What motivates you?
I had an early morning meeting with an entrepreneur last week. He’s located in an area that historically has a lot of traffic congestion to begin with, not to mention the large construction project that began on the interchange there about six months ago. I hate to be late to meetings, so I left with plenty of time to spare.
For whatever reason, traffic was very light and I breezed through the construction. With a good half hour to spare, I took the opportunity to stop into a Bob Evans for breakfast. I love breakfast yet seldom go out for it, so this was a treat for me.
I was seated at a table by a window looking out into the parking lot. I had the morning paper with me, but glanced out into the lot every once in a while. Eventually, my gaze was drawn to an employee that had been sent out into the lot with a broom to sweep up the random bits of trash and cigarette butts in the lot.
Not the most glamorous job in the world, and this guy’s demeanor definitely reflected it. His energy level was way down, his shoulders were drooped and he just oozed “I wish I was doing anything but this”.
Like just about everything, it got me to thinking. First impressions are very important, and a clean, well maintained exterior speaks well of any establishment. Obviously, with a restaurant, quality of food and sanitary conditions in the kitchen are also pretty important. But that first impression out in the lot can really set the stage for what to expect inside.
So here’s this kid doing fairly important work, and he’s wanting to do pretty much anything but. Somewhere, there was a disconnect between the importance of the task to the organization and the motivation and involvement of the employee performing the task.
So what motivates you? Is it the task or the value of the task?
If you are a leader, how good of a job do you do communicating the importance and value of your assignments? Do you assign “tasks”, or do you ask people to add value to your organization?
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4 Responses to “What motivates you?”
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I big part of my job has to do with proposals. I thought it was just the management of them and would not consume as much time as it does. I admit, like the guy in the parking lot my shoulders drooped and I was not happy with this part of my job. One day I decided that this was the wrong attitude and that it needed to change. I have adopted the what can I do to improve the process rather than be miserable about it approach. I admit it has made things much better. Every day isn’t perfect but when I leave this position I hope I will leave my mark on the proposal process.
So what I hear is that you’ve maybe come to terms with an aspect of your job that you don’t enjoy, maybe even committed yourself to improving it.
However, I still sense the disconnect I talked about. You’ve committed to “improving the process” but you have yet to “connect with the value”. Therefore, my guess is your performance is still less than inspired.
Hmmm. Perhaps, but I am working on that too. The value of the proposal process is that these proposals bring in business to the firm. I just sent an article on the “10 Questions to Ask in the Proposal Process” to ensure the proposal is not just a response but a winning one.
This tracks well with a client I am on site for the rest of the day. I have observed executive talking about issues with subordinates and office space that reflects a low hierarchy. Check out my brief post. sketchybizmpg.blogspot.com