Scenario: "Money, fame, and awards motivates them. So, we'll entice them with those rewards. High-five!"

• Company A motivates its employees with Hawaii trips.
• Company B motivates its employees with stock options.
• Company C motivates its employees with big bonuses.
• Company D motivates its employees with recognition.
• Company E motivates its employees with all-of-the-above.

So, conventional wisdom would tell your badass: "I gotta motivate the troops with freakishly good rewards. Yay!" You'd think: More rewards = Higher performance. Yet, peep this question:

What Motivated History's Greatest?

The world's greatest-in-the-universe-and-its-mama motivated themselves not by using the filthy "What Can I Get?" -- but by the sexy: "What Can I Freakishly Accomplish?"

• Beethoven? Composing freakishly good music.
• Edison? Inventing freakishly good inventions.
• Hewlett and Packard? Building a freakishly good business.
• Gandhi? Leading the freakishly biggest resistance.
• Lincoln? Freakishly keeping a nation intact.

Pursuit of amazingly awesome work drives people to work like a mutha-!@#$%^.

According to an InformationWeek study:

On-the-job challenge ranks well above salary and other financial incentives as the key source of motivation.

External rewards? Blah.

The Pursuit of Excellence

Think back to when you were at your most productive -- where:

1. You felt giddy just working.
2. You voluntarily trapped yourself to your work.
3. You completed 984928502 items of work in seconds.

What drove you?

It wasn't external rewards that motivated you -- oh no, it was this:

You wanted to kick mutha-!@#$% ass.

Likewise, your workers/employees/partners/yadda crave those enormous challenges -- but don't consciously know it.

How to Motivate Employees

It takes three steps to inspire Emma to rock:

1. Work with Emma to find a super-crazy challenging goal -- that benefits the company.
2. Give her the necessary resources.
3. Stand back, and watch the magic.

Why collaborate with Emma on her goal?

She knows more:

1. about her inherent/learned abilities than you do
2. what would inspire her to do amazingly awesome work

And when she's accomplished freakishly good work:

How to Reward Emma

If your awesome Emma just accomplished some really-really-really great work, how do you reward her?

Traditional managers would think:

• "Send her to the Bahamas!"
• "Give her big bonuses!"
• "Give her a signature trophy!"

But, if the pursuit of excellent work motivates people, Emma's greatest reward in the world-and-its-mama would be this:

Another freakishly challenging !@#$-!@#$%^ project.

Yes, bonuses, stock options, raises, and Hawaiian trips would certainly serve as sweet asides -- but, Emma would rather have another ridiculously inspiring project.

Your employees want it like a fat kid wants cake:

Everest.

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