What motivates employees to the highest levels of productivity and engagement? The answer might surprise you.
According to a powerful new study at MIT, if a job requires any level of creativity and thought, money isn’t even on of the top three motivators. Yes, you have to pay people a fair wage, but ladling on more cash after that point doesn’t increase productivity and engagement. Amazingly, it can even do the opposite.
So what works? Giving people a sense of purpose.
Think about it. If your boss tells you that your job is all about taking an additional 0.7 percent of the market share for widgets in your region, how much heart are you going to pour into it? Now imagine that the job is about making people’s lives better, about allowing them more time to spend with their loved ones, about keeping crime off the streets or keeping children safe and healthy. NOW your heart is involved, and productivity goes through the roof.
You can also look at this in reverse. Most people don’t want to work for a company that is ethically suspect. If you’re making a profit but your product is poisoning lakes and streams or putting lead in children’s toys, the profit motive has become “unhitched” from the purpose motive, and your best people will drop in productivity or head out the door.
Thanks to research like this, more companies are realizing that profit and purpose are linked. It’s getting us beyond simple and self-defeating ideas about carrots and sticks. In the end, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more we can imbue work with a profound sense of purpose, the more purposeful it becomes, and the more we actually WILL change the world for the better.
What can you do to reframe your work and the work of those around you in terms of purpose? Do it today!
The genius store called, they’re running out of you.
>>>¡¡¡GANADOR!!! ¡Hola Adrià ! Acabas de ganar 2 entradas a “The Brandery” Por favor envÃanos tu nombre completo y DNI a . // Puedes pasar a recoger las entradas a partir de mañana miércoles 4 de Julio en horario comercial. Te las entregaremos en el Punto de Información de la 2ª Planta del Centro Comercial.