If we work on making the staff happy, performance will improve. Rubbish!!
On the surface this sounds like a solid management approach but in reality it is all backwards. If you want to improve performance, start with performance!!
Managers often overlook the most fundamental motivator of all – Success. Success, winning & achievement are the constant motivators. As the saying goes, “Nothing Succeeds like Success.”
Frederick Herzberg (1923-2000) was a clinical psychologist and a pioneer of “job enrichment”. He was one of the great original thinkers in management and motivational theory. His book, “The Motivation to Work” written with research colleagues Bernard Mauser and Barbara Snyderman in 1959, first established his theories about motivation in the work place.
Even a glance at Herzberg’s work highlights one very important point Achievement stands head and shoulders above all others as a workplace motivator.
Now we are not saying that a happy workforce isn’t integral to success. The point is as managers we need to place our attention on improving performance and on helping our people be successful, rather than trying to work some magic to improve engagement scores or staff polls.
