You are on page 1of 11

Sales Manager

Growth Strategies
By Brian Tracy

Motivating People for Maximum Results

Introduction

“Originality and the feeling of one’s own dignity are achieved only through work and
struggle.” (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

Y our ability to motivate your people to higher levels of performance and effectiveness
can multiply your capability as an executive. By motivating people continuously and
correctly you can dramatically improve performance and results.

The subject of individual motivation, why people do the things they do, has been studied
and researched for many years. Now we know more about how to structure environments
so people want to perform at their best.

Understanding how and why people perform and behave the way they do is essential for
your effectiveness as an executive. Every person is different and every person is motivated
by some of the things at some of the times.

In this lesson, you will learn the most popular, powerful and effective motivational methods
and tools, and how you can apply them to every person who ever reports to you, as well as
to yourself in the achievement of your own personal and business goals.

In this lesson you will learn:

■ The great breakthrough in motivation and the seven levels of motivation


■ McGregor’s Theory and Herzberg’s Theory of motivation
■ The Hawthorne Effect
■ Two basic motivators of all people

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

1
What Do You Already Know?

Test your knowledge by attempting to answer the questions below.

1. What is the primary contribution that Abraham Maslow made to psychology?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

2. What are the primary reasons why people do what they do?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

3. What are the different levels of motivation and how do they interact?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

4. What is the difference between Theory X and Theory Y in explaining motivation?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

2
5. What is Herzberg’s Theory of motivation and how does it apply to
your employees?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

6. What is David McClellan’s Theory of motivation and how can you use it to recruit
more effectively?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

3
Motivating People for Maximum Results

Why is it that people do what they do, or do what you didn’t expect them to do?

How do you get people to do what you want them to do, as a parent, a manager
or a salesperson?

1. Maslow’s Hierarchy – Abraham Maslow made a great breakthrough in


the late ’40s by turning the study of psychology upside down.

1) Maslow studied healthy, vibrant people who were excited about their lives
and who felt terrific about themselves.

2) He searched for the common denominators of success and performance by


asking people, “How do you feel about your life?”

3) He found that people were motivated by different factors, both positive


and negative.

2. Maslow’s great breakthrough was his Pyramid of Motivation.

He concluded that each level of motivation must be satisfied to a certain


degree before the person can move to the next level.

1) The bottom level of the pyramid is survival, physically staying alive.

2) The second level of the pyramid is for security – financial, emotional,


and physical.

3) The third need in the level of motivation is the belonging need.

4) The fourth level is where people start to become motivated,


the esteem level.

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

4
a) Esteem needs come from knowing that you are respected, liked,
looked up to, recognized and appreciated by people around you.

b) People who feel they are valuable and worth-while perform vastly
better than people who are insecure about themselves.

c) Everything you do that causes people to feel better about themselves,


causes them to perform better.

5) The next level is self-actualization – the need for self-expression and the
feeling that the person is becoming everything they are capable of becoming.

In almost every organization, there exist those who are called the
outperformers, the people who produce more than anyone else.

6) At the higher level of motivation, people are motivated by beauty – physical


beauty, the beauty of nature, the beauty of music, movies, poetry and art.

7) The highest of all motivations is the search for truth.

People are motivated to either compensate for their deficiencies or to realize


their potentials.

Peak performance occurs when lower order needs are fully satisfied.

3. McGregor’s Theory Y of motivation had a tremendous impact on


management thinking in the ’50s and ’60s.

1) Theory X, old school thinking, assumed that people are basically lazy and
unmotivated and must be carefully supervised and disciplined if you want
to get them to work.

2) Theory Y said that people are good, self-motivated, and eager to do good
work; all they require is good direction and supportive management.

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

5
3) Brian’s Theory Z says that people will perform either way, depending
upon how they are organized, how they are directed, how they are
treated by management.

The manager’s attitudes and expectations exert an inordinate influence


on the behavior of people.

4. Herzberg’s Theory of motivation divided motivation into two factors:

1) Hygiene factors – those factors that satisfy basic needs but they have
limited power as motivators.

2) Motivation factors – those factors that satisfy higher-order needs and


generate continuous motivation.

a) The major motivator in the workplace is challenging, interesting work.

b) People are motivated by opportunities to grow, to be trained, to


advance and to become more of what they are capable of becoming.

5. The Hawthorne Effect

In 1928 at the Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, New Jersey, they discovered
another motivator that they called the Hawthorne Effect.

They found that it was the attention they were paying to the workers that was
causing them to perform better.

They discovered that any behavior that you measured regularly began to improve.
The simple act of paying attention to people when they were working caused
them to do a better job.

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

6
6. David McClellan’s Theory of motivation – three types of people:

1) There is the individual who is motivated the most by


personal achievement.

2) There is the individual who is motivated the most by influence,


by opportunities to get things done through others.

3) There is the person who is motivated the most by cooperation, by being


liked, being accepted, by working as part of the team.

7. There are two basic motivators of all employees:

1) Autonomy needs – to stand out as an individual.

2) Dependency needs – to be part of something greater than


himself or herself.

Ideal work situation? Satisfy both needs simultaneously.

The greatest management principle of all is that “what gets rewarded gets done.”

Your job as a manager is to learn and determine what motivators are most effective
with your people in your workplace. How can you treat people and organize the work
so that people feel better about themselves and perform at their best most of the time?

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

7
Action Exercises

1. Who are three highest performers in your company?

1. _________________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________________

2. What are the major motivators of your highest performers?

1. _________________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________________

3. What are the primary demotivators in your workplace? (What holds people back
from performing at their best?)

1. _________________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________________

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

8
4. What are the motivators in Maslow’s Hierarchy that have the greatest impact on
your own personal motivation?

1. _________________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________________

5. Which members of your staff do you feel are most subject to the principles
of “Theory X” management and supervision?

1. _________________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________________

6. Which of your people are the most self-motivated, most eager to do good work and
most responsive to supportive management?

1. _________________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________________

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

9
7. In what ways do your attitudes and expectations have a major impact on the
performance of your people?

1. _________________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________________

8. What are the most motivational factors in your work environment?

1. _________________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________________

9. Which of your people are under-performing and what demotivators could be


holding them back?

1. _________________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________________

3. _________________________________________________________________

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

10
What one action are you going to take immediately as a result of what you have learned in
this lesson?

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

© Brian Tracy. All rights reserved. The contents, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.

11

You might also like