Compare and contrast content, process, and reinforcement perspectives on motivation.

Good afternoon...
I'm sorry you have gone so long and not had a response to your question. This is a question that I know a lot of companies struggle with on a daily basis. I had the good fortune to be friends for a long time with one of the greatest leaders I have ever known, or read about it. He seemed to just get it, and this my friend was what he once said regarding this topic.

He and I have spent years on topics like this one. Each and every time his advice helped me and many other companies really understand and get it. I hope he helps you with this small bit of advice, as he helped many others.

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Communication is crucial to any organization’s success, large or small.

The ability to communicate and to understand the importance of doing so is referred to numerous times in your e-mail. It never, however, becomes redundant as this trait, in my opinion, allows a company to fulfill its mission or reach its potential.

It is a fairly common theme and communication is something that everyone should strive to do well, but it does not happen as frequently as it needs to. I know you agree as you site poor communication as one of the two major reasons that silos exist in companies.

I believe in clearly sharing information with everyone on your team and not only information that is specific to their role. It is important to communicate the expectations and role that you want each person on your team to play, but the ability to share how their role will help shape the overall organization is a much more powerful tool than most give it credit for.

The level of data that I shared in my regional manager’s role years ago was significantly higher than the person who followed me. The people who remained in that office noticed it immediately. Sharing information and communication are not identical, but the desire to share information in a manner that explains the corporate vision, the value system, and how it helps to make the company successful all leads to empowered employees and increased loyalty.

An empowered employee or a group of them leads to a high-performing team. Each employee has different desires and goals within a company. Some aspire to lead their division or the company while others perform their duties and leave it behind when their day or shift ends. Most, however, do want to be successful as you point out.

While training gets people started on the path to successfully fulfilling their obligations, the ability to empower them and make them feel that their contribution is imperative to the success of the company will yield a different type of effort in most cases. You use “compelling” and that is a perfect word to describe the mission of a leader who believes that success with increase through empowering employees.

I do not know where I heard the example below it, but it is a couple of sentences that show the difference between two people and how they view their roles.

Two people are laying brick as part of their duties working for a construction company. The first person is asked what he is doing and he replies, “I am a bricklayer and that is what I am doing, laying brick”. The second person is posed the same question and he responds by saying, “I am helping to build a beautiful building that will house hundreds of people”.

While the first person is correct in describing what he is doing, he does not come across as empowered or believing in the big picture. This is a job to him. The second person sees the big picture and believes, accurately so, that he is essential to the process and that what he is doing is valuable for a variety of reasons.

It is kind of hokey, but I often listen to people and how they describe what they are doing. It can also show if they are thinking in the short-term or long-term and, once again, I do not think either are bad for some people. I believe that employees that are empowered will see the long-term or big picture more easily. Getting them to believe that does not mean that they will no longer desire to lay the foundation for a building or suddenly seek to achieve something out of their comfort zone.

It will allow you to lead and help them believe that anything is possible. That is a powerful and rewarding feeling to have as a leader and to bestow on your employees or team.