Holicent
VIP Contributor
In a recent article on Business motivation, I made the following observation:
"Business motivational talks often fail to motivate. They are the result of a failure to understand the difference between external and internal motivation. External motivation is about getting something from someone else - it's what motivates you to get a better job or promotion. Internal motivation is about giving something to yourself - it's what motivates you to do the things that are important to you."
Here's an example of how this can go wrong: A salesperson who works in an office environment has no incentive to improve his performance because there is no direct relationship between his actions and his compensation. He may be paid based on how many sales he makes, but he doesn't care about making more money; he just wants to keep making money for himself.
A good way for him to improve his performance would be for management to give him some sort of bonus for hitting certain targets - say, a bonus equal to 10% of his salary if he hit all targets within 90 days and 5% if he hit all targets within 60 days. If management does this, then there will be two kinds of rewards: one that depends on performance (the bonus) and one that depends on time (hitting the target right on time).
"Business motivational talks often fail to motivate. They are the result of a failure to understand the difference between external and internal motivation. External motivation is about getting something from someone else - it's what motivates you to get a better job or promotion. Internal motivation is about giving something to yourself - it's what motivates you to do the things that are important to you."
Here's an example of how this can go wrong: A salesperson who works in an office environment has no incentive to improve his performance because there is no direct relationship between his actions and his compensation. He may be paid based on how many sales he makes, but he doesn't care about making more money; he just wants to keep making money for himself.
A good way for him to improve his performance would be for management to give him some sort of bonus for hitting certain targets - say, a bonus equal to 10% of his salary if he hit all targets within 90 days and 5% if he hit all targets within 60 days. If management does this, then there will be two kinds of rewards: one that depends on performance (the bonus) and one that depends on time (hitting the target right on time).