Managing & Motivation Tips to Achieve High Performance (Part V)

Positive motivation drives high performance. In Part IV we looked at the six questions that enable managers and individual team members to drill down into the basics of good performance so they can use the answers to develop knowledge, skill and the right attitude. In this article the managing & motivation tips we will focus on are the two types of motivation that drive that performance.

There are, to keep it simple, two types of motivation. Managers need to harness both types so the team performs well. A-Teams do not just appear, they develop because the team members and their manager apply the basics.

Some people are more “Motivation 1” (M1) types, and some are more “Motivation 2” (M2) types. Knowing which team members orientate to which is one of the secrets to high performance. Enable people to work to their natural strengths, and they will perform well. The second secret lies in understanding that if you ignore the first secret, motivation reverses, and gets its own negative momentum. We will explain that in Part VI so it doesn’t happen.

Motivation  1

Achieving goals and moving forward is what this kind of motivation is all about. These individuals look ahead, see the goal, and want to achieve it. They are oriented towards the future. The team has a goal to achieve, so the M1 people are the ones to rely on. They tend to think broad. Here are three examples of M1 type goals:

• Help a new client to understand the benefits of supplier pull managed inventory systems and want RBW to carry out a full feasibility study so they can quantify the benefits.
• Improve up-line efficiencies to totally avoid LTL shipment costs for clients A, B and C.
• Introduce a continuous communication process so the team, supplier clients and manufacturing clients are kept fully informed about all shipments.

Motivation 2

M2 people are, primarily, problem-solvers. They focus on what is happening now, and work to improve it. They are detail people, they like to stop, focus, analyze, understand, and work out how to improve things. The goal may be to solve the problem, but their interest is the problem not the goal. Some M2 types do not even like the word “goal” they prefer words like “fix” “solve” “improve”. Here are examples of three M2 issues.

• Supplier lead time with Client A is too long. How can we fix it?
• Client A’s relationships with Suppliers B and C lack transparency. How can we improve it?
• Our team doesn’t trust itself enough. We have to solve this problem so we work better.

The Take-Away

When managers know their teams, they make sure goal achievers and problem solvers get the kind of tasks they prefer. No one is all M1 or M2, so common sense and the demands of the project play a part. What really matters is that no one is allocated a continuing series of similar tasks that don’t meet their M1 or M2 preferences, or that no one ever gets to choose tasks based on their preferences or to discuss their preferences.