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February 25th, 2009 by Leadership Catalyst

Why Money Won’t Motivate … And What Really Will…
Crash! Bang! Boom went the world economy, and something strange happened, the second ‘Age of Greed’ in the last 4 decades (the first ‘Age of Greed’ in the 80’s was epitomized by the movie Wall Street and Gordon Gecko’s famous line: “Greed is good!”) does not seem so sexy anymore… all the hard work to pile up the cash went up in a smoking pyre of lies, greed and deception…

Money has somehow lost it’s sheen as a motivation factor. All the scrambling for position, all the offers for a better future and promotion if you just worked hard,  has turned into a breathless exercise to just hang on financially for many.

This is why today I want to share the case study of an outstanding company with you:

I first met the Philippines Actmedia team at their company’s regional powwow in Bali last year. As country team after country team stepped up and delivered their yearly reports I sat back and took in the information. The numbers were good and their targets just-on-the-money, the main question was: how do we keep our staff motivated! This question is of special importance for the company given that it is Asia’s leader for in-store customer activation (have you ever tasted that little cup of free coffee, taken that freshly steamed sample of shrimp or licked the dollop of new ice cream at your local supermarket? Then you know what Actmedia does).

The challenge of motivating in-store activation specialists is a big one: these jobs simply don’t go hand-in-hand with a gold-plated pay-cheque at the end of the month and a chauffeur driven limousine.

So, slice and dice it as you will, the market realities dictated that the money incentives for the teams would never become breathtakingly awesome.

This is when the Philippines team took the stage and ripped the whole motivation game wide open:

Picture after picture of bright, smiling, engaged faces of in-store activation specialists lit up the screen. These were not faces of people hamming up their best smile for the camera, these smiles had a different, deeply meant, quality to them… they were REAL!

These people were proud, open, self assured individuals who had that certain je ne sais qoi about them that attracts other people, they had a sense of self, a shining pride that attracts you, unlike other drab sales people and product pushers one is prone to encounter in supermarket isles.

As the presentation progressed the reason for this inner light permeating the team members became evident:

This team had a deep sense of meaning & contribution.

Money alone won’t buy you happiness. And when you are at the lower rungs of the income pyramid you may never make enough money to give you the trappings of financial wealth! But you have something special:  you have your soul, your purpose and the ability to contribute to others.

This simple and powerful insight drove the ladership to look for ways to create deep meaning by contribution:

Every year the Actmedia Philippines team joins to help the less fortunate in the most direct way possible: they go into the slums of Manila and build houses for the poor!

Lifting the emotional burden of perceived helplessness from the shoulders of their team members (we are low income earners, we have no power, how can we change the world?) and allowing them to create massive positive changes in the lives of their less fortunate compatriots has created a total shift in consciousness within the team. Team members now understand that they are not just another cog in the system, that their lives have meaning way beyond the banking of a pay-cheque at the end of the month, that they can make a massive difference.

This powerful insight has created a climate in which such ‘hard to come by’ attitudes as: motivation, ownership, pro-active thinking are thriving as if by magic.

The message is simple: business is not just business, it is an opportunity to create deep personal meaning and engagement for people to live valuable destinies. Choose a cause, get going, the world needs all the help it can get.