Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does

Author: Susan Fowler
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1626561842
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 231

Book Description
A top leadership consultant says: Stop trying to motivate people! Find a powerful alternative to the carrot and stick in this science-driven guide. It's frustrating for everyone involved and it just doesn’t work. You can’t motivate people—they are already motivated, but generally in superficial and short-term ways. In this book, Susan Fowler builds upon the latest scientific research on the nature of human motivation to lay out a tested model and course of action that will help leaders guide their people toward the kind of motivation that not only increases productivity and engagement but that gives them a profound sense of purpose and fulfillment. Fowler argues that leaders still depend on traditional carrot-and-stick techniques because they haven’t understood their alternatives and don’t know what skills are necessary to apply the new science of motivation. Her Optimal Motivation process shows leaders how to move people away from dependence on external rewards and help them discover how their jobs can meet the deeper psychological needs—for autonomy, relatedness, and competence—that science tells us result in meaningful and sustainable motivation. Optimal Motivation has been proven in organizations all over the world—Fowler’s clients include Microsoft, CVS, NASA, the Catholic Leadership Institute, H&R Block, Mattel, and dozens more. Throughout this book, she illustrates how each step of the process works using real-life examples—and offers a groundbreaking answer for leaders who want to get motivation right!

Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does

Author: Susan Fowler
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1626561834
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Book Description
"Based on the latest research and extensive work with hundreds of companies, Susan Fowler has a shocking message to leaders about motivating their people: STOP! In this groundbreaking book, Susan shows leaders how they can get out of the way and encourage their people to learn the skills of self-motivation"--

Master Your Motivation

Author: Susan Fowler
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1523098635
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
If you want to accomplish what's important to you, discipline and willpower won't get you where you need to go. In this iconoclastic new book, Susan Fowler reveals compelling insights and actions to help you master and maintain your motivation. Motivation is at the heart of everything you do and everything you want to do but don't. Unfortunately, the ways we typically motivate ourselves don't work. Relying on sheer determination eventually becomes exhausting—it's not sustainable. And even setting goals can backfire—if you're not setting them for the right reasons. Susan Fowler says motivation is energy, and what matters is the quality, not the quantity. Traditional “motivators” such as fear, guilt, or the promise of a reward provide low-quality, short-term energy. Drawing on the latest empirical research, she proves that high-quality, optimal motivation is a skill that you can learn and apply. Science tells us that satisfying three basic needs—for choice, connection, and competence—is essential to optimal motivation. You need to feel like you've picked your path, not that you're being driven down it. Your goal should be linked to people or a purpose meaningful to you. And you want to continually learn and grow. Through practical exercises and eye-opening stories, Fowler shows you how to identify and shift the quality of your motivation. The skill to master your motivation is important—it may be your greatest opportunity to evolve, grow in wisdom, and be the light the world so desperately needs.

Why Motivating People Doesn't Work...and What Does, Second Edition

Author: Susan Fowler
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1523004142
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Book Description
"Leaders who want to amp up employee morale should take a look."—Publishers Weekly What if the answer to motivating people is to stop trying to motivate them? The second edition of this bestseller reveals how motivation science is essential for solving the most vexing leadership issues—from hybrid work and retention to employee engagement. Leaders face a motivation dilemma. Traditional command-and-control management styles and carrot-and-stick motivation techniques have been proven ineffective. Motivation researcher and leadership consultant Susan Fowler expands on her groundbreaking Spectrum of Motivation model in this updated post-pandemic edition. New chapters tackle motivation science's role in managing remote and hybrid work; expose overused tactics, such as gamification and tokens; and tell the fascinating backstory behind the great resignation and quiet quitting. Fowler's approach to leadership is fresh, pragmatic, and inspiring. But it's also empirically sound. Her framework builds on Self-Determination Theory, equipping leaders with skills to encourage choice, deepen connection, and build competence. Leaders who mastered this method have experienced breakthroughs with higher retention, lower turnover, greater acceptance of DEIJ initiatives, and a more vital, creative, and resilient workforce. Through her experiences working with organizations and leaders around the world, Fowler reminds us that motivation is at the heart of everything people do and everything they don't do but wish they did. When managers integrate motivation science into their everyday leadership practice, an evolutionary truth emerges: people can be highly productive and flourish simultaneously.

Drive

Author: Daniel H. Pink
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101524383
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 275

Book Description
The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation from the author of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose-and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.

Behavioral Neuroscience of Motivation

Author: Eleanor H. Simpson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319269356
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 584

Book Description
This volume covers the current status of research in the neurobiology of motivated behaviors in humans and other animals in healthy condition. This includes consideration of the psychological processes that drive motivated behavior and the anatomical, electrophysiological and neurochemical mechanisms which drive these processes and regulate behavioural output. The volume also includes chapters on pathological disturbances in motivation including apathy, or motivational deficit as well as addictions, the pathological misdirection of motivated behavior. As with the chapters on healthy motivational processes, the chapters on disease provide a comprehensive up to date review of the neurobiological abnormalities that underlie motivation, as determined by studies of patient populations as well as animal models of disease. The book closes with a section on recent developments in treatments for motivational disorders.

Motivation and Performance

Author: Adrian Furnham
Publisher: Kogan Page Publishers
ISBN: 0749478144
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
Many organizations approach the issue of employee engagement and motivation by tapping into age, gender and other stereotypes. Motivation and Performance challenges these notions, bringing together evidence that group differences are often exaggerated and that getting to the heart of what really motivates individuals is what's most important. This book is a practical guide to ensuring that organizations consider all motivators - job security as well as the need for personal growth - to improve employee satisfaction, boost organizational productivity and reduce staff turnover. Underpinned by original research, Motivation and Performance features case studies from finance, retail, the public and other sectors to show how the principles of motivating employees apply at all levels of the organization, not just at the leadership level, and how values and motivation can be changed and developed. Complete with a framework for conducting effective visits to front-line locations, it will help HR professionals ask the right questions, choose whether to implement external motivation-building programmes and make a real impact on an employee's desire to progress in the company.

Beyond Engagement

Author: Brady G. Wilson
Publisher: BPS Books
ISBN: 1772360198
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Book Description
After twenty years of trying to get it right, precious few organizations have cracked the code of employee engagement. Why? Because few could have anticipated the unbending nature of what Brady G. Wilson calls “the engagement paradox”: the more companies focus on engagement, the more disengagement they produce. What causes this paradox? As shown in this clear, concise, and compelling book, it is simply this: managing engagement turns out to be just another drain on the most precious resource in business today – energy. In today’s exhaustion era, employees are simply struggling to make it to the weekend. Lacking energy, they resort to quick fixes, workarounds, and reactive firefighting, thereby hardwiring depletion into the system. As a result, employees come to perceive engagement efforts as a management con game. A high percentage of the employee population believe no meaningful outcomes will occur as a result of the engagement survey. And this crisis of belief causes acute pain inside well-intentioned leaders who are doing their best to unlock employee engagement. They feel caught. Now Beyond Engagement shows how to get beyond this kind of self-defeating engagement: by managing energy rather than engagement. The book offers a chapter each to ten leadership principles based on the findings of brain science: 1 Manage Energy, Not Engagement 2 Deliver Experiences, Not Promises 3 Target Emotion, Not Logic 4 Trust Conversations, Not Surveys 5 Seek Tension, Not Harmony 6 Practice Partnering, Not Parenting 7 Pull Out the Backstory, Not the Action Plan 8 Think Sticks, Not Carrots 9 Meet Needs, Not Scores 10 Challenge Beliefs, Not Emotions

The Progress Principle

Author: Teresa Amabile
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1422142736
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Book Description
What really sets the best managers above the rest? It’s their power to build a cadre of employees who have great inner work lives—consistently positive emotions; strong motivation; and favorable perceptions of the organization, their work, and their colleagues. The worst managers undermine inner work life, often unwittingly. As Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer explain in The Progress Principle, seemingly mundane workday events can make or break employees’ inner work lives. But it’s forward momentum in meaningful work—progress—that creates the best inner work lives. Through rigorous analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees in 7 companies, the authors explain how managers can foster progress and enhance inner work life every day. The book shows how to remove obstacles to progress, including meaningless tasks and toxic relationships. It also explains how to activate two forces that enable progress: (1) catalysts—events that directly facilitate project work, such as clear goals and autonomy—and (2) nourishers—interpersonal events that uplift workers, including encouragement and demonstrations of respect and collegiality. Brimming with honest examples from the companies studied, The Progress Principle equips aspiring and seasoned leaders alike with the insights they need to maximize their people’s performance.

Master Your Motivation

Author: Susan Fowler
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1523098643
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 208