Seth Godin in his latest thought provoking and inspiring book – “Linchpin – Are you Indispensable?” (highly recommended reading btw) quotes Author Richard Florida who polled 20,000 Creative Professionals to answer one question
- What motivates you to do your best at work?
He gave them a choice of 38 factors, here are the top 10, ranked in order :
1) Challenge and Responsibility (Not surprising, is it?)
2) Flexibility
3) A stable work environment
4) Money
5) Professional Development
6) Peer Recognition
7) Stimulating Colleagues and Bosses
8) Exciting Job Content
9) Organizational Culture
10) Location and Community
It’s interesting to note that Money ranks only at number 4 on the list. Isn’t it ironic that to increase motivation and employee engagement, the usual approach is to offer monetary incentives or other means that involve financial expenditure.
The truth is that the implementation of many factors on this list does not require any financial approval or a budgetary increase! All we need to get the best out of our team is a strong desire from the Leaders to treat their people as individuals rather than dispensable and replaceable cogs.
Show your people that you care about them, that you want to develop them, that you trust them and that you want them to achieve their highest potential and see the magic happen!
I think it would be helpful for every leader to do an honest self assessment on the list above and find out where they currently stand and then create an action plan to plug the gaps.
Would like to share any best practices in your organization? Do the factors listed above make sense to you from your organizational viewpoint? Please share your views in the follow up comments.
