Do incentives motivate?

What we can learn from Ben Franklin

Most of us believe incentives motivate most of us.
Reward the behaviors you want.
The way pro athletes are financially rewarded.
Penalize behaviors you don’t want.
The way pro athletes are fined for transgressions.

We believe incentives motivate our colleagues.
Even motivate our spouses, sons and daughters.
And that’s probably true up to a point.
But recent research suggests a flaw in this thinking.
The greater the reward, the more it may demotivate.
This could be caused by excessive fear of loss.

Neuroscientists offered cash prizes up to $100.
Participants had only to hit a video game target.
Higher stakes showed a drop in brain activity.
This was in the “rewards” area of our brains.
They read this as neurological “loss aversion”.
Some subjects feared losing the prize.
That led them to “choke”.

We have seen athletes choke with a game on the line.
We have seen others “take over” the game.
Great athletes take over rather than choke.
This has little to do with athletic ability.
At the pro level, all are exceptional athletes.
It’s the inner game that matters most.

What can we learn from this?
As leaders, we must pay attention to how others act.
Which ones rise to greater incentives?
Which ones choke on higher rewards?
Which ones excel when the game is on the line?
How do we ourselves react to greater risk?

Entrepreneurs are praised as great risk takers.
But many fear loss more than crave rewards.
Knowing this, measure your own risk tolerance.
Use Ben Franklin’s risk-benefit analysis model.
Do the rewards out number the consequences?
That can be our go signal to go for the gold.
If consequence outweighs reward, do the opposite.
This is what true leaders do every day.
It is the way they think and analyze future actions.

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“What It Costs to Be the Boss” can change your life.
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Five essentials of success

Child-like curiosity is desirable

There’s a much well-meaning advice on succeeding.
We can read about it, hear about it, learn about it.
But until we practice it, it’s just a lot of advice.
Business coach P.T. McClure prescribes these steps:

1. Know your purpose. It seems fundamental.
Have you taken on a task without a clear purpose?
Without knowing what you want to accomplish?
Purpose is one key to live a fulfilling life.
I stumbled into journalism because it looked exciting.
I did not think about its essential purpose.
That took years to figure out, slow learner that I am.

2. Be willing to change bad habits.
This usually takes a painful wake-up call.
I was addicted to tobacco for a dozen years.
Beating it, giving it up was stress-inducing.
I was difficult to live and work with.
My craving was so intense it jangled my nerves.
A friend with emphysema influenced my decision.
Keep smoking and end up with his condition.
Fear can be a strong motivator.

3. Be grateful for your life’s bounty.
Your family. Your friends. Your faith.
What your mistakes and failures have taught you.
My career pursuits dominated my thinking and my life.
I took my loving family for granted. Big mistake.
It took many years to see the error of my ways.
Be grateful for what you have while you have it.

4. Never stop learning. Be a lifelong learner.
There’s nothing wrong with child-like curiosity.
Albert Einstein advised us to be passionately curious.
We don’t know when our next epiphany may come.
Take notes. Keep a journal. Read good books.
Heard anyone say, “I don’t have time to read?”
How sad. Study. Make the most of life.
Even at my age I read constantly and learn.

5. Find a mentor. A half dozen are better.
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
Many wise, experienced mentors helped me.
They showed me the way. Asked the right questions.
They encouraged me. Helped me solve problems.
My way of thanking them is to help others.
Be unselfish. Share your hard-won wisdom.

For more on this, read “Your Life’s Great Purpose”.

Great book, I modestly say. Email me for details.

What’s your growth plan?

Leadership expert John Maxwell has a question:
“Have you a written personal growth plan?”
It is a challenging question.
I don’t have one but he has me thinking about it.

My list of life goals isn’t quite enough.
A plan for how to achieve them is needed.
At least a plan for the major goals.

John says the first law of growth is intentionality.
What is it we intend to accomplish?

John’s father paid him to read good books.
His father would not pay him for his chores.
Reading good books were what you did for you.
Chores were what you did for the family.

“I won’t pay you to take out the garbage,” he said.
“I’m not training you to be a garbage man.”

John’s father’s intentions were clear.
He was teaching John to make good choices.
“The choice you make,” John says, “makes you.”

If you choose to be a leader, you must prepare.
Leadership is a life-long series of lessons.
Want a free sampler of my new leadership book?
Email me for “What It Costs to Be the Boss”.

How to beat the competition

Truett Cathy’s executives were nervous.
Boston Market was moving into their territory.
This appeared to be a threat to Chick-fil-A.
Chick-fil-A is a major fast food franchise player.
Their restaurants are licenses to make money.

Cathy’s execs wanted to expand rapidly.
That was the only way to hold off Boston Market.
Chick-fil-A dominance would discourage their rival.

Cathy said no, that’s not the way we’ll do it.
We’re going to improve everything first.
Food. Service. Marketing. Customer experience.
As we get better, customers will want us to expand.
Quality comes first, then quantity.

That’s the kind of thinking that spells success.
That’s one of the strategies all of us can practice.
To expand, be the best in our markets.

That takes real leadership on our part.
Leaders have vision. They see what others miss.
Cathy saw what needed to be done.
His team failed to see it.
He probably saved them from a disaster.

The best plans in the world aren’t enough.
We have to have vision. To see what others miss.
Then we influence them to do with is right.
What’s right for customers - and our companies.

My new study guide will help you develop leaders.
It will help you and them develop vision.
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Imagine this

All the research supports visualization.
It works for high level professional athletes.
It propelled the Chicago Bulls to NBA titles.
Their coach Phil Jackson took it to Los Angeles.
There his Lakers won more NBA titles.
Experiments with visualization had similar results.
If you can imagine it, you’ll find a way to do it.
So why aren’t more of us using visualization?

Many of us use visualization every day.
We do it because it has measurable results.
Try these seven easy steps.

1. Find a quiet place at home or work.
2. Shut off the phones and close the door.
3. Close your eyes and think of one major goal.
4. Picture what it will look like when it’s achieved.
5. Imagine going through the steps to get there.
6. Make these mental pictures as vivid as possible.
7. Feel the impact of achieving the goal.

Step #5 is possibly the hardest.
We have to imagine all the steps necessary.
We have to think of who will help us get there.
We have to visualize the resources we will need.
We have to think how much time each step will take.
Don’t get bogged down in too much detail.
We’ll write the plan later.
That’s when we can think this through.

The most important step is to ask yourself:
How does that feel? Does it motivate you?
As you’re reading this, pause for a moment.
Close your eyes and do all seven steps.
These steps will take you to peak performance.

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“What It Costs to Be the Boss” may change your life.
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Please send mailing address and phone number.
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