NEWS FLASH! Money is not what motivates us! Period, exclamation point, end of story!
Don’t believe me? Well, you better, because it’s been proven true time and again, from many well-published psychological studies to anecdotal evidence all over the planet.
It has become clear that beyond a certain level, money no longer motivates the human animal. Yes, we need it to fill our basic needs! Yes, without an appropriate amount of money to fill our basic needs, it can cause a great deal of unhappiness. However, once those basic needs are met, and money is no longer the primary object of our survival, it no longer motivates us, nor have we found that it makes us happy.
Many years ago, they did a study on what makes us happy, and they found — interestingly enough — that a lot of things we thought made us happy do not. For instance:
- Money does not make us happy. (Although it can lead to unhappiness if you don’t have enough.)
- Good looks do not lead to happiness.
- Fame does not lead to happiness.
- Marriage does not lead to happiness.
So, what does make us happy? Well, the researchers found that surrounding ourselves with positive people contributes to our happiness. Spending time in endeavors that benefit others (charitable work) contributes to our happiness. The ability to love and be loved is a major driver of our happiness. And for me, the most significant finding was that having a belief that what you do for a living has purpose, meaning, and value in the world is a significant contributor to our happiness.
And that leads to what truly motivates us, and it ain’t money, honey.
If you want to read more on this subject, there’s a fascinating book by Daniel H. Pink called “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”. In it, Pink lists three motivating factors that we consider to be those that enrich our lives. They are autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
Autonomy is the ability to rule our own lives and is well covered in another book called “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It” by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson. I highly recommend it.
Mastery is another thing that motivates us — to constantly strive to get better, to be better, to excel and gain mastery over a subject, a profession, a vocation. A good book on the subject of mastery is Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers”, and if you haven’t got this one on your shelf, then get it and get it now. You won’t be able to put it down.
Purpose is, in my opinion, the most important of the three and, really, the focus of this article. What is the purpose of your work, your efforts, your life? By that, I don’t mean a religious or spiritual purpose, but rather a value proposition. What is the value you wish to create or build upon? In other words, WHY do you do WHAT you do? Another great book that covers purpose, and that many of you have heard me speak of often, is Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action”, along with “Drive” (the one I mentioned earlier).
Purpose is one of the most important things that motivates us, not money, not incentives, not punishment. As a matter of fact, research has shown that money and the stick-and-carrot approach can actually be demotivating as opposed to motivating. Again, I won’t bore you with the details. I would simply ask that you examine how you approach managing your employees in a casino and resort environment and think about what motivates your team and what demotivates them.
In the interest of guest service (one of my favorite subjects at Raving), what motivates a team member to want to give great service and, therefore, to work at it day after day without supervision and without a stick-and-carrot hanging over their head? What motivates them to want to enrich and sustain their fellow man or woman in a hospitality environment? Money? I don’t think so.
Another area I find fascinating (and in which I have spent a good deal of my working life) is player development and sales. What motivates a host, or any salesperson for that matter, to want to close that sale, to build that revenue, to be successful?
We often say, “Well, it’s the money salespeople make!” Commission work — the more you sell, the more money you make — is the primary motivator for the salesperson. But look beyond that, and you will find that nothing could be further from the truth.
Yes, money is a tangible reward for success in sales. But talk to salespeople, talk to the most successful ones in any industry, and you will find that their primary goal is to create value for other people. When they get that sale, when that buyer makes that buy decision at the end of a long sales process, that is a salesperson’s crowning achievement. That is when they are most happy. That is when they feel they have succeeded. Yes, the commission check comes along and helps feed the family, and that certainly is a significant reward, but it is not the primary motivator.
It is understanding the purpose of the product you are selling, attaining mastery in the act of selling it, and finally, the autonomy that comes with the ability to manage your own book of business, to sell in your own unique and individual way. These are the things that primarily motivate a salesperson and should be the primary motivators for your hosts
Does this sound like hearsay or sacrilege? After all, we’ve only talked about money as the prime motivator for years and years. So yes, this is really turning the world upside down. But science doesn’t lie, and the research shows that when we reach out and build intrinsic value in our team members through an approach to autonomy, mastery, and purpose, we create true sustaining and enriching environments for our players and our team members.
So, I encourage you to take a look at these four books. You will find them to be extremely valuable:
- “Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution” by Cali Ressler and Jodi Thompson
- “Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” by Simon Sinek
- “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell
- “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink
As a leader or manager in our industry, know that you are a leader of people, a cultivator of people. You do not manage systems and processes, you manage people! The more you know about them and what motivates them, the better you will be at it.
And that will truly make our world, the gaming world, a better place for all.
I hope this article points you in the right direction. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you in July at Pechanga for the host and marketing conference. Take care!
