Money doesn’t buy performance

It struck me whilst watching the recent world cup disaster that paying people vast sums of money doesn’t guarantee that they will be brilliant.  We see our footballers splashed all over the magazines and papers partying hard and driving around in expensive cars and yet when it comes to delivering results, they failed miserably.

I’ve seen a lot of examples in business where people rely too heavily on money to be the motivating factor behind performance.  In reality money is a great reward but can’t take the place of genuine motivation and engagement.  And that’s what is missing in lots of teams.

So what was missing from the England team which stopped them performing?  Has anyone actually challenged their behaviour and attitudes?  Courageous conversations and challenging feedback are guaranteed to drive performance.  No one stops learning and people need to be prepared to examine what they are doing well and what they need to improve.  It strikes me that the individuals playing for England have forgotten that they need to learn.

Any team needs to work on communicating effectively, understanding each other’s values and motivations (professionally and personally) and working on improving performance.  Anyone can practice technical proficiency but unless you are in each other’s heads you’re unlikely to reach peak performance.

And what about passion?  In business we see the impact of lack of vision and clarity all the time.  Where businesses create exciting possibilities and engage people in the vision, they see a huge improvement in performance because you ignite people’s passion.

So before you consider whether you’re paying enough commission to sales people or whether you should be offering financial incentives, it’s worth looking at how else you motivate, engage and inspire people.    Research suggests that the new generation of employees are looking for something more than financial reward from their employers.  They want time off for travel and sabbatical, strong green policies etc.  Engaging your employees and getting great performance doesn’t have to break the bank.  But it does take time and thought.  It’ll be time well spent!  Good luck.

By Ruth Moody