Keeping Your People Pumped

The article “Keeping Your People Pumped” by Naik discusses four effective ways – incentives – how to motivate employees and to create collective sense of purpose. In modern swiftly changing business environment it is necessary to refer to employee motivation to survive and to succeed in highly competitive environment. Therefore, the article contributes management field providing ways of performance improvement. The article is easy for understanding and reading; thus, it is intended not only for professional who are aware of all business peculiarities, but also for non-professionals who are interested in becoming acquainted with new trends and tendencies in business world.

The author’s purpose is likely to describe the importance of tools in motivating employees. In particular, the study aims at describing the following motivational factors: recognition, celebration, collective sense of purpose, balancing achievement and challenge. Naik, the author of the paper, explains why and how to motivate your employees. It is a matter of fact that motivated employees are needed as, it is mentioned above, business environment is swiftly hanging and empowered personnel helps organization to survive. Moreover, motivation results in increased productivity and higher job commitment.

Employees are interested in job security, interesting work, and good working conditions. The key questions the author addresses are: How to keep your people pumped? Why motivation is claimed to be the biggest challenge? Every leader wants to increase job commitment in his employees, and the paper discusses four ways how to achieve the desired outcome. The author is very persuasive as he uses logical arguments, facts, and conclusions to defend position that motivated employees are the core of company’s success. Naik argues that money shouldn’t be the only motivator in the company because “even in employees who claim money doesn’t matter to them”. Money is important for energizing people, but it is necessary to motivate people “to invest their souls and hearts in their jobs”.

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Naik, mainly, discusses only non-monetary tools of employee motivation. The first tool is recognition. He means that it is necessary to announce publicly about achievements of either individual or a team. Moreover, he recommends talking about achievements at every opportunity. Personal appreciation and rewards are strong motivators. Employee’s work should be recognized; otherwise, they will feel de-motivated and hurt. Public recognition motivates competitive team members. Naik says that recognition should be in the form of engraved doodads and should never be in money form.

The second tool is celebration. The author stresses that it is important to celebrate together company’s success and achievements because it promotes collective thinking and sense of belonging. Celebrating success is, surely, one of the most effective ways to keep people pumped. However, it is necessary to celebrate even the smallest victories to show that every victory is equally important for the company. It is a good way to increase productivity as well because small victories are new chances to congratulate employees and books their spirits to fight further. Celebrations are also recognition, though with fun involved. I agree with the author that every employee who has done a great job is wiling to hear: “Great job! I'm taking everyone to Mama Maria's tonight”.

The third tool is very powerful and can be used only if organization is clear with its purposes – collective sense of purpose. Too often bosses aren’t clear about their missions, and in such situations, tool may fail to help. Naik writes that “many leaders are so busy with the daily grind that their missions fall by the wayside”. Collective sense of purpose suggests that employees should understand and realize where they are going and what they are doing. Sense of purpose makes team confident about their tasks and responsibilities, what boss is waiting from them, etc.

The author argues that the final tool is difficult in implementation, though it is very effective motivational tool. The author talks about the balancing achievement and challenge. He means that employees are motivated when they feel they are climbing on the top. They should see the end of their road. Leaders have to create jobs with “the right push-and-pull” because it increases competitiveness.

The author draws relevant conclusion summing up main ideas discusses. He states that financial motivator isn’t on the top of the list. In many cases, personal appreciation and recognitions play crucial role in motivating people. However, some people consider money the only motivator. Professional leader should be aware of peculiarities of his working team to choose the best suited motivational tool. For example, money rarely gravitates toward business. Therefore, leader should think firstly about money as motivator, and when income increases, they may refer to other motivational tools.

Apparent strength of the article is that the author provides real examples to intensify reader’s impression. He writes that one investment banker when being asked whether he was motivated, told that he was pleased with bonus, and “he was just as excited by how it measured up to the other top rainmakers in his firm”. So, money is also effective way of keeping the score. Nevertheless, Naik says that bankers are always caring about money. Therefore, when choosing motivational tools it is necessary to consider working environment. All employees need to feel they matter, and their work means something for leaders. Summing up, open appreciation, shared goal, celebration, and personal attention are the key motivators.

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