If you want to increase productivity don’t do this…

The reason your people aren’t performing isn’t what you think it is

In my work, one of the largest complaints CEOs and leaders have is that they struggle to get their people to perform at the level they are needing them to. Performance is important, no doubt. But performance is complex, and leaders often misjudge how they can improve their team’s performance and help their employees to be more productive. 

There are many contributing factors to performance. 

However, there is one thing you don’t want to do if you’re trying to motivate performance, don’t incentivize with money. 

We think of performance as results: the outcome that we get. But we first have to look at what is contributing to the work and decisions that produce the outcome. Performance is dictated intrinsically by each person. 

Most systems have been set up to only address the human drive for getting our needs met. Think of this as how to ensure we have security, food, and shelter—aka money. The problem with this is that money is proven to be a terrible motivator. 

Our drive to get our needs met is found in the “reptile” brain. This is the part of the brain that triggers flight, fight, or freeze. It is also the part of the brain that does not know how to reason. It is selfish and purely focused on making sure it is safe and gets what it wants. Everything gets filtered through this part of the brain first.

Knowing this, you can see how complex things like incentive plans that are based on levels of performance and how the business performed, etc. do not get processed in this downstairs part of the brain. It only rationalizes if things feel fair or harmful. 

The goal of compensation should be to make it a non-issue. Meaning, pay people well, fairly, and equitably and we don’t have to focus on it anymore. The reptile brain feels safe and secure and so the brain can move on to focus on drivers that are more engaging. We have to be careful of using compensation as an incentive for performance because then you are re-engaging the reptile brain, which triggers the selfish and fear response part of the brain.

For routine, left-brain tasks that can be helpful. It triggers a hyper-focus, and for tasks that don’t require creativity, problem-solving, relationship building, or abstract thinking it can be useful. 

But for the more executive and complex tasks, we need to safely pass through the reptile brain and reach the neocortex—the place where our brain solves problems forms relationships, and generates new ideas, all right-brain activities.

So how are we best motivated?

A study done in 1969 by Edward Deci revealed that carrots and sticks (rewards and consequence) were not only non-effective at motivating people to do their best work, but actually caused performance to dip. 

Since that study, we’ve learned more about how the brain is motivated.

There are three core motivators that drive performance greater than anything else. What’s shocking is that very few companies and organizations leverage these. Some even constrict or restrict these areas, and we wonder why performance is so hard to manage. 

Whether because of ignorance or pride, it’s costing businesses greatly. If companies want to solve the performance struggle more easily and effectively, they will need to learn how to optimize these three areas.

1. Autonomy: People’s drive for autonomy is one of the greatest motivators that employers are afraid to utilize. As adults, we need a balance of control and the ability to work in a way that supports our best selves within the span of our control. We all want that, no one is separate from that need. Autonomy offers that. However, we typically shut down autonomy because we look at it through a narrowed lens. If the business doesn’t believe it can offer one type of autonomy, it stops there, failing to find other ways to provide autonomy to its employees. Below are the main types of autonomy employees want:

• How I do my work: Share the goals and what needs to be done, and then get out of the way and let them do it in a way that best suites them.

• Where I do my work: With the rise of remote working over the past year, this is any area we’ve learned that we can do effectively. As offices open back up, the initial reaction is to require employees to come back in. But with so many companies going fully remote, there are too many options offering the flexibility employees are looking for.

• When I do my work: On that same note, people are now working from all over the world, often working in different time zones. And even if all your employees work from the same office, the reality is people have different times when they do their best work, when they have the most energy, and can focus. Ask yourself if it’s really required for everyone to be on the same schedule. People can find times to overlap, but allow people flexibility to craft their schedule to best fit their needs.

Companies that can find ways to offer as much autonomy in these areas will find their employees motivated, engaged, and highly productive at levels greater than bonuses and incentives ever could produce. 

2.  Mastery: In the book, Talent is Overrated, the author goes through all of the alleged prodigies and those deemed to be gifted (Michael Jorden, Beethoven, Tiger Woods, etc.), and debunks the theory of “natural talent.” He explains that even those who were born with more talent didn’t become successful because of their natural talent, but rather their commitment to intense, focused practice, aka Mastery. 

The drive to want to master something is directly connected to the concept of flow. Flow is where your strengths are challenged enough to be fully engaged and you experience pleasure. What you want to achieve is the Goldilocks effect, according to Daniel Pink in his book, Drive. He explains that you want your strengths and talents to be challenged between not too little—which results in boredom, and not too much—which produces anxiety. 

What also is interesting is that flow also triggers the same places in the brain the experiences play. So when you give your employees the ability to engage in mastery and flow in their specific areas of strength, it registers as if they are playing—which equals highly engaged, happy workers. 

3. Purpose: The corporate Mission Statement is dead. People are looking for purpose. Over the last 30 years non-profits organizations have been on the rise. In the 1970’s researcher and psychologists, D.C. predicted the increase of not-for-profit organizations and the reason is the drive to be a part of something greater than themselves and the ability to serve a purpose. 

Because of this, more and more companies are positioning their companies in ways that do this, becoming purpose-driven organizations. B Corps and C corps are other examples. These special entities are for-profit businesses but are first centered on addressing a greater need and cause. These businesses are structured under special regulations that require them to prove this. 

Since the pandemic, people have also taken this time to discover their own purpose and reevaluate how they’re living their lives. Businesses & teams need to respond to the shift in culture by ditching their mission statement and doing a deep dive into who they are, what they want to be known for, and craft their Purpose Statement. But you can’t stop there—the next step is to analyze all the company’s practices and behaviors to ensure they align with their values and purpose. Bring employees into this process. Working with a specialist in this area will help you to streamline this process and increase engagement. 

While it’s tempting for companies to fall into the trap of “show me the money!” in an attempt to increase performance, productivity, and engagement, the studies have shown that these three drives are more effective and long-lasting. 

What area do you struggle with the most? 

If you’re a leader or business owner, choose one of these areas to focus on over the next 60 days and document the results. I guarantee you’ll find happier, more productive employees. 

Need help knowing where to start? Reach out and we’ll help you to identify 2 action steps to get started.

To learn more about how you can work with our award-winning specialists to implement culture and performance-based solutions, contact us here.