Written by Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=70208125&msgid=593573&act=U098&c=503690&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leadershipiq.com%2Fevents%2Fmanaging-motivating-your-superstar-employees>, a top-rated leadership development and employee survey firm. Mark Murphy is the author of the international management bestseller "Hundred Percenters."
When people think about motivating employees, they’re usually thinking about ways to reward them. What carrots can be offered to get employees to work harder, what can we dangle in front of them to incent them to take the actions we desire? There are whole books written on ways to reward our employees, and multi-million dollar consulting engagements built on those books.
They include issues big and small, like money, pay-for-performance plans, flexible shifts, thank-you notes, gift cards, extra days off, promotions, educational opportunities, public recognition or a private pat-on-the-back.
But while rewarding employees is important, it misses a hugely important point. If someone is hitting your foot with a hammer, you can’t stop the pain with a backrub. This is an odd bit of folk wisdom, but here’s the lesson. In one of our recent studies, 76% of employees said that in the past 12 months, their manager has done something that made them want to quit. And 89% of employees said that their organization has done something that made them want to quit.
Every day, employees face various demotivators, things that cause them to lose their passion for their jobs and even cause them to consider quitting. And before we can try to “motivate” them, we’ve got to stop “demotivating” them. To make this concept a little easier, instead of talking about demotivators and motivators, we’re going to talk about Shoves and Tugs. Shoves are those issues that cause people to lose their passion, enthusiasm and even consider quitting. Tugs are those issues that get people excited, ignite their passion, and make them committed to staying with an organization or boss.
This tends to be a radical concept for most leaders, so let’s walk through an example. Pat is a nurse at a major teaching hospital. She’s worked there for 8 years and thinks it’s a great place to work. She loves doing research and this organization has hundreds of ongoing studies on which she can participate, and even publish. Her major Tug is doing intellectually challenging work with really smart people. But two weeks ago, the hospital instituted flexible work schedules and they changed all the shifts. This is causing Pat serious difficulty because she had timed her kids’ schedules around her old shift start/end times, and this change disrupts everything. For Pat, this scheduling change is a Shove.
Now, here’s the radical part. Before Pat’s manager can address her Tugs, they will have to fix her Shoves. When you see Pat’s issues described separately as Shoves and Tugs, it becomes pretty clear that she’s going to be much less excited about the opportunity to publish as long as her schedule is causing her problems. But because most leaders don’t initially separate Shoves and Tugs into two distinct issues, the typical leader will ignore the scheduling issue and just try to give Pat more research work. Or try to buy her compliance with money.
If you’d like more information on motivating your high performers, check out our upcoming webinar<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=70208125&msgid=593573&act=U098&c=503690&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leadershipiq.com%2Fevents%2Fmanaging-motivating-your-superstar-employees> on the topic. It’s called Managing & Motivating Your Superstar Employees<http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=70208125&msgid=593573&act=U098&c=503690&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leadershipiq.com%2Fevents%2Fmanaging-motivating-your-superstar-employees>.
Shoves are often focused on basic issues like working conditions, schedules, compensation, acceptable relationship with the boss, etc. Tugs often encompass higher-order issues like enjoying the work, career advancement, working with interesting people, organizational culture, etc.
If we had only asked Pat what excited her about her job, what really made her love this hospital, we’d have gotten an answer about doing intellectually stimulating work. And if we had only asked Pat what could make her life sufficiently miserable to cause her resignation, we’d have gotten an answer about her schedule and her outside-of-work obligations. It’s only when we ask about both issues that we get the complete picture.
When you’re working with low performers, when you’re working terrible hours, or you’ve got a terrible working environment, you could be so frustrated that you feel like you’re being Shoved out the door. You could feel so frustrated that you no longer notice all of the other good things about your job that Tug at you to stay – the autonomy, the ability to have control over an entire process, the ability to work on innovative projects and teams. If your organization is like the organizations in our studies, as much as 35% of your workforce could feel this way. And these people are huge motivation and retention risks.
On the other hand, you could have a working environment that is free from Shoves, but also lacking in any significant Tugs. You’re not being Shoved out the door by frustration, but neither are you being Tugged to remain at the company. And once again, if yours is anything like the organizations in our studies, as much as 50% of your workforce could feel this way. The good news is that these people probably aren’t spending their days on Monster.com actively applying for jobs. The bad news is that if the economy changes, or one of your competitors makes a play for them, or they just happen across another opportunity, they will leave.
To get someone really truly committed to your organization, you must first eliminate any Shoves and fulfill at least some of their Tugs. In essence, you’ve got to meet their basic needs and afford some opportunity to address their higher-order needs.
