Leadership for Intelligence Professionals   

Individualized Motivators

Some of the good steady performing people in the organization who could be further motivated by individualized attention may be:

-Entrepreneurs: Those individuals who prefer to be autonomous workers and are  activists, or take charge individuals.

--They can be motivated by opportunities to lead projects, with bonuses and promotions tied to results.

-Scientists and Engineers: Those individuals who are technology-oriented problem solvers, out-of-the-box thinkers.

--They can be motivated by being given the opportunity to pursue a challenging task until completed, and by receiving lots of direct interest in their progress and communication. But, appraisal systems tied to specific results are not appropriate or motivating for these people.

The foregoing types of people are what Rob Golfee and Gareth Jones call “clever people”.   They say that

…if clever people have one defining characteristic, it is that they do not want to be led.  This creates a problem for you as a leader.

…the psychological relationship leaders have with their clever people is very different from the one they have with traditional followers.  Clever people have a high degree of organizational protection and recognition that their ideas are important.  They demand the freedom to explore and fail.

The Intelligence Community is fortunate to have a good supply of those professionals.  It is important that the Leader not stifle their capabilities by treating like everyone else.  Of course, there are other kinds of people as well.

  
-Loyalists: Such as career-long employees nearing retirement or personal assistants.

--They are best motivated by being given tangible recognition by titles, awards, personal appreciation, and "face time".

-Lifestylers: Those people who are more family or outside interest-oriented than career-oriented.

--They can be motivated by being given the reward of compensatory time off to pursue their other interests or offered flexible schedules provided their organizational contribution continues.

-Seekers:  Those individuals who are often critics or skeptics.

--They can only be motivated to stay committed by having their views heard in brainstorming sessions and contributing to the development of the vision or plans.

-Socializers:  Those who are people-persons.

--These people will be especially motivated by being given the opportunity to be team members and team Leaders or support staff members.

On the other hand, there are the poor performing people who need to be motivated to higher levels of performance. Some of these are:

-“Square pegs in round holes” who are unmotivated because they hate their job or job situation.

To motivate such individuals, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman say that Leaders must take appropriate steps to:

…discover what is unique about each person and then capitalize on it.

Help each person find roles that ask him to do more and more of what he is naturally wired to do. Help each person find roles where her unique combination of strengths—her skills, knowledge and talents—match the distinct demands of the role.

That is an important responsibility for the lower and mid-level Leader who can get to know the person and that person's capabilities best.  They can then provide; the person with a job tailored to their current capabilities, the training to grow into a fuller job, and mentoring that will set the person on a career path they want and like and that will keep them motivated into the future.

On the other hand, some people may be long-time employees who have just “plateaued out” or have been “left behind” in terms of grade level or position and see no need to improve because it will bring them no benefits in terms of advancement or achievement.

These remotivate these employees and make them useful to the organization they can be offered:

-cross training in a different or new area to widen their talent, expand their area of job responsibility and open new career possibilities.
-involvement in professional societies, conferences or other events that relate to their job and give them the opportunity for networking and to broaden their perspective and then, return to the organization as the “big picture person” who can report the insights gained from those activities to others in the organization. .
-offering them the opportunity to become mentors or trainers to new employees as their assistants or successors.

Then, there are the marginally competent employees.  Of course, for these people, training is the first answer.  But, despite training, some of these people will compensate for their inabilities by trying to protect their position despite their lack of technical abilities by being likeable. According Tizana Casiaro and Miguek Sousa Lobo their survey of 10,000 people in five organizations reported in “Competent Jerks, Loveable Fools, and the Formation of Social Networks in the Harvard Business Review June 2006, people consistently and overwhelmingly prefer to work with a “loveable fool” who may not be professionally competent, rather than work with a “competent jerk”.  Thus, they recommend that organizations should “leverage the likeable” person by turning them into “affective hubs” who can become the liaison person “between diverse groups that might not otherwise interact.”  The Economist points out in “A Survey of the Company”, “Teaming With Bright Ideas”  January 21, 2006 that; He or she is likely to take part in lots of activities and associate with people in other departments…” and “by being a “knowledge mule—someone who carries ideas” from one organizational stovepipe to another and “thereby sparks off new ideas—he is a key figure.”   Most agencies and the Intelligence Community in general need better cross organizational networks to foster cross organizational cooperation and collaboration.  Who better to start such interaction than that likeable person who is not pulling their weight in the organization but is everybody’s friend and whose removal or transfer would undermine morale? 

As a Leader you should not push your problem person off on some other Leader, you should solve the problem yourself by using the proper motivator to make effective use of that person.

Sources

-Rob Golfee and Gareth Jones in “Leading Clever People” in the Harvard Business Review of March 2007. 

-Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman in First Break All the Rules.

-Tizana Casiaro and Miguek Sousa Lobo in “Competent Jerks, Loveable Fools, and the Formation of Social Networks” in the Harvard Business Review June 2006,

Also see, Martin and Shell in “Motivating Today’s Professional,  V: Popular and Useful Motivational Models” Chapter 8, especially  Figure 8.1.