Lasting Motivation:

Lasting Motivation:
Avoid the Formulas ... Embrace the Principles!

Motivation means creating an environment in which the motivation already resident in each person can flourish.

I've got to make a confession: I always have second thoughts about addressing the issue of motivation. Probably for a couple of reasons. First, thousands of successful leaders, across dozens of centuries and from virtually every known civilization, have recorded their theories on motivation and incentives. There are countless books, articles and seminars -- many of them very good -- on these subjects.
Second, I believe true motivation defies simplistic formulas, and I tend to react strongly (and negatively) to advice such as "7 simple steps to motivating your team" or "bringing out the best in people - a ten step process." (Show me the door!)
And yet, motivation is a topic that continues to resonate with managers and leaders. It comes up often in seminars, discussions with clients, and our research into industrywide practices. I suppose we can never quite know enough about it. So, here's my take on what I've seen -- what works, and the true drivers of motivation.
Let's start with incentives, an issue that gets quite a bit of air time in conferences and through publications. I've seen many types of incentives in use in call centers, ranging from merit pay and bonuses, to gifts (theater tickets, dinner coupons, etc.) to a wide range of awards (e.g., employee of the month, parking privileges, newsletter write-ups) and various contests.
In the right context, incentives can be fun, motivating and useful for emphasizing important performance objectives. But I am convinced there is a deeper current of principles at work. Most agents will see through anything that hints at a gimmick to entice certain behaviors.
I am not suggesting that all incentives are gimmicks, rather that there are principles at work that have far more sustainable impact on culture and motivation. Organizations that maintain the highest levels of motivation and performance take them very serious. Here are a dozen that are, I believe, stand out above all others:
People respond to a clear, compelling mission. A prerequisite to creating a motivating environment is to address the whys: why does the group, team, call center, and organization exist? What is it trying to achieve? What's in it for customers? For employees? Quite a few people have been through the process of creating "vision statements" that, for one reason or another, have had little impact. Nonetheless, a clear focus that is championed by the leader is key to pulling people in, aligning objectives and motivating action.
Most people have yet-to-be discovered talents. Writer Elbert Hubbard once said, "There is something that is much more scarce, something finer far, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability." Call centers require more diverse skills than perhaps any other part of the organization. Customer behavior, information systems technologies, queuing theory, forecasting, statistics, human resources management, training, written and verbal communication skills, reporting, real-time management, and strategy are all an inherent part of the environment. Developing attractive career and skill paths remains a significant opportunity for many call centers.
People tend to live up to expectations. Expect the best, and you'll likely get the best. Expect disappointing performance, and that's what will likely happen. Think of the people who have had the most positive influence on your life, and chances are they expected a lot. Those coaches or teachers who believed in us weren't the easiest on us. And they often weren't the kind to win popularity contests. But they believed in us. And we reached a little deeper to live up to those expectations.
Effective communication is essential to trust -- and to motivation. Communication creates meaning and direction for people. Organizations depend on what Warren Bennis calls "shared meanings and interpretations of reality," which facilitate coordinated action. When good communication is lacking, the symptoms are predictable: conflicting objectives, unclear values, misunderstandings, lack of coordination, confusion, low morale and people doing the bare minimum required. Effective leaders are predisposed to keeping their people in the know. They actively share both good news ... and bad.
For better or worse, culture is always at work. Your call center's culture is very is a constant influence that tends to guide behavior, and can either support and further, or hamper a motivating environment. Peter Drucker once said, "So much of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to work." Creating a motivating environment is often more a matter of what you eliminate than what you put in place. E.g., look for ways to scrap unnecessary hierarchies cumbersome bureaucracies, and "stupid rules." Create a culture that supports and rewards action.
"Fear" inhibits action and hampers motivation. Creating a high-performance culture in which effective communication thrives means driving out fear. This was a theme the late W. Edwards Deming spoke of passionately, especially in his later years, and is the subject of one of his famous "Fourteen Points." Sometimes, however, fear goes unrecognized by managers. For example, agents may be manipulating their statistics and "cheating the system." Essentially, they may be more afraid of reporting accurate statistics than of "fudging the numbers." That is a symptom of what Deming would have called fear. Of course, there are those things that we should be fearful of, such as the consequences of being dishonest, or grossly irresponsible. But it's the wrong kind of fear - e.g., the fear of taking reasonable risks or the fear of constructive dissent -- which we must work to eliminate.
Accurate resource planning is essential. What does resource planning have to do with motivation? In call centers -- a lot! While everyone in the organization may be genuinely "busy," those of us in the call center can't come in early to get a head start on the day's work -- nor stay late to handle calls that stacked up in the afternoon. We've got to be there when the work arrives. If we're not, bad things happen: queues build, callers get unhappy, and occupancy goes through the roof. It's stressful. And, if chronic, it zaps motivation and drains the fun out of the environment.
Listening encourages buy-in and support. There is a common myth that great leaders create compelling visions from gifted perspectives or inner creativity that others don't posses. But those who have studied leadership point out that, in fact, the visions of some of history's greatest leaders often came from others. Further, when people have a stake in an idea, they tend to work much harder to bring about its success. Be a superb listener. In big and small ways, it pays.
Conflict will happen; how it is channeled and addressed makes the difference. In any organization, conflict is inevitable. People need to feel free to express themselves, to vent, to "air things out." Teaching basic conflict management principles can go a long way towards keeping things on track and building a motivating environment.
It's true: Sincere recognition goes a long, long way. In study after study, participants say that a powerful motivator is personalized and sincere recognition from their managers. In other words, being recognized for a job well done. Easier said than done, of course: you've got to really know what's going on among the troops to get it right. (But isn't that a part of leadership, anyway?)
Actions speak louder than words. There are countless organizations that post their values, but then encourage an entirely different set of behaviors by their policies and actions. For example, building customer relationships may be the stated objective, but lack of staffing resources or standards that stress volume-oriented production may represent perceived -- or very real -- conflict in the messages being sent. When it comes to influence, actions always win out over words.
As a leader, who you are as a person is more important than the techniques you use. Many programs in management training offer techniques for motivating people -- e.g., provide positive reinforcement, celebrate success, create a "fun" environment, etc. There's nothing inherently wrong with techniques, unless they become manipulative -- e.g., used solely for the purpose of getting something from someone else. But in a leadership position, who you are as a person matters much more than the techniques you use. The reality is, we trust and perform for leaders who are predictable on matters of principle, and who make their positions known. Convictions, sense of fairness, consistency of behavior and stated values, belief in the capabilities of people -- these things have much more impact than any motivational approach ever could.
Customer contact centers are made up of a myriad of personalities, goals, skills, needs, etc. -- which is why off-the-shelf motivational prescriptions or formulas eventually fail. I believe that motivation is less a matter of "motivating people" and more one of creating an environment in which the motivation already resident in each person can flourish.