Walton's 10 Rules of Business Success - Rule 3 - Motivate Your Partners
Great business leaders like Sam Walton understood that offering money and ownership in the company would never be enough to keep his associates motivated and engaged in their work.
Concerning his third rule of business success he said, "Motivate your partners. Money and ownership aren't enough. Set high goals, encourage competition and then keep score. Make bets with outrageous pay offs."
One of the things that needs to be continually addressed in any business is everything becoming so routine that people become complacent, even when there's great management in place. One of the things Walton used to battle this was to set high, but attainable goals. Within those goals he would encourage a healthy competition that go his people excited and doing their part to reach it before their fellow stores and workers.
Another thing that keeps people interested is making sure that the score is kept. Nothing is taken too seriously if it isn't. Our people will simply feel that it's another program instituted that doesn't have any teeth to it.
Now that leads us to what gives it teeth: The outrageous rewards that are offered for reaching the goals. Seeing people rewarded with huge pay offs gets associates inspired to increase their output and determination to do their best to get a piece of it.
All of this is done with a friendly, but real competition where the winners are honored and congratulated by all the workers in the company and stores.
Another element added is the betting aspect that Walton engaged in. He would offer to hula dance if certain goals were reached; and he did it because of the success of his people. These types of things can even motivate people more than personal rewards because of the fun and feeling that they pulled one over on the boss.
Walton, like other great business leaders, understood the power of offering these strange and unique actions in response to the great jobs done by his people. They ate it up! Motivation is far more than simply getting stuff for efforts, it also involves doing things that make people feel good about themselves and making work more fun to involved with. Walton was a master at initiating this.
Other Walton Sources:
The Most Underrated CEO Ever The legendary Sam Walton
Sam Walton: The Power of Persistence
Sam Walton Business Quotes for Ya
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