In light of today being Employee Appreciation Day, here’s an interesting video about motivation from Dan Pink, the author of “Drive”, that I found on another BNI chapter’s Facebook page (Network Advantage, in Alabama). It’s not light viewing — a thinking cap is definitely required — but it certainly is interesting and thought-provoking, not to mention fun to watch. And when the author references both Wile E. Coyote AND a Huey Lewis song from “Back to the Future”, how can you go wrong?

One “revolutionary” idea I took from this video (and from my years in the corporate world, I can tell you that it really IS revolutionary): Money is a motivator, but it is a FACT that if you don’t pay enough, people WON’T be motivated, in fact just the opposite. The best use of money as a motivator is to pay people enough to take the money issue off the table, in other words, pay them enough that they’re not thinking about money and instead are thinking about work. Like I said, revolutionary! 🙂

What does all this have to do with BNI? Well, as the video says, there are three factors that lead to personal satisfaction in work: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. In other words, being self-directed, being good at what you do, doing things for a reason other than just money. I don’t know about you, but to me this describes small business professionals, and therefore the members of our chapter, to a T! Your thoughts are welcome…

Martin Sansom
Diamond Mind Web Design