“Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.”
~Sigmund Freud
If work is such a significant part of our lives, why do so many of our employees see their jobs as a burden?
Is it possible to build a business on passion and trust instead of fear and stress?
Resolving the gap raised by these questions produces no-excuses job performance.
A Gallup poll recently discovered the leading determinant of happiness. It isn’t wealth, or health, or family. The number one driver of happiness is “a good job” defined as work that is meaningful and done in the company of people we care about. The CEO of Gallup stated: “This is one of the most important discoveries Gallup has ever made.”
The experience and expectations of work continues to evolve. Once the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter were met, the definition of a good job expanded to include money, benefits, security, peace and freedom. During the past 30 years, the meaning of a “good job” changed to include what the Gallup poll discovered – people want a meaningful job for themselves and their children.
The performance of your personnel is now the key competitive advantage and the primary cause for sustained growth. Exceptional performance improves results while increasing job satisfaction, but cultivating a culture that elevates performance requires a shift in how we motivate personnel. The “carrot & stick” approach, the use of incentives and threats, is effective only in jobs involving mechanical, repetitive tasks like an assembly line. For more cognitive work, motivation must become more intrinsic. Daniel Pink’s video describes the science behind this reality (http://bit.ly/11BTbbL).
These 3 drivers leverage intrinsic motivation to improve performance and job satisfaction:
Right Person – Right Job: Employ talented, capable people who are personally committed to your company’s purpose and to their work as contributions to it.
Make Work More Meaningful: Engage your people, nurture collaboration and encourage them to grow by developing their mastery in a specific domain.
Increase Autonomy: As people demonstrate their commitment to performance and results, increase their degree of decision making and freedom to choose how and when work is done.
What methods do you use to ensure that you have the right personnel in your leadership roles?
How can you encourage the development of mastery and autonomy in your organization?
