Where do you want your mule to go?
Slap a mule on his butt hard enough and he will go. (Or he might kick the crap out of you). But will he go the direction you want him to go? Or will he step sideways and take off to the left or right? If your mule is harnessed to a plow, you have no guarantee that the row will be straight and parallel to the prior one. You know what you want and simply slapping the mule on the ass isn’t a very efficient way of reaching your goal of straight rows and a bumper crop.
The mule doesn’t learn and you end up spending more time chasing him around the field and ending up with rows going every direction. The mule is scared and unhappy, you are frustrated, you end up with a crappy looking field, low yield, and otherwise disappointing results.
Now contrast that with clipping a lead on his halter, slipping him a sugar cube, and then walking that straight line towards the end of the field. He gets a scratch on the ear, a sugar cube, and he senses your confidence and will plow to the ends of the earth. You just hook him up to the equipment, lead him to where you want him to plow, take care of him, slip him a sugar cube, and you’re a team!
It may seem like a simplified metaphor, however humans at the basic level differ very little from mules when it comes to getting them to do what you want, in an efficient manner, and with calculated results. However we do have the ability to reason, make decisions, and understand moral consequences far beyond that of a mule.
I recently had the opportunity to sit through two meetings, roughly one week apart. Each was led by two completely different types of managers.
In the first meeting called by Manager “A”, there was much said, but much of what the participants recall is that the slap was un-deserved, harsh, and ended with us dashing out the door at the end of the meeting, with a simple look back wondering what the heck just happened. There were some crooked rows plowed after that meeting.
Contrast that to the meeting that followed a week later. Manager "B", skilled in actual “leadership”, adroitly set us up by getting us to agree that we had ownership in our part of the business. We sat there like puppies, wagging our tails, pricking our ears, and our tongues hanging out with a “keh keh keh” that you might hear from your dog waiting for his pat on the head. We gobbled up the attention, each agreeing willfully that we are responsible managers and capable of leading our teams to success.
What followed was a listing of barriers to success, and how we might overcome them. Then the current goals were reviewed, barriers removed, expectations set, and action items made for each of us. We left that meeting with clear, concise, measurable, timely, and specific goals to reach for the next few weeks. We were rewarded with the burden of knowing that WE own our part of the business, that success is ours to lose, and failure was not an option. If it is my business, why would I want it to fail? We left the room with our plows harnessed knowing exactly what we needed to do, plowing a straight line, and ready to enlist the support of our own team members.
In graduate school, I was a student of the works of Frederick Herzberg and Abraham Maslow. Each was skilled in leadership studies and psychology and wrote some insightful papers and books in the 1950’s concerning motivation in the workplace.
Herzberg’s popular model was “Hygiene” and “Motivation” factors. His Hygiene factors were company policy, supervision, interpersonal relations, working conditions, and salary. He claimed these factors were responsible for “job dissatisfaction”. For example you can have a great job with great responsibility, and have great bosses, etc. However if the pay doesn’t cut it, and you can’t pay your bills, then you might just be dissatisfied. Contrast that with “Motivators” such as achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, and advancement. The presence of these are “satisfiers”. Have any or all of these and you can be satisfied with your job. In summary of Herzberg, the Hygiene Factors are “dis-satisfiers” and the Motivation Factors are “satisfiers”.
Maslow’s theory is called the “Hierarchy of Needs”. In Maslow’s model, conceptually shaped like a pyramid, the bottom of the structure has the supporting needs that a person must have in order to get by. For instance pay, safety, and working conditions might be what drives or motivates someone at the basic level. The laborer, the man or woman in charge of keeping the floors swept and the trashcans empty, each must earn and receive enough money to live on. They have to eat and have a place to lie down at night. If they don’t have that, then can you expect them to show up to work the next day? Taking the janitor up the next level of the Hierarchy, he needs to know he is appreciated. He needs to know he has job security. He needs the proverbial sugar cube every once in a while. What he really needs is that people know his name! Give him this and he is one happy man.
Move up to the top of the ladder to the senior software engineer. He is the man or woman your organization depends upon for the final product. As does the janitor, he requires that his pay, working conditions, and job security be in tact. His goals, however, are much more complex than that of the janitor. He needs to see far into his future. He needs a team behind him that he can lead. He requires the tools necessary to create. Give him the resources and he can create anything. Do all this, (and much more), and he reaches what Maslow calls self-actualization, or the realization of reaching one’s full potential. “I have gotten to the top, met my goals, and achieved all I could ever want in the job.”
Success in your job is a two way street. Do you have goals? Do you have long-term goals? Stretch Goals? Have you articulated these? Does your organization know what these are and are they prepared to help you reach them? Considering Herzberg and Maslow, do you know what motivates you? And are your goals realistic and sensible? A short-term goal might be to step up to a car with air conditioning. That might be considered a basic hierarchical need here in Texas! Consider your long-term goals. 20 Years out. You MUST set yourself up with some action items, which make up your short term goals, which create the foundation for your long term goals twenty years out or further.
Putting yourself in the position of a manager (Leader) of people, are you just calling a meeting and shouting about how bad they are doing and what the results will be if things don’t improve? Or are you stepping to the front and setting the example? Are you showing your team where the goal line is and giving a high five to everyone, including the janitor, when the goals are met and the field harvested?
While it might not take as much thought, slapping the mule on the haunch might get him moving. But is the result what you really what it to be? Most likely you’ll end up with a hostile animal that fears you and eventually will resist doing anything for you.
A much more tedious, but infinitely more rewarding method, is to lead your mule. Show him respect. Give him a sugar cube, and be gentle with the harness. Before you know it the field is plowed, the harvest in, and you have reached your own goal of self-fulfillment and maximized potential.
