Organizational Culture
Last fall, the NFL season kicked off with the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting the Dallas Cowboys. The Buccaneers are the first team in 30 years to bring back every single starter, all 22 of them, back for the following year after winning the super bowl. In this day and age of free agency, ME first attitudes, people chasing money and always wanting more, this accomplishment is remarkable.
As with everything I’m exposed to, I try to learn from these examples and how they relate to our organization. How can we continue to have our team come back to us year after year when other teams out there are throwing more money at them, recruiting them hard?
The answer to this question lies in the rest of the story told by the game announcers. They mentioned that many of the 22 starters were approached and courted by other NFL teams.
When the starters were interviewed by the media and asked the simple question of “why did you decide to come back to the Buccaneers? The returning players cited the culture of the organization. They talked about how open and transparent communication was. How their opinions were always heard by the leaders of the team. The players cited that they felt appreciated and recognized internally by coaches on the team. So many parallels here to learn from.
How can we have an organization where the super bowl team members want to continue to come to work and continue to bring their best?
Motivational Factors
Many decades ago, Dr. Frederick Herzberg did a ton of research on behavior motivation. Basically, how do we get the best out of our teams? Dr. Herzberg basically broke down behavior motivational factors into 2 categories:
Satisfiers. Factors people need to perform their job at a minimum level. These factors include a fair wage/compensation, safe working conditions, other basic safety and hygienic needs.
#1 lesson to learn here is that once a basic satisfier need is met, simply adding more to it is not a way to generate enthusiasm and motivation towards a job. For example, adding money to someone’s compensation.
Motivators. Factors people need to feel stimulated to put out more energy, more effort, and be enthusiastic about their job. Motivating factors are recognition for a job well done, praise, appreciation, growth opportunities, challenging and meaningful work. The more motivators involved, the more people will be stimulated to give more.
Looking at a majority of polls and surveys of both leaders/owners/managers and also employees and team members over the last 100 years, it’s remarkable what the data says and how we don’t want to listen to it.
What do employees want from work?
Managers/Owners/Leaders answer with the top 3 factors:
- Money
- Promotion
- Job Security
When Employees are asked this same exact question, the top 3 factors are:
- Being appreciated for a job well done
- Feeling “IN” on things
- A boss/leader that is compassionate
- Feeling moved by the purpose of the company
In Summary
Lesson here? Give your teams what they need. Meet their basic needs first and then go above and beyond to meet their higher level needs.
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