Page 180 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

WHAT CHALLENGES INTEREST ME? (PERSONALIZED CONTRIBUTIONS)

3. Helping employees discover the intrinsic value of their
work
4. Shaping work conditions and matching employees to
conditions that appeal to them

Let’s explore these four actions in more detail.

1. Understand What Outcomes Matter to the Employee

Often we try to motivate people by showing them how their
work produces outcomes we desire without figuring out the
outcomes that matter to them. Think of a parent trying to
motivate a teen to clean his room, something that teenagers
generally see no inherent value in and that feels to them like
pretty hard work.

DAD: Your room is a mess. Better clean it up.
TEEN: I don’t have time. I have a paper due.
DAD: You’ll feel better if your room is clean.
TEEN: No, I won’t. I like it this way.
DAD: But how can you find anything in there?
TEEN: I know where everything is.
DAD: This is ridiculous—human beings just don’t live this way.
TEEN: This human being lives this way and thinks it is just fine.
DAD: Don’t your friends find this disgusting?
TEEN: No. My friends’ rooms all look like this.

And so the conversation goes. The parent wants the room
clean, couldn’t find anything in the room if he wanted to
(he doesn’t), thinks human beings shouldn’t live this way,
and knows his friends would find this room disgusting (and

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