For those who have worked with me you know it is my opinion that Values are the most important piece of any business. From my perspective (my perspective being the purpose of life is in large part the moral growth of an individual as well as the love they develop for their fellowman), it is my opinion that more importantly than what we do as businesses is how we did it. This is something that Wall Street would strongly debate but it is something worth debating.
Besides the moral perspective of values, businesses need values in order to guide them in their decisions and to create a foundation upon which they build their business into what they have envisioned it to be. Values are critical for long term financial success. Some of the values that you will find in many companies are, and should be, integrity, hard work, respect, innovation, and customer service. I love these values and feel that they are critical.
However, it is my opinion that there is one value that is always missing - at least I have never seen it written and framed along side the other values. Its absence is the very evidence of its necessity. The presence and support of this value would make all other values possible and lived at all levels and much more of the time. The value that I recommend to you and your company is the value of Humility.
Humility is anything but weak. It is the strength to admit wrong, the strength to admit right, the strength to grow, the strength to listen, the strength to communicate, the strength to change and the strength to work together rather than alone. It is the strength behind all of the values - the absence of which fundamentally weakens them.
Can you see how this would help the value of communication for a senior management team that doesn't want to share with their employees their failings? Can you also see how this would strengthen communication with a management team who in the past has thought their ideas superior to those of their employees? Can you see how this would strengthen the value of innovation by managers accepting the fact that those who work for them may have great ideas that would benefit the business but that they never thought of? Can you see how this would strengthen the value of respect by encouraging coworkers to admit wrong doing and to encourage forgiveness?
I think you get my point. Pride is something within all of us and it is my belief that pride, which helps us climb the corporate ladder for a time, will eventually work against us. Humility is the way forward. Humility is the Corporate Value needed but ignored, because after all, that would require we admit we were wrong - about a lot of things. Pride is fundamentally the weakness of mankind, and therefore our downfall. It would follow then that humility is the true measure of a man's strength and also of our companies. The bigger the pride, the harder the fall.
Yes, its absence is the very evidence of its necessity. This value could do a lot of good for a lot of people.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Recognition v. Reward v. Motivation
From my last posting, I have heard some feedback regarding the sometimes gray line between recognition and rewards. These two words are almost always included in the same breath when talking about one or the other with a Human Resources professional. It is my belief that they are two different things.
What is the difference between recognition and reward?
A reward is something that someone works toward with that something being the principle object of their work. It is also in possession of someone else and it is their honor, as one having something the other does not, to bestow it.
Recognition on the other hand is something that we don't necessarily work for, but that without we lose the desire to work. It is also something that in a way we are all in possession of – not just the manager, although a manager is one of the most important people to give it. Recognition recognizes the equality of humanity whereas rewards have the aura of elevation.
Additionally, rewards are instituted for the purpose of enticing one to act – to create within a person motivation. Recognition is ever existent, although at times dormant, within mankind. The use of this wonderful tool is that it awakens the already existent motivation for higher, more noble purposes than simply the reward. It guides a person in their quest for excellence. Rewards guide a person in their quest for rewards.
What is the difference between recognition and reward?
A reward is something that someone works toward with that something being the principle object of their work. It is also in possession of someone else and it is their honor, as one having something the other does not, to bestow it.
Recognition on the other hand is something that we don't necessarily work for, but that without we lose the desire to work. It is also something that in a way we are all in possession of – not just the manager, although a manager is one of the most important people to give it. Recognition recognizes the equality of humanity whereas rewards have the aura of elevation.
Additionally, rewards are instituted for the purpose of enticing one to act – to create within a person motivation. Recognition is ever existent, although at times dormant, within mankind. The use of this wonderful tool is that it awakens the already existent motivation for higher, more noble purposes than simply the reward. It guides a person in their quest for excellence. Rewards guide a person in their quest for rewards.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Motivation
While sitting in a meeting today I had a thought about motivation. While in college I learned about Maslow, McGregor, Herzberg and others who shared their theories on motivation. For years now I have held personally to the idea that management actually doesn't have any real power to motivate their staff through incentives and that true motivation is a personal choice – a choice that lasts through time and trial. Gold stars, gift cards, cash and rewards will only work for those kinds of tasks money can buy.
The idea behind these kinds of “incentives” is that the people working don't presently have those items but that they want them and that if they want them badly enough they will complete the task to achieve the prize (It is common but incorrect to believe that rational, morally centered beings would respond to such things the same way that a rat would to cheese in a maze. Nevertheless, that is how so many view their staff).
Anyway, as I was sitting in this meeting I heard some ideas on how to “incentivize” staff and as I listened I thought, "If this stuff really is the key behind motivation, then God must be the most unmotivated being in the universe." Why? Because God has everything and if motivation is caused by essentially materialistic motives then there is nothing left for Him to desire.
Well, the idea is ridiculous isn't it? Certainly. God is arguably the most motivated being in the universe and it isn't out of the desire for more of anything – but something much more intrinsic, something incredibly altruistic – He is motivated by a desire for us and for the good in us to sprout, blossom, grow and bear fruit that we might be happy and enjoy those same things that He does. He is motivated through time and trial, set back and disappointment on both the scale of each individual child and on the grander scale of the entire human race. But yet He presses on and finds joy in His work.
I am convinced that there is something of the divine in each of us and tapping into that unleashes the power of motivation. The divine within us finds itself in the power of creation, stewardship and the bearing of fruit. Each job can find this within it.
Yes, gold stars, gift cards, cash and rewards will work – but will only work for those kinds of tasks money can buy. Money can only buy task completion but mankind needs something much more though from us than task completion. It cannot buy the divine within us – nor does it even knock on the true door of creation.
The more money is used to buy people and our motivation, the weaker will be our intellectual contribution and the less competitive will be our products. Motivation is individual. Motivation is a choice. Motivation is creation. And creation is divine.
The idea behind these kinds of “incentives” is that the people working don't presently have those items but that they want them and that if they want them badly enough they will complete the task to achieve the prize (It is common but incorrect to believe that rational, morally centered beings would respond to such things the same way that a rat would to cheese in a maze. Nevertheless, that is how so many view their staff).
Anyway, as I was sitting in this meeting I heard some ideas on how to “incentivize” staff and as I listened I thought, "If this stuff really is the key behind motivation, then God must be the most unmotivated being in the universe." Why? Because God has everything and if motivation is caused by essentially materialistic motives then there is nothing left for Him to desire.
Well, the idea is ridiculous isn't it? Certainly. God is arguably the most motivated being in the universe and it isn't out of the desire for more of anything – but something much more intrinsic, something incredibly altruistic – He is motivated by a desire for us and for the good in us to sprout, blossom, grow and bear fruit that we might be happy and enjoy those same things that He does. He is motivated through time and trial, set back and disappointment on both the scale of each individual child and on the grander scale of the entire human race. But yet He presses on and finds joy in His work.
I am convinced that there is something of the divine in each of us and tapping into that unleashes the power of motivation. The divine within us finds itself in the power of creation, stewardship and the bearing of fruit. Each job can find this within it.
Yes, gold stars, gift cards, cash and rewards will work – but will only work for those kinds of tasks money can buy. Money can only buy task completion but mankind needs something much more though from us than task completion. It cannot buy the divine within us – nor does it even knock on the true door of creation.
The more money is used to buy people and our motivation, the weaker will be our intellectual contribution and the less competitive will be our products. Motivation is individual. Motivation is a choice. Motivation is creation. And creation is divine.
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