Human Resources and Business Leadership and the 16 Motivators

You can’t change WHO someone is, only WHERE they are. Make sure your people are in the correct environment where they will thrive.

Do you have conflict in the workplace? Perhaps it is because differently motivated people are working closely with each other. Without a self-understanding of our own Motivation Profile and a respect for the Motivation Profile of others, we will make each other’s lives miserable. Self-perception and perception of others are key factors for working successfully together. When there is mutual respect, teams will not only work well together, but your organization will thrive.

These are the fundamental insights on motivation developed by Steven Reiss: 

• The 16 basic desires are a reflection of what people want. The more pronounced a desire is, the more important it is for the individual to fulfill it in everyday life
• Only if you know what the other person really wants can you motivate from the outside.
• Basic desires have a direct effect on our perception: we focus on stimuli which trigger pronounced basic desires, and ignore opposing stimuli. Basic desires dictate our own personal reality. 
• People seek the company of those who have similar values to themselves and distance themselves from those who have opposing values.

Organizations are dependent on the quality of their employees. Recruitment procedures and personnel development aim at selecting the best person for the job. The Reiss Motivation Profile offers a new approach to recruitment by asking potential candidates what they consider important to their life goals. The RMP provide reliable information for matching the right people to the right jobs.

Imagine creating an ideal Motivation Profile for a specific position, and finding the ideal client for that position, one who will not only meet expectations, but will also thrive in the position. Imagine the headaches and resources you’ll save by adding the RMP to your recruitment activities.  

Not everyone is born to be a leader. Instead of promoting people to the point of failure, you now have the tool to identify which employees will not only thrive as leaders, but will also want to lead. We assume that everyone wants to move up the corporate ladder, but that is not the case. Some people, most people in fact, will be de-motivated by offers of promotion. They are comfortable and happy where they are at. They will be miserable and fail in other positions.

You now have the tool to discover who should be where in your organization.

Why Training Often Doesn’t Work
How are you currently training your employees? If you are working counter to their Motivation Profile, they will not participate, learn, nor retain what you are giving them. Once you understand their Motivation Profile, you will be able to offer training that will be successful.

For example: People who are High-Social Contact Motivated learn social skills that bring them more social contact. But what about those who are Low-Social Contact motivated? They don’t want people bothering them. They want to be left alone. So they enact behaviors that push people away.

But what do we do as HR professionals? Give them training that will bring more people into their lives and increase their social contact. How can this be successful? We are teaching them skills that will give them more of what they don’t want.

So of course they’ll fail. And of course our training is ineffective.

A better way would be to make sure that training aligns with a person’s Motivation Profile. When their motivators are out of sorts with their position, you can either move the employee, or you can appeal to their higher motivators.

The point is with the Reiss Motivation Profile, you will have the insight you need to successful place and train your workforce.

Explore your options for the Reiss Motivation Profile today by contacting Jonathan directly at JP@JonathanPetersPhD.com