Show Me the Money
Show Me the Money! Cuba Gooding Jr. demanded in his Oscar winning performance in the movie Jerry McGuire. Quickly that line became the battle cry of workers all across the country. Show me the money, they asked of their employers. Show me the money, and I’ll improve my performance. Money, after all, is the greatest reward, and the greatest motivator – or is it? Cuba Gooding Jr. played the part of Rod Tidwell, a football player desiring and demanding the multi-million dollar contract the other star players were receiving. Each year I watch these multi-million dollar athletes compete, and wonder; If money is such a great motivator, why do so many of today’s players seem LESS motivated to perform on the playing field than many of the “Under-Paid” athletes of the days of my childhood?
This past fall I had the opportunity to speak with two employees from different companies, just after they received their "Annual Employee Review" from their employer. These employees received vastly different reviews, however, both were equally outraged at their bosses.
The first employee told me she could not believe the review she had received. Her boss had nothing good to say about her. She worked hard all year to get the work out on time, but that wasn't enough. She worked to improve her skills, but he wanted her to do better. She tried to improve the store by doing more and more for the store, but he wasn't satisfied. Nothing she had done seemed to please him and she was heart broke.
I expressed my empathy for her situation and said, "to top it all off, you were probably expecting a raise with all that hard work weren't you."
"Oh, I got a raise," she said. "Quite a large one and an increase in my Christmas Bonus."
"Well then, doesn't that show you how much he appreciates your hard work," I responded.
"If he appreciates me so much, he should have told me," she exclaimed. "If he doesn't value all my hard work, I'll show him. I'm not going to knock myself out around here anymore."
The second employee gave me quite a different story. She told me how her boss had expressed his gratitude for her work. He told her how valuable she was to the store. The awards she won and the accomplishments she achieved had brought new customers to the store, and how lucky he was to have her work for him.
"That's great," I said, "I bet you're going to try even harder next year aren't you?"
"You got to be kidding," she shot back. "I didn't receive a raise! If he doesn't pay me some of that extra money I made for him, I'll show him. I'm not going to try nearly as hard next year."
What is an employer to do? Both of these employers had valued employees. Both showed their appreciation, one through a pay increase and one though sincere praise. However, both employees were upset and vowed to quit working so hard.
To find an answer I turned to numerous management books and found Frederick Herzberg. He is considered the father of job enrichment and one of the major management philosophers of the twentieth century.