a lot more than she did.
One day she decided to write a letter to her father, asking him if she could quit her studies and go home. She was dreading his response, because he was someone who would tell her to finish what she started and he would be strict and firm about it too, but her father surprisingly agreed. What was true to the young woman’s nature was that if the father had said no, she would’ve rebelled and probably quit. Perhaps her father knew her better then she knew herself. She decided to stay, and eventually she started remembering the things she thought she had forgotten, and the work became easier.
If you would’ve asked her at the time what motivated her to stay, she would say that: “This cannot be how it ends”.
ALLISON BOTHA
The third story is about Allison Botha who was left for dead, survived and turned her tragedy into triumph. At the age of 27, Allison was abducted, raped and disembowelled, but she managed to get up and walk, falling and getting up several times. Making her way to the nearest road, she laid down on the white line in the middle of the road from where she was rescued. It was reported that on the night of the incident, Allison realized that her life was way too valuable to let go of, and that is what gave her the courage to survive. Today she is a world-renowned motivational speaker.
I would love to have a cup of tea with Allison, as I would love to know what motivated her to keep on fighting in a situation where most people would’ve given up.
Recently I asked the students in one of my classes to write down what they feel that their line-leaders should stop doing and what they should continue doing. This is how they responded:
Line leaders should keep on:
- Visiting the shop floor
- Having fun days as a form of motivation
- Informing employees about the performance of the organisation
- Encouraging employees
- Acknowledging good work and suggestions
- Showing gratitude for positive changes made by employees
- Treating people with respect and dignity
- Appreciating openness and honesty
- Listening to complaints and ideas
- Sharing knowledge
- Having patience when coaching someone
- Sharing his/her vision for the company
- Smiling☺
- Asking people how they’re doing
- Sending whatsapp messages now and then
- Being helpful
- Assisting with training requirements
- Thinking out loud
- Making realistic decisions
- Being positive
- Creating new opportunities
Line-leaders should stop:
- Going home early
- Spying on employees
- Treating certain employees like they’re your friends
- Trying to please everyone
- Taking customer returns personally
- Stressing too much
- Communicating individually (quality issues)
- Focussing on everything at the same time
- Trying to perfect everything
- Calling people on weekends for overtime
- Gossiping
- Insulting
- Choosing sides
- Criticising
- Interfering when someone is doing a task
- Delaying orders
Every line-leader who does this simple exercise, will immediately have a better idea of what motivates and demotivates his/her people.
The best form of motivation lies within the hearts and minds of people, however, as line-leaders, we can motivate our people by being visible, showing courage, having integrity and being visionaries.
Having strong front-line leaders is essential to the overall success of an organisation. From increased engagement and productivity to reduced staff turn-over. An investment in first-line leadership training is a must.
Author: Valery Hansen
The learnerships offered by ODI are carefully selected, to support companies on their journey of Continuous Improvement.
Our Supervision for Energised WorkTeams programme has been offered since 1989. It was always used to strengthen the implementation of a structured CI programme. With the introduction of accredited learning, ODI leaped at the opportunity to give people who do all this hard work credits, and an actual qualification (National Certificate: Generic Management – Supervisory NQF3). Little did we know at the time that this will eventually lead to a full career development opportunity, that includes many different qualifications.