Why Pride Matters More Than Money: The Power of the World's Greatest Motivational Force

Book by Katzenbach Jon R

CHAPTER 1

PERFORMANCE, SUCCESS, AND PRIDE

Pride is the emotional high that follows performance and success. The more interesting proposition, however, is that simple recollections of past "wins" and an empathy for the pride we sense in others (e.g., watching a sibling receive a special award) produce an anticipation of future "successes" that motivates performance. Moreover, success is in the eye of the beholder; people view and calibrate success in different ways. Those who recognize these different connections often develop the ability to motivate people to higher levels of performance, both by the way they define "success" and by how they instill pride along the way. Unfortunately, instilling pride in others is easier to do in some environments than in others.

I first uncovered the power of the "closed loop of emotional energy" in an obvious place: high-performing workforces at Southwest Airlines, Marriott, the U.S. Marine Corps, and Microsoft. Pride is a natural by-product of the successes of those organizations. It is fairly common for their managers and leaders to draw upon pride as an ongoing source of motivation; those feelings are easy to come by. Yet what about companies that have historically not been remarkably successful? Can pride precipitate higher performance in those environments as well?

Certainly, the answer is yes--but it happens less frequently and is more difficult than in the perennial achievers. Not surprisingly, therefore, prospective "pride-builders" can usually learn more about how to instill the pride that leads to higher performance from the proven pride-builders in more traditional environments than from those in peak-performing environments. The difference, of course, is that in companies that experience perennial successes, pride follows naturally; in other organizations, pride-builders have to apply their ingenuity to instill pride during periods of low or sporadic business success.

PRIDE GENERATES HIGHER PERFORMANCE

We know that pride is a primary source of energy and emotional commitment in enterprises that consistently outperform their competition.1 While it is less obvious perhaps, we find clear evidence in traditional large companies that those managers who excel at instilling pride in their workers also deliver higher levels of both economic and market performance over time than their peers. For example, we asked the Manufacturing Managers Council at General Motors to identify twenty of the best "pride-builders" in GM's North American Manufacturing organization. Our case studies of these plant managers confirmed their reliance on pride as a primary source of motivation (described in more detail in chapter 6).

General Motors regularly measures its plants on five basic elements of performance: safety, people satisfaction, product quality, responsiveness to customers, and cost. When we compared the performance of the twenty plants of those managers along each of these important metrics, their results consistently exceeded that of their peers. Specifically, the pride-builders outscored other plants on an index comparison by 83 to 65 on safety, 79 to 69 on people satisfaction, 53 to 47 on quality, and 69 to 65 on cost. Only on responsiveness did the pride-builder index fall short, and that was caused by a model changeover at one plant plus the start-up of another during this period.

While it is always difficult to separate the "chicken and egg" aspects of performance results and feelings of pride, the best motivators believe that instilling pride is what enables them to get higher levels of performance from their people. Of the over fifty pride-builders we have studied during the last two years, all deliver superior performance results for their enterprise--and all attribute their success to an ability to instill pride among their people before the fact, i.e., before business success is assured and final results can be determined.

A BROAD SPECTRUM

Human motivation is a moving target. Since everyone's personal circumstances change over time, we are motivated by different things at different stages in our life. We each define success in different ways and take pride in doing different things well. As a result, the sources of pride that motivate us cover a fairly broad spectrum, some of which produce "good" results for the enterprises we work for and some of which produce "bad" results. In describing this spectrum, it is useful to categorize the sources of pride into two basic groups: self-serving and institution-building. Clearly, neither category is completely good or bad in terms of results for the enterprise. For example, self-serving pride can motivate a person to work hard to keep her job, earn more money, and influence more people to help her. These motivations are typically good for the enterprise. However, self-serving pride can also motivate people to pursue money and material possessions as well as power and position above all else. When these motives lead to the exploitation of others for personal gain, the enterprise suffers.

Similarly, institution-building pride can motivate people behaviors that are bad for the enterprise. For example, an overemphasis on individual skill development and "teaming" can cause people to take pride in goals that supersede company priorities, create "marketable resume" profiles, and pursue undisciplined teaming efforts in ways that are costly and confusing. Good results accrue to the enterprise only when the emphasis is on individual and group efforts that fit with organizational priorities and enhance long-term business success. The best leaders and managers will influence people to take pride in achieving personal goals that align with company goals, building skills that match company needs, and creating teams that achieve important business results. Institution-building pride typically favors the long-term success of an enterprise more than self-serving pride. Nonetheless, the challenge for any leadership system is to integrate sources of pride that will optimize the "good" motivational results and minimize "bad" motivational results--simply stated, to make sure that institution-building pride counterbalances self-serving pride.

Moreover, the forces that motivate us tend to shift depending on our personal needs as well as where we stand in the organizational hierarchy. Abraham Maslow's classic hierarchy of needs remains hard to dispute; the basic need for food and physical protection comes first. If you are stranded on a desert island like Robinson Crusoe or Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway, you are motivated by the need to survive until you can be rescued.

Beyond the survival imperative, however, we are motivated to provide safety and comfort for ourselves and our family. Only then, as Maslow clarified, do we seek fulfillment as individuals and as members of societal groups. Ultimately, we want to both "stand out as an individual" as well as "be part of groups we respect"--but these are secondary motivators as long as survival, safety, and comfort are at issue. While seldom finite, our creature comfort needs can usually be defined in monetary terms, although everyone seeks a different level of comfort. And when comfort is replaced by luxury on the need scale, wealth creation becomes a primary motivator.

After all, accumulating wealth "beyond basic need" is perhaps one of the great entrepreneurial pastimes. The Horatio Alger dream is alive and well. Every person is assumed to be free to earn whatever he or she can. Since promotions are invariably calibrated in monetary terms, the more your job pays, the more important you feel. The harder you work, the more money you expect to earn, and the more material possessions you can accumulate. The more you accumulate, the more attention you can expect to attract from friends, neighbors, and colleagues. This kind of expectation is motivating for many people. As a result, it is hardly surprising that Americans are working longer than ever before and probably put in more on-the-job hours than people in any other industrial society.

Money is the way to accumulate possessions that enable us to rise on the scoreboard of comparative achievement. "Keeping up with the Joneses" motivates many people. A more sensible motivation is that of working hard now to avoid having to work later in life. Moving up Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a natural human proposition--and money is the basic enabler. Thus, focusing on earning more money is a natural incentive that is widely employed by organizations that can afford it. However, it is seldom as powerful or lasting a motivator as intrinsic or institution-building pride. Those feelings generated by earnings can have a hollow ring if people do not admire us for other reasons.

These other reasons reflect other human needs that are simply not well defined by monetary wealth. They are the intrinsic or humanistic needs that spur people to try for their "personal best" or to seek their full potential, to be associated with colleagues they admire and respect, and to contribute to the well-being of others. Striving to meet these needs produces feelings of pride that are motivating--and usually completely independent of whatever monetary value society might establish. Whatever makes people feel proud of their efforts invariably explains their motivation to excel. Most of us work hardest at those tasks that make us feel proud based upon our personal values or beliefs. For some people, the amount of money they earn is the best way to evaluate how they are doing relative to others. For others, their recognized role in business and society is the best way. Many people, however, labor in ways that are not particularly lucrative or easily recognizable by title or position. They must rely on whatever reinforces feelings of intrinsic pride in what they do, how they do it, with and for whom they do it, and what it means to others...