There is a world of difference between the “administration of things” and the “management of people”. The management of people’s motivation is to make them more willing to behave in a way that supports the organisation. It is about the performance of the organisation; Stephen Walker of Motivation Matters offers his opinion.

Good motivation management changes the business relationship between employees and employer. It changes it from doing as little as possible for the pay, to the person wanting to do as much as possible.

Of course people come in all shapes and sizes, all varieties of willingness. It is true that an unwilling person can be made willing through good management. Sadly the reverse is also true and much more prevalent.

Money is often regarded as the prime, if not only, reason why people work. My experience is that this is not true. We all need to eat and feel fairly paid but motivating through money leads to constant dialogue about money.

Money is a problem though because it comes in three different flavours. There is the salary. It goes into the bank, flows out through direct debit and there is only the most tenuous link to work. It goes unnoticed until there is a deficiency.

Secondly there is money as a measure of success. The better you perform in your job the bigger bonus you get. Those competitive sales people are typical examples. If you have trained your people to respond to money bonuses then how do you expect them to behave? Look for non-monetary rewards as an alternative. Beware the small minority of people who need the monetary bonus as a motivator – they may all be on your Board or in your sales team!

Thirdly there is money as the key to a life change. Certainly I would see a million pound bonus as a life changing amount. The motivator here is the life change not the money. Not many of us work in organisations that do that.

Instead of over-paying people what alternatives exist to make them willing to work?

Achievement is a big motivator and certainly supports the organisation. You have to make this possible, visible and provide timely feedback to reinforce the positive behaviour.

Next to achievement comes recognition. Don’t we all yearn for someone to notice when we have done a good job? Some desperate souls even yearn for people to notice when they do a bad job! At least someone is then showing an interest!

The work itself is a good motivational tool. Just be careful that you don’t leave that ambitious person in that demanding job forever. The job that was demanding a couple of years ago is now simple. Keep a close eye on job descriptions and always aim to stretch people. That applies in recruitment too!

How do you develop people? Do you advertise all opportunities internally? Do you tell people why they don’t get promoted? Do you put training in place to overcome these blockages? If you want people to do their best for the organisation then the organisation must do its best for the people.

If you get people interested in their work then delegating responsibility is both a necessity and a boon.

We live in a time where managers are stressed with too much to do yet their people are stressed through boring, mundane work. The answer is obvious. But you need to have people motivated before you can delegate. You also need to manage the control measures effectively. It is difficult to combine a light touch with sufficient control.

All of these motivating factors have to be delivered through supervision and management. Make sure they know what they are doing and motivated themselves.

The biggest de-motivator is often company policy: the rules and regulations. If you want your people to work outside the box so should the organisation.

You shouldn’t expect people to change overnight when you use these motivation management techniques. People are sceptical, aren’t we? We listen politely to what we are told and then watch to see what happens. You need to be consistent and coherent for months to make behaviour changes.

Of course you can choose not to follow this advice. You can give good pay in exchange for the minimum work you can get done. Alternatively you can give fair pay and get much more work done. The more people enjoy their work the more work they want to do. The choice is yours.