How do Starbucks and Ford motivate their employees to improve their performance?

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The organization can achieve a real breakthrough only when employees are not only working, but also can be motivated by their work. Motivated employees are more productive and, in turn, motivate those around them to pursue higher goals.

Our research shows that while anyone can be an motivational leader (motivational leaders are made, not born), there are too few such leaders in most companies.

In our employer survey with the Economist Intelligence Unit, we found that less than half of the respondents agreed or firmly agreed that their leadership was motivational. Even fewer respondents believed that their leaders would encourage employees to devote themselves to work or take responsibility and shape the company's culture and values.

To find out what makes motivational leaders, Bain conducted a survey of 2000 people. The results of the survey surprised us that it was not enough to be inspiring.

Just as leaders who focus only on performance may make the organization pay an unbearable price, so leaders who focus only on inspiration will find that even if they motivate the team, the performance will be mediocre. On the contrary, motivational leaders will skillfully combine their strengths, motivating both individuals and teams to take on tasks boldly and be responsible for the results. At the same time, they achieve higher performance through authorization rather than command and control.

Here are some of our conclusions about how leaders can achieve outstanding performance while motivating their employees:

1. All you need is a motivational quality.

We asked the respondents what motivated them and their colleagues and identified 33 leadership traits, which were divided into four categories: developing internal resources, building relationships with others, setting the tone, and leading the team.

Enduring stress, self-identity and optimism can help leaders develop internal resources; energy, humility and empathy can help leaders connect with others; honesty, generosity and responsibility help to set the tone of corporate culture; vision, focus, servant mentality and support help lead the team.

We find that the diversity of motivational leaders is unimaginable, so the key point is to find appropriate motivational leaders to stimulate the vitality of the organization, there is no universally applicable type. The conclusion drawn from this finding is that everyone can become a motivational leader by focusing on their own strengths.

Although there are many different traits that help leaders inspire others, we also find that in fact you only need one of these traits to be a motivational leader. Specifically, if you have a trait that ranks in the top 10% of your peers, it doubles your chances of being a motivational leader. At the same time, our respondents believe that there is one trait that is more important than others: the concept of humanism. This is a conscious state that allows leaders to remain calm, reasonable, listen deeply and maintain a sense of existence under pressure.

two。 Your core strengths should be used to create value for the organization.

Effective leadership is not a broad concept. For enterprises, in order to achieve excellent performance, they need to show an image of a market leader, which can reflect their unique background, strategy, business model and corporate culture. To win in the market, each company must focus on its specific ability to outperform its competitors.

The same is true of the nature of leaders. They have to be top-notch, not necessarily comprehensive, and they have to be related to the way the company creates value. For example, an organization that makes money from outstanding marketing is less likely to be driven by a leader who is good at cost management. Top leaders will find ways to improve their specific abilities to enhance the company's competitive advantage and achieve outstanding performance. They will ensure that these capabilities lead to huge and even unfair sharing of resources and provide key personnel with the freedom necessary to maintain excellence.

3. To make employees different, you have to start from scratch.

Even if you have a clear idea of how the company behaves successfully, leaders need to develop new ways of doing business. We have found that leaders who can motivate employees and create results will look for ways to break existing behavior creatively.

Here are some classic examples:

When Paul O'Neill became Alcoa's CEO in 1987, he knew he needed to focus on plant safety. In order to demonstrate his commitment to this goal, he requires that all safety incidents be notified to him within 24 hours. Safety has improved significantly, and the company's work-related injury rate has dropped to 5% of the American average.

When Howard Schultz (Howard Schultz) returned to Starbucks as CEO after nearly eight years, he realized that Starbucks' once unique customer-centric coffee experience was out of date. The current trend is automation and diversification in pursuit of productivity and performance growth. Schultz moved quickly to change the direction of the company. He even closed 7100 American stores for three hours on February 26th, 2008, to retrain baristas in the process of making espresso. In this highly symbolic action, he has no doubt that his intentions and his ideas will make Starbucks strong again.

When Alan Alan Mulally came to Ford in 2006 to help reverse its business losses, he took bold steps to change the way the company operates. At a high-profile moment, he praised Mark Fields (Mark Fields, who eventually became his successor) for admitting defeat at an executive meeting. This is unheard of at Ford, and it sets the tone for the company's new culture of tolerance and honesty.

For leaders who are known for their outstanding performance and inspiration, although this is just one of the approaches they have taken, it also provides a window on what motivational leaders are like.

One of our clients was inspired by Eastern philosophy: "if you want to change the status quo, you have to change the way you do things." this sentence touched us deeply at that time. And it becomes more profound over time-a view that coincides with the findings of our survey.

Leaders can only change by doing something different. The more you innovate methods, the faster you can become a new type of leader, a motivational leader. We all know that inspiration is a door to employees' potential and, in turn, the key to maximizing the effectiveness of your scarcest resource, human capital.

Eric Garton is a partner in Bain's Chicago office and translator Eric Yang. )