Yes, you read the headline correctly. And it flies in the face of everything most of us have been taught about motivating employees.

By the way, I don’t believe motivating employees means you need to hold their hands all day and fix their problems – especially when one of their problems is that they don’t like to work. That said, motivating employees is an important skill to master because motivated employees tend to bring their best to the workplace. And that typically leads to increased revenue and profitability.

Where does money fit into the picture?

Daniel Pink

Let’s look to Daniel Pink. In addition to being the former chief speech writer for Al Gore and an aide to US Labor Secretary Robert Reich, Pink wrote a ground breaking book called “Drive – The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.” Get the book.

In Drive, Pink says the idea of using money to reward performance is antiquated and most importantly, doesn’t work. This means most of what you’ve learned about compensation plans, annual reviews and motivation can now be tossed into the garbage bin. According to Pink’s findings, employees who do complicated tasks that require cognitive skills (versus simple tasks which require little thought) perform worse when presented with monetary rewards for their efforts. Their performance does not improve. It gets worse.

“But why do employees complain that they are not getting paid enough money?”

In my experience, it’s because they aren’t getting the rest of what they really want. Complaints about money are symptoms of a bigger issue, not the root. But let me be clear: you need to pay your employees fairly and commensurately with the market. If you aren’t doing that, the rest doesn’t matter.

What Employees Really Want

Pink says there are three main drivers of performance that have nothing to do with money. Those drivers are:

1 – Autonomy. Autonomy is the desire to be self-directed. It is the opposite of micro-managing. If you made a good hiring decision, trust your employees to do their job. Set expectations, give them feedback, check in and let them go.

2 – Mastery. Mastery is our desire to get better at what we do. This is why ongoing training is important, but training isn’t everything. Employees become masterful when they have hands on experience. Look for opportunities that will help your employees learn and practice their skills.

3 – Purpose. Purpose is our desire to contribute to the greater good. Employees who are in positions which require cognitive skills are not fulfilled from collecting a paycheck. They want to know that their work has meaning. Your job is to help them understand how their work impacts the company and its customers.

Autonomy, mastery and purpose. When basic needs are met, these are the drivers of outstanding performance. This is what motivates employees. If you would like to hear more about Pink’s research, watch this engaging presentation.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

Related posts:

• Is Winning Everything?
• The Simplest and Best Advice About Delegating
• Are You Being a Zax?

Alicia Arenas is a business coach and corporate trainer. When she’s not singing or song-writing, she helps her entrepreneurs increase their sales through coaching and her business boot camp. Alicia is based in San Antonio, Texas, and coaches people nationwide.

Photo courtesy of Zach Klein via Flickr.

If you struggle with delegating work to your employees, you’re not alone. Entrusting parts of your business, your blood, sweat, money and reputation is scary and you wouldn’t be normal if you didn’t have a fair amount of trepidation about it. However, if you are an entrepreneur, you simply can’t afford not to delegate.

What I hear frequently is, “I want to delegate, but how can I guarantee he/she won’t screw things up?”

Here is a 3 step plan to guarantee against employee screw ups:

1. Accept the fact that your employees are going to screw up. There are no such guarantees and there is no 3 step plan. Sorry.
2. Instead of focusing on preventing the inevitable, focus on mitigating the inevitable.
3. You can mitigate the impact of screw ups by knowing your employees’ skills, giving them clear directions and carefully choosing what responsibilities you give them.

The Best Delegation Advice I’ve Ever Heard

I should be a delegation expert. After all, before I started my own company, I worked in Corporate HR for 15 years. I am certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources. I’ve attended expensive conferences, I’ve heard international keynotes speakers, received training, read countless books and consumed gobs of white papers. Yet the best advice I ever heard about delegation came from Will Hayden, founder of Red Jacket Firearms and “star” of the Discovery Channel’s newest hit reality show “Sons of Guns.” The show follows the team at Red Jacket as they repair, rebuild, convert, suppress and modify weapons such as AK47s and even a Civil War era cannon.

Will is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, served our country in the Marine Corps and now leads a small team of employees in what the firearms community considers to be one of the most creative, leading edge weapons builders in the country. And if you watch the show, you know that Will is an easy going, salt of the earth entrepreneur who is fiercely protective of his brand. I love Sons of Guns because I love watching him in action – leading his people.

In the episode “The Bazooka; Kris’ Birthday,” (which aired last night, Wednesday, February 16th) Will gave his employee Kris a project – which Kris screwed up big time. When Kris, fearfully told his boss about it, Will literally gave him a butt tap with his foot. Then he said:

“Son, I don’t put you on nothing that you could f#*% up to the point that I couldn’t fix it.”

Get past the grammar and swearing and really look at what he said. In case you don’t speak Southern, it sounds a little bit like:

“Son, I give you things to do that I can fix if you screw them up.”

How’s that for some down-home, Louisiana, bread and butter delegation advice?

Related posts:

• Do You Should On People?
• How Big Is Your Bark?
• Is Winning Everything?

Alicia Arenas is a business coach and corporate trainer. When she’s not singing or song-writing, she helps her entrepreneurs increase their sales through coaching and her business boot camp. Alicia is based in San Antonio, Texas, and coaches people nationwide.

Photo courtesy of sgetliffe via Flickr.

It’s funny how being a coach causes me to turn inward and examine my business practices. I regularly have to ask myself if I’m taking the advice I give to my clients. Unfortunately, the answer is “not always,” particularly with regard to niche markets.

You see, I’m doing a lot of work with clients (and in Boot Camp) around niche markets. We are discussing how going after the “everybody” market is less than hopeless, the importance of identifying niche markets, how to overcome our fears about selecting niche markets and finally, how to select one. It’s pretty powerful stuff. In fact, today, one of my clients had a major breakthrough in determining what her niche market should be. We figured it out and it was awesome to hear her regain her excitement about her business! I live for these moments with clients.

When I first started tweeting (February 2009) I followed the people who I knew and loved most – Human Resources (HR) professionals. Coming from a 15 year stint as an HR Leader, it was (and still is) important for me to keep a pulse on what is happening in that industry. What HR brings to organizations is vital and can often make the difference between a company making their budget or needing to do layoffs. These folks have my greatest respect.

So here I am, 1 year later, blessed to have 5,700+ followers, most of whom are in HR and recruiting. And this is where (forgive the over-used expression) “The Cobbler’s children have no shoes.” I love HR, admire HR pros and enjoy watching all the improvements happening in HR. In the last year I have developed life-long friendships with HR and recruiting professionals I met strictly via Twitter:  @meghanmbiro, @mikevandervort, @chareeklimek, @valueintowords, @kevinwgrossman, @anitasantiago, @stephaniealloyd and @stelzner (and others I’m sure I’m forgetting – forgive me). I’m blessed to be friends with a hundred more I tweet with regularly. I was even a sponsor for the first annual HRevolution unconference last year.

However, in the last two months, people I respect and admire have asked me whether I’m in HR, in small businesses or a combination of both. That was a big red flag. As much as I hate to say it, the reality is that I’m not a corporate HR person any longer and Sanera is not an HR company. I’m a business coach and corporate trainer. That is what I do and what I love.

What does all this mean? I need to make sure that my core message about coaching and training isn’t confused with my love for HR. You will probably see me tweet less about Human Resources issues and more about small business issues. But I will be DMing my HR friends more often and will regularly comment on their blogs, even if I’m not retweeting them as much as I used to. Along with other small business owners, I will continue to look for opportunities to blog, coach and speak to HR consultants and recruiters about how to grow and improve their businesses. And, by the way, there are a lot of similarities in how small business owners and HR pros need to brand themselves. Thereare also similarities in how business owners and job seekers sell themselves.

I usually blog about things that have practical application for you, so I appreciate you indulging me in a little self-reflection.

If I can admit I’m not always focusing on my niche, what would you say about your focus?

Special thanks to Matthew Egan (@imagefreedom) for his post which inspired me to write mine.

Over the last several months, I have developed relationships with executive search and recruiting professionals on Twitter. Michael Long, Meghan Biro, Jacqui Poindexter (executive resume writing), Mike Ramer, Stephanie Lloyd, Bill Boorman and Brian Shumaker, are people I greatly admire in this arena.  The conversations I have with these folks are always enlightening and inspiring. This may not reflect the industry as a whole, but the people I talk with represent the true spirit of entrepreneurialism. What they do involves sales, risk, research, an intense understanding of human behavior, negotiation, intuition, knowledge of employment law, compensation and the ability to influence. You have my greatest respect.

Why a post for recruiters? Earlier this year, I had the privilege of being a guest panelist at a recruiting association meeting. Their goal was to give their members an insider’s, HR perspective on the world of recruiting.  I was surprised to learn how little the recruiters really understood about the inner workings of HR. Hopefully this post will shed some light on what is happening behind the scenes in HR.

Human Resources Professionals Know Little About Effective Recruiting

Don’t get me wrong, most all HR professionals have received some type of interview training, but we’re not taught how to recruit. And the quality of the interview training we do receive is lacking. Here is what it looks like: 1/2 day of employment law training, 1/2 day of behavioral interview training & maybe 1/2 day of practice interviewing. That’s it. I worked for four Fortune 500 companies and this was the extent of the training the HR team received. If you are working with someone in a Generalist or even a leadership position within HR, this is probably the extent of their formal training too.

To get you even deeper into what happens behind the scenes, I would invite you to think about how tough it is to do something important when you haven’t been taught how to do it well…  Now insert that responsibility and pressure into the real life scenario of an HR pro: the need to effectively recruit for multiple openings along with handling employee relations issues, benefits questions, drug testing, background check verifications, training, investigations, performance management, audits, budget reviews, special projects, etc. If there is an employee crisis somewhere, the mountain of work gains altitude each day that crisis needs attention.

What does this mean for you?      Opportunity.

Be a Consultant, Not a Recruiter

This is a true story. There was an IT recruiter who wanted to do business with me, but we did not have (nor did we anticipate having) any IT openings. I explained that to him and his answer was “That’s okay. Someday you will. In the meantime, do you want some pointers to help you with your other openings?” Pointers? Of course I wanted pointers! So over the course of a couple of months he took time from his business to show me how to be a better recruiter. He gave me search tips, taught me to read between the lines in a resume and how to get worthwhile information from references. Because of his help, I did a better job filling the positions I was responsible for. The result – he made me look good to my hiring managers. Folks, in the HR world that is priceless. We’re seen as a “drain on the budget” or “a necessary evil.” When something you do helps us deliver results to our internal client, that is golden. Three months later I had an IT opening – it was for an EVP. To whom do you think I gave the order?

What do you think? What can you do today to shift your focus from recruiting to consulting?

I have a friend who faithfully watches the hit tv show The Office and reports the shenanigans of the unruly, stupendously inappropriate, sexist, megalomaniacal boss Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell). In case you haven’t seen the office, here is a quick snapshot of the brilliance Michael Scott brings to his company.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1AuGtT5ByU

When I watched the office for the first time, I was shocked and in Human Resources horror. When I realized how widely popular this show is, I had to question why. Why would a show that features a crazy boss who says stupid things to his employees be so celebrated? I thought about it and realized that most of the bizarre, asinine, racist and neanderthal comments I’ve heard came from my bosses over the years. I’m guessing the reason The Office is such a hit is because most of us, at one time or another, had Michael Scott as a boss.

So let’s have some fun. I’ll start off with some of the crazy things my bosses have said and you can add yours.

Stupid Things My Bosses Said

Me: It’s my one year anniversary today!

My Boss: Great. (Sigh) Now that means you’re eligible for FMLA.

My Boss: We want your help filling some positions for us. But we don’t want you to give us any African Americans candidates.

Temp Company: Excuse me?

My Boss: The CEO doesn’t like Black people so don’t send us any of those. Brown people are fine though.

Temp Company: Um, brown people?

My Boss: Yes. You know, Mexicans.

Temp Company: …

My Boss: The best advice I can give you about office politics is to go to lots of business dinners and drink less than everyone else. You will learn all kinds of things you can use against them later.

My Boss: We should fire her.

Me: Why?

My Boss: She’s been in the hospital for four days. How can she get any work done when she’s in the hospital?

Now it’s your turn. What stupid things have your bosses said? (And yes, you can post anonymously)

I love the idea of a revolution. Revolution represents change, taking a critical look at the status quo, new beginnings. Evolution is another exciting word. It’s about stretching, growing and transformation. Back in July, when my friend Ben Eubanks told me that he and Trisha McFarlane, were working on an unconference called HRevolution, I was enthralled! I wanted to support this however I could.

Although I am no longer technically in Human Resources, I am an HR advocate. I worked in Human Resources for over 15 years. Some professionals have had the fortune to work under fantastic mentors with a plethora of developmental opportunities. I had the opposite experience. I worked in HR departments with poor leadership who consistently lived up to the CEOs’ stereotypes of HR being the dress code police and “personnel.” As a young HR professional who wanted to truly make a difference in my organization I longed for a resource to help me understand how to be effective and what my role truly was supposed to be. The first place I looked was within other areas of my Fortune 500 companies. As a smaller branch of the overall business, the only results my requests generated were more legal and compliance training.

I turned to my local HR chapter. The leadership there didn’t have a handle around how to strategically position themselves in their organizations, much less the authority to tell us how to get there. The monthly meetings were a little about networking, a lot about the sponsors and the speakers were primarily teaching us more about compliance.

Finally, I turned to the National Society of Human Resources Management or SHRM. I became a member, read the magazines and utilized the website. There was fantastic information there that helped. As a kinesthetic learner though, I still had significant gaps that needed to be filled. (By the way, SHRM is also evolving and one of their top priorities is to better position HR professionals. If you want to follow one of the core movers and shakers at SHRM. Follow China Gorman, SHRM’s Chief Operation Officer. She advocates for HR with the government and is a proponent of utilizing social media technologies to hear our voices.)

Despite these challenges, I purposefully tucked away all the lessons I could learn from both the good and bad work situations. (I worked at a company that was bought and sold five times in nine years, so there were plenty of lessons learned there.) I  diligently observed, read anything I could get my hands on and at my last company, directed Training and Development. I also studied for (and passed) my Senior Professional in Human Resources certification or SPHR.

Today, I am a business coach and corporate facilitator/trainer. My motivation around coaching  and training comes from my largely unfulfilled desire to dramatically impact corporate strategy. So now, I take all the lessons I learned and show business owners how to apply them so they can make powerful improvements in their business and their people.

Why am I sponsoring HRevolution?

Because this is an opportunity I wish I had when I was formally in HR. The unconference format means that anyone who has something to say will have a voice. Some of the greatest HR thought leaders, who are real people, in real situations will be there to talk about the state of our industry and help participants improve their skills. There will be ongoing conversations where tough questions are asked and real answers are discussed. Anything that accomplishes all this for the HR profession is something I joyfully support!

Thank you to Ben Eubanks (blog: Upstart HR), Trisha McFarlane (blog: HR Ringleader), Steve Boese (blog: HR Happy Hour and HR Tech) and Crystal Peterson for making HRevolution happen!