What role does money play in motivation on the job?
A big one. Money matters. Money matters a lot But it matters in a slightly more nuanced way than many of us think. The key point is that you have to pay people enough. You have to pay them well and pay them fairly. If you don’t do that, you won’t get motivation. Period. The mistake we make is thinking that money is all it takes – that if we get people thinking about money, they’ll perform better. That’s true for, say, stuffing envelopes or turning screws. But it’s much less true for the more sophisticated, creative, long-term work that many workers around the world are increasingly doing. For this sort of stuff, you don’t want people thinking about the money. You want them thinking about the work. So the best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table.
Okay. So if we manage to take money off the table, what does it take to motivate people?
There are three key factors: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.
What do you mean by autonomy?
Self-direction – directing your own life and work. In particular, it means having control over the key aspects of your work – what you do, when you do it, how you do it, and who you do it with. Task, time, technique, and team.
What are some examples of how companies have used autonomy to deliver better results?
It’s really exciting. There are lots and lots of examples. One of my favorites comes from Atlassian, an Australian software company. Once a quarter, they tell their employees to take 24 hours to work on whatever they want. The only requirement is that the following day they have to show what they’ve created to the rest of their colleagues. They call these things “Ship It Days” – and they’ve produced a whole array of new products and refinements to existing products that might otherwise not have emerged. Companies like Intuit give their employees “10 per cent time” – 10 per cent of their time to work on anything they choose. That, too, has led to all kinds of innovations. Some places offer ‘genius hours’ – one hour a week.
Or take Zappos. They’ve got call centers, but instead of recording their employees calls and monitoring them, they just say to their people, ‘When a call comes in, solve the customer’s problem. If it takes you two minutes, great. If it takes you an hour, no problem’.
That approach has made Zappos one of the top customer service companies in the world. What we’ve got to understand is that autonomy isn’t an alternative to accountability. It’s a pathway to it.
Zappos recently went even further and introduced a ‘holocracy’ – no titles, no managers, no hierarchy whatsoever. What do you think of that?
It’s a cool idea, but I’m skeptical. There are some areas – not necessarily a huge number, but still some – where hierarchy makes sense. To throw it out altogether seems like a big risk.
Thought Leader Interview
program, that’s why I love what I get to do as CEO.
How Do You Spend Your Day's Off When You Are Not The CEO of Biz-Group?
If i'm in Dubai then on a sailing boat out on the water, which I enjoy. If I am outside of Dubai, my ideal scenario would be travelling on Safari, we have a beautiful place on the beach down in South Africa.
Even though I’m in the role of CEO, I thoroughly enjoy travelling and seeing new markets and meeting new businesses in new industries. My nickname is ‘What’s Next?’, as I’m always looking to find 'what’s next' in this industry. That may still be work, but I consider it 'playtime’.
What Advice Would You Give Our Readers For Training Success In The Middle East?
Great question. I think first of all train and develop people in a subject you are passionate about, that way it never feels like work.
The second thing, is to work extraordinarily hard as it’s an unforgiving industry, everyday is a new day and you need to be on your game, that is why passion helps.
We are spending a lot of time right now on return on investment and proving business impact. If you can find a subject that you are really passionate about and makes a difference in organizations, then you can do that day in day out .
Start proving those cases to clients and that will make you successful.
For us, our success and results got us ranked No.16 in the Dubai SME 100 list.
How Can Our Readers Find Out More About You And Biz-Group?
Just go to www.biz-group.ae and I suggest you get a sense of our culture by watching the biz happy video on youtube.
http://www.biz-group.ae