Sticks versus carrots. I would love to hear your thoughts on creating a sustainable, healthy corporate culture. I see lots of pressure on groups to perform. Fear is a good motivator short-term - but eventually it loses its effectiveness (the donkey becomes numb to the stick). Carrots are similar - money, recognition are powerful motivators, but what's the trick of keeping them appropriately sized, keeping the donkey hungry?
Ideally I want people to self-motivate. As executive, is that my job, to identify and align people's passions and drives with corporate goals, provide the opportunity and step out of the way?
I am more motivated by carrots than sticks, so my intentional motivational efforts tend to be carrots. Unintentionally, however, I use sticks. I do this by being loud, and blunt, and sometimes too careless with my sarcasm. Given that I'm also the boss, this means that some people are afraid of me. I've given up on trying to eliminate this problem. I try to behave ethically. There will always be people who are intimidated by me.
A few things I've learned about using carrots for motivation:
* it's easy to give away too much too soon. I liked to give out nice raises, and have all sorts of cool perks. Even when Go Media was only 7 or 8 people, we had full benefits, extra vacation, a 401K plan, weekday company outings on the lake, and a membership at a local swanky gym. Everyone liked it, but it very quickly became the norm, I ran out of new stuff to offer, people got antsy, and I got resentful that they didn't appreciate all the perks. Lesson: be generous, but make sure you always leave room for improvement. Spend the extra cycles on creating a stimulating, comfortable environment.
* Change of scenery could do wonders for motivation. Sometimes we'd all go rent a pontoon boat on Lake Travis, or head out to Zilker Park for the afternoon to brainstorm. We'd *always* come out of those gatherings with at least a few new ideas (sometimes they were new ideas that had nothing to do with our original topic).
* Size doesn't matter. After Excite bought my company, I went on a wild hiring spree. We were offering good salaries, good benefits, and of course, the coveted stock options. (this was the mid-90s, when options still meant something). Lots of people, even though they understood options in theory, were way more excited about the free beverages.
Posted by: Julie Gomoll | May 01, 2007 at 09:43 AM
I found Kathy Sierra's blog -- http://headrush.typepad.com -- (which, sadly, she abandoned after receiving some threats) with some of her better illustrations posted.
One of those illustrations made me remember this thread - scroll down to them. She recommends a light hand in order to keep your people thinking. Does thinking equate to self-motivated? I surely think so.
At BigFinancialServicesCo, we had an acronym for the phenom of our management not wanting our input: SUAC. Stands for "Shut Up And Color." Particularly galling for a designer, but it spoke to the entire team :P
Posted by: Susan | July 18, 2007 at 03:58 PM