Abstract

This article wants to clarify some basic approaches about motivation. How the main motivating factors working, and how ot give positive and negative feedback as a leader.

Basic motivation factors

1. Personal allowance (salary) and bonus
2. Produce new things and positive feedback (recognition)
3. Fear
4. Self directions (free use 20% of work time)

What motivation factors motivates?

1. Personal allowance (salary) and bonus → work length
2. Produce new things and positive feedback → work quality
3. Fear, punishments → work length
4. Self directions (free use 20% of work time) → work quality

What kind of skills the motivation factors boost?

First see the following video about the "Candle problem"

TED - Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation

Money narrows your focus, and can make any change on your mechanical skills. Real world problems cannot be solved only with mechanical skills

1. Personal allowance (salary) and bonus (work length) [boosts mechanical skills]
2. Produce new things and positive feedback (work quality) [boosts cognitive skills]
3. Fear, punishments (work length) [N/A]
4. Self directions (free use 20% of work time) (work quality) [boosts cognitive skills]

Choose the recognition level in the company

Recognition level means, when you will say as a leader to the employee that "this is good job".

"This work is mediocre. I would be embarrassed to show this." (Steve Jobs)

or

"This is incredible! Really, insanely great! You are a star!" (Steve Jobs)

Working with Steve Jobs means, that you should do extraordinary good work. The level of recognition in this case is very high. This working culture suggests that you should outperform your boundaries.

Excellence, perfect, strong

Limit negative feedback within the company, teach the leaders to correct feedbacking

The basic rules of giving negative feedback as a leader are the following:

• Do not stall negative feedbacks, the best time is right after you noticed the bad thing
  (As soon as possible after the event)
• Find private space, give only face to face feedback
• Judge the person's behaviour not the him- or herself
  (Focus on their actions, not on the person)
• Take exact example and be specific, tell what is expected and why is it good to do this way
  (If you say you got bad attitude, you don't give an exact situation where he/her did something wrong)
• Be objective and calm
  (You should focus on personal development, you don't give negative feedback just because, you give negative feedback because you want him/her to develop, be a better person)
• Listen him or her
  (Let him or her to talk, what he or she thinks about the event and example, so you will recognize, what he or she recognized and learned from the talk)

Give positive feedback

Yes, you should also give positive feedbacks, because one positive feedback could be stronger than a negative one. We can teach people with positive feedbacks, and there are also some rules of it:

• Give the feedback in public, it should be given publicly
• If you praise someone, you should every time tell, (1) why and (2) how good the job was
• Never mention any negative "but" things during the talk
  (If you say "It was a very good jub, but next time be more specific, with numbers" you will tell with this that, he or she did something wrong, even if the whole job is extraordinary. In this way it's a negative feedback)
• Be aware of your or companies recognition level, do not praise someone if the job isn't as good as it should be, or didn't meet the companies recognition level