I've just finished listening to Daniel Pink's "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us" for the third time, having also riddled my paper copy with highlighting. Each time I read it, it feels like someone is striking a tuning fork in my head.
Pink talks about the difference between extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation has three primary pieces: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Without giving a full review, I want to share how having the core value of "lead with trust" integrates with Daniel Pink's definition of autonomy.
Performance for heuristic tasks is typically better when those tasks are intrinsically motivated—that is, people are motivated by the value of the task itself rather than by some external, or extrinsic, motivation, like the classic stick and carrot. Autonomy is the part of intrinsic performance that involves acting with choice, which in a team environment means being both in control and highly interdependent.
Pink breaks it down into having control over four aspects of our work.
• Task: With the goals in mind, choosing what work to do.
• Time: Choosing when and where to do the work.
• Team: Choosing with whom to do the work.
• Technique: Choosing how to do the work.
This leads to a core value I recommend for any company: Lead with trust. By this I mean treating everyone, whether a team member or a client, as if you trust them as much as you would a longtime friend or family member who would never cause you harm. I have found that when I do this, most people not only appreciate it but also go to great efforts to act consistently.
My success with "leading with trust" has led me to develop an extremely short policy manual for my company—just 22 words—that has benefits that could be implemented at any company. This is not a list of "things not to do" and punishments for doing them, but rather a series of clear, positive goalposts to motivate you and your team. Let's go over these four policies and how they can be most effective.
1. Build respectful relationships.
Many companies require long-term relationships, and our behavior should reflect that. How we dress, our topics of conversation, whether we follow up and whether we honor expectations—even if not contractual—are all a part of this.
If long-term relationships are the goal, we should be respectful toward the other party. "Respectful" does not mean "not disrespectful." As an example, many policy manuals have a sexual harassment policy, which is meant to prevent bad behavior, or in this language, prevent disrespectful behavior. But what we want is for the other party to feel so cherished and cared for that they trust we would never enter their space, use words that might be suggestive or glance at the wrong body parts. The bad behavior is not a question because the emphasis is on cherishing and caring for the other individual.
What it means to be respectful is situational and can vary with each relationship. With some customers, you may be able to talk about religion or politics or other normally taboo subjects; but with others, it may be better to restrict conversation to weather, sports and business.
2. Take vacations. Enjoy yourself.
It can be draining to maintain a complex network of relationships and the high-paced learning required to keep up with the intense activity in an open innovation consortium. It is up to individual team members to know when they need a break, and for how long. But breaks are needed.
Some people work best with intense 60-hour weeks followed by hard-stop breaks to recover. Others flourish best with a steady pace of workdays and sporadic breaks. Some go back and forth. The basic idea is that nobody is most productive when working too much, so you need to be able to trust each other to manage time in a way that will maximize your everyday life and contributions.
3. Do not come to work sick.
This could also have been part of building respectful relationships. (Who can respectfully expose you to a disease?) I wanted to call it out separately, if only to emphasize that the only really important thing when you are sick is to get better. Stay home, rest and watch Netflix or Hulu so you can return to work refreshed and healthy.
4. Use company resources for the good of the company.
Every company trusts their employees to do this to some extent. The key is to simplify decision-making by eliminating some of the layers of approvals needed before taking action. This should be accompanied by a very high level of transparency that forces most big decisions to be made through dialogue.
Constantly ask each other "Should we do this?" or "What would be a better way?" Teammates who care deeply about their vision and relationships will drive dialogues to the right conclusion. The most important part is transparency, where lots of people weigh in on activities and their associated expenses. The result of this collaboration should be an efficient use of resources that benefits the most people within the company.
Trust is built on love.
The foundation of leading with trust is love—by which I mean the Greek word philia, which is used to mean brotherly or sisterly love. As a Christian, I philia my teammates, although I don't expect them to get their own philia from the same source, as each of us may be in a different place in our spiritual journey.
Regardless of where each team member is, it is important to philia each other enough to always show respect. Philia each other enough to cover each other when someone needs to refuel or just enjoy life. Philia each other enough to give time and space to get well. And philia each other and the world by stewarding resources responsibly. This attitude will lead to more trust and longer-lasting relationships between your team members and your clients in the long run.
Brian Morin
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