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What Matters More Than Money?

Former McKinsey management consultant Jon Katzenbach has long been known as the guru of teams. His latest book is entitled Why Pride Matters More Than Money: The Greatest Motivational Force in the World (Crown Business, 2003). Read the interview below and you'll see why he's proud to talk up pride as the key to getting the most out of people at work.

WW: What is the key to business success today?

JK Money attracts and retains, but pride is what motivates people to perform at the highest levels.

WW: But pride has a bad connotation for many people, doesn't it?

JK: Yes, and self-serving "pridefulness" invariably weakens organizational performance. We see ample evidence of that in the disturbing tales of Enron and Tyco. Such self-serving pride (fueled by money) motivates corrosive behaviors just as institution-building pride motivates highly-productive behaviors. The challenge is to counter-balance self-serving pride with institution-building pride.

WW: How do you do that?

JK: Leaders must believe instilling pride has economic value; they cannot assume that money is the answer. Create a cadre of "pride-builders" close to the front-line people who make and sell your products and services. Focus on accelerating the development of pride-building capability in future managers. Pride-building capability is as learnable as "management by the numbers". Demonstrate that you care about people in ways that matter to them by recognizing the little things they accomplish without being phony, and by creating realistic images (i.e., stories) of how they will feel when performance improves.

WW: Do you have a real world example?

JK: A GM plant manager and his counterpart union leader led a significant turnaround in plant performance over a 2 year period by focusing attention primarily on improving workforce safety. Workers quickly recognized that someone actually cared about their well-being - and in return worked hard to increase productivity. They simply wanted their leaders to be proud of them in return for caring about them. One way they did this was by sponsoring "family-days" at the plant - not for entertainment - but to encourage workers to emphasize safety and to describe their jobs in ways that would make family members proud.

WW: What if you're not in charge?

JK: Cultivate local sources of pride. Know your people personally, and focus on making them feel proud of their everyday work products, activities and colleagues. Connect with their personal situations both inside and outside the work place. Tell credible stories about high performers they know, and help them anticipate how they will feel when their performance rises - it's like what the better mothers do to help their children anticipate how good they will feel when their grades improve.

WW: Is there anything surprising from your research into developing pride at work?

JK: Most people would rather be proud of what they do, how they work and who they work with than make more money. As Harvey Thomas, at General Motors, told me: "Most people really like to tackle difficult tasks - if you give them a little help and recognition along the way."

Bob Rosner is a best selling author, speaker and Internationally syndicated columnist. His latest book, GRAY MATTERS: The Workplace Survival Guide (Wiley, 2004), is a workplace comic book that trades cynicism for solutions.

Contact him via his web site at http://graymattersbook.com.

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