Motivation by the Book

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"If only our employees were motivated, then we'd get the results we need." How many times have you heard a similar statement at work?

Motivation--one of the most difficult pieces in the management puzzle. Most of us agree that motivation is a key to employee performance; our Management 101 textbooks taught us that. But after a few years in the trenches, trying to develop, reward, and improve people's performance, we begin grabbing for any old bit of the motivational jigsaw. In frustration, we attempt to jam ill-suited pieces into place. As HRD professionals, our understanding of human behavior positions us well to be leaders in workplace performance. Now is the time to delve further than our business or psychology classes taught us about motivation.

Two recent primers on the subject are Motivation Management: …