motivation vs. morale

There is a student, his name is John and he goes to State University and works in an office on campus. The office does an "employee of the month" program. John did everything on the office check list and got a gold star. His boss throws holiday parties for John and his fellow student staffers where they get goodie bags with candy and trinkets. There is a bulletin board that John's boss decorates each month. Last month John was on the bulletin board because it was his birthday. Next month the student managers are going to make John and his fellow student employees paper plate awards.

John's supervisor, Kelly, is frustrated. She does all of this, and yet her staff is not motivated. She has thrown every morale booster in the book at her staff and yet they come in to work and do the bare minimum. Sound familiar?

Not surprised.

So many managers see motivation and morale as one in the same. Morale is not motivation. Morale is important, but leaders need to understand motivation to make change. According to the new research on motivation it takes intentional strategies that incorporate three fundamental components: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

In sum...

Autonomy: This can be provided in four different ways. Time, Technique, Team or Task. When John comes into work, he needs the ability to take ownership over projects. Following a checklist does not give John autonomy. Picking his hours, who he works with, what he does or how he does it...that's the key. It doesn't have to be all at once, but a little bit of each goes a long way.

Mastery: This can be executed in a few ways. When John begins his job he should meet with his manager and talk about what skills hes looking to learn or enhance. Maybe John wants to learn basic graphic design. Give him some projects related to that, let him be able to run with it as he sees fit. Maybe its designing the staff newsletter, or Then when he has to do the check list stuff its not as daunting.

Purpose: You'd have to be living under a rock to not know about the Susan G. Komen organization. Susan's sister started this global non-profit organization that now raises millions of dollars annually for breast cancer research after witnessing her sister's fall to breast cancer. This is purpose driven motivation. So how does it translate for Kelly and her student staff member John? Maybe John is a first generation student. Is there something he can do to support other first gens through the office? Purpose driven motivation can be very powerful.

Keep the pizza parties...

but mix in a few new strategies to make a bigger impact.