What I’ve learned recently
Managers have access to positive and negative motivators.
Negative motivators can never make people more productive, but they can make people less productive. A perfect example is salary: Being underpaid can result in a significant decrease in morale and productivity, but being overpaid will never result in a commensurate increase in morale and productivity.
Positive motivators can make people more productive, but rarely make people less productive. Power and responsibility are powerful positive motivators. Give people power and responsibility — indeed, show them that your expectations for them are high — and they will grow to meet the challenge.
I’ve seen this, first hand, several times over the course of the past several months. It’s an amazing thing. Give someone direct ownership over a product or a department — and the expectations to match — and the wonders will never cease.
