Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today by Jack Welch, Suzy Welch

to the person in your old office, who can get busy reinventing the “perfect situation” you left behind!

KEEPING YOUR PEOPLE PUMPED
     
 
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    In our business, the biggest challenge we have today is motivating our people. What’s the best way to do that?
     
    — GABORONE, BOTSWANA
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    B esides money, you mean?
    We’re assuming you do, because as a boss, you surely have seen how effective money is in lighting a motivational fire—even in your employees who claim that money really doesn’t matter to them! Indeed, money’s power to energize people is so tried-and-true we won’t dwell on it. Nor will we talk about two other well-established motivators: interesting work content and enjoyable coworkers. You already know how effective these conditions are in getting your people to invest heart and soul in their jobs. Like money, they’re motivational no-brainers.
    But if three no-brainers were all that motivation took, it wouldn’t be, as you correctly note, the huge challenge it is.
    So, what else can you do? Fortunately, there are four other motivational tools you can unleash, all nonmonetary and each very effective.
    The first of them is easy: recognition. When an individual or a team does something notable, make a big deal of it. Announce it publicly, talk about it at every chance. Hand out awards.
    Now, when we make this suggestion to business groups, almost inevitably someone expresses concern for the people not being recognized. They might be hurt, they say, or demotivated by such a display. This is nonsense; it’s indulging the wrong crowd! If you have the right people in your company—that is, competitive and upbeat team players—public recognition only raises the bar for everyone.
    One more note on recognition, in particular when it comes in the form of an engraved doodad. These types of items are all well and good, but remember, they can never be given in lieu of money. They are an addendum. Plaques gather dust; checks can be cashed.
    The second tool should be easy, but apparently it’s not: celebration. We say that because everywhere we go, we ask audiences if they think their companies celebrate success enough, and we typically get no more than 10 percent of the crowd saying yes. What a lost opportunity! Celebrating victories along the way is an amazingly effective way to keep people engaged in the whole journey. And we’re not talking about celebrating just the big wins—we’re talking about marking milestones like a big order or a new way of doing things that increases productivity or customer satisfaction. You name it—all these small successes are chances to congratulate the team and boost their spirits for the challenges ahead.
    Celebrations don’t need to be fancy or expensive; after all, a celebration is really just another form of recognition, but with more fun involved. It can be throwing a surprise barbecue one afternoon. It can be tickets to a ball game or a movie. It can be sending a couple of high performers and their families to Disney World, or the San Diego Zoo, or the Rose Bowl parade, or whatever happens to turn their crank.
    Which brings us to what celebration is not. Celebration is not going out to dinner with you. Almost nothing strikes darkness in the hearts of employees more than a boss saying, “Great job! I’m taking everyone to Mama Maria’s tonight!” Look, your people spend all day with you, and they may like you very much. But it is not motivating to be rewarded by a forced march to an after-hours affair, even if the food is great.
    The next motivational tool is really powerful, but it can be used only if you’re absolutely clear about your mission. Now, you may be thinking, “Aren’t all bosses clear about the mission?” But too often they’re not. In fact, in the course of our travels over the past several years, we’ve discovered that many leaders are so busy with the daily grind that their missions fall by the wayside.
    It is inevitable, of course,