Aug 22, 2016

“If you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money. But if they believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.”

Rewards, by their very nature, narrow our focus and concentrate the mind. They’re effective, but only for certain kinds of work: routine, structured tasks. Chances are your job isn’t routine or structured, whether you work in technology, human resources, or a profession such as accounting or law. Different kinds of problems hit you every day, problems focused around other people and what they need. As a manager, you’re limited in how you use traditional rewards to influence your team’s behaviour.

Fortunately there have been many studies on how to influence behaviour, especially as a people manager. Here is what science knows:

1. The traditional motivators we think are a natural part of business do work, but only in a surprisingly narrow band of circumstances
2. Those “if-then” rewards often destroy creativity
3. The secret to high performance aren't rewards and punishments, but that unseen intrinsic drive: the drive to do things because they matter.

Mostly, we do things because we’re inspired to do so, because we believe in what we’re doing.

How do you do this, as a leader – how do you tap into the intrinsic motivation of people around you, and inspire them to act? Take a moment to watch these TED Talks. Dan Pink delves deeply into the puzzle of motivation, and Simon Senek shares how great leaders inspire action.

We hope you’ll be inspired too.

New Horizons offers a range of Management and Leadership training courses.