Negative motivators drive performance

Did you just recoil looking at the title? How can motivation be negative? Motivation needs to be a positive word, which will make people perform. This is the most common understanding in all organisations.

However, let us assure you that negative motivation is not a negative thing. You must realise that positive motivation and negative motivation are present in every activity that we undertake in life. They are the two sides of the same coin.

We eat not only for the pleasure of taste and becoming full - we eat to avoid the negative feeling of hunger. We make friends not only for the pleasure of being wanted and loved, but also to overcome the negative feeling of being alone. We take vitamins, not only to remain healthy, but also to ensure that we do not fall sick and become weak.

People earn not only to enjoy the pleasures of life for self and family, but to avoid the negatives of poverty. You may see these examples in almost every task you undertake, even in your professional lives.

Most managements' focus on all the positive motivators - strong commissions, bonuses, perks and incentives. This is not wrong, but it is definitely incomplete.

Ramifications

Research has shown that half of the world's sales force are actually motivated by negative motivators - ramifications of what may happen if they do not achieve targets. Most executives have been conditioned to walk on eggshells on anything that may seem negative.

But as seen from the above examples, negative motivators are not negative at all. As a matter of fact, if there are no negative motivators, management is doing a disservice to its employees' personal development on learning to recognise the realities in both personal and professional lives. Top management needs to inculcate the habit across all levels to accept the hard facts, rather than shutting out anything that is not positive.

The leadership group needs to encourage people to assess risks rather than look at only the positive aspects.

Identifying risks

Sales managers need to be asked to identify risks in their sales plans rather than look at only the market share growth and profitability figures. Have one-on-one interviews with key business managers, if they are unable to open up in a larger forum.

The idea here is to accept the truth in its completeness. In Indian epic Mahabharata, the eldest and wisest brother Yudhistira, during their 14 years' exile, once goes to search for his missing brothers who had gone to search for water. He found them near a pond, all dead. In grief, but still parched, he goes to drink.

A crane in the water tells him he needs to answer a question correctly, or he too would die like his brothers. The crane asks "what is the greatest wonder in the world?" Yudhistira replies, "every moment, countless people die all over the world. Yet all living believe they will live forever." The crane reveals himself as the God, and revives all his brothers.

Most people tend to overestimate their odds for success, due to their denial of mortality. Being grounded in reality is how negative motivators work!

Sanjiv Anand is the managing director and Yajat Bindal a principal consultant at Cedar Management Consulting International.