In Part III of this series, we discussed the four roles effective motivators must fill.  In addition, there are four key activities motivators must accomplish:  choosing the right person for the job, setting clear expectations, providing developmental opportunities, and focusing on employees' strengths.

Selecting the right person for the job

While nearly anyone can be trained to be technically competent on a particular job, only those who truly have a talent for that job will be the best at it.  Motivating an employee to excel is easiest if you have satisfied employees, so you want to be especially careful to place employees in jobs where they can achieve true satisfaction.

For example, if you are reading this blog, chances are you are an entrepreneur.  From that, I can infer that you are tolerant of risk-taking, that you have a passion to try new things, and that you are independent.  Can you think of a worse job for yourself than doing piece-work in a factory? 

As a piece-worker, you would stand in one spot for 40 hours a week, putting together the same type of equipment (such as threading a nut onto a bolt) over and over again.  The only risk you would get to take would be possibly trying to do the job left-handed once in awhile.  You would be a slave to the time clock and to the next person on the assembly line.   Talk about a nightmare!

Fortunately for all of us, there are people who actually like this type of work.  They want nothing more out of a job than a paycheck, and they don't want to have to think while they are at work or to think about the job outside of work hours.  They would be miserable at the idea of having to learn new skills.  They cannot fathom having to be nice to people who complained about the company.  They have no interest in making decisions that will affect their co-workers. 

Just as you would never be satisfied in their world, they would never be satisfied in yours.  And if an employee isn't satisfied, it is particularly hard to motivate them to achieve more than what they already are.  Matching the person to the correct job is one of the most motivating things you can do as a manager.

Skills vs. talent

Skills are things that can be taught.  An employee might need to learn the specific steps involved in building a brick wall or you might need to teach them where the keys are on a keyboard in order to type.  Learning how to use shortcuts in a software program can make someone more efficient.  These are all things that can be learned. 

Talent, on the other hand, is innate.  Talent can be defined as any recurrent pattern of thought, behavior, or feelings that can be applied positively to attain a goal.  For example, you might have a talent for making people feel at ease in your presence.  Although there are certain skills that can be taught to enhance this ability, a person without any natural talent at making people feel at ease will never be a peak performer in that area.

Perhaps the best way to understand this is in terms of a musician.  Anyone can be taught to read the notes on a page of music and to place their fingers on the corresponding keys of a piano.  A few may even become technically competent, learning the skills associated with playing a concerto.  However, only those truly gifted with musical talent can make the piano sing and produce the nuances Mozart intended when he wrote the piece.

Peak performance is best achieved when there is a good fit between the employee's talents and his or her job assignments.  Anyone can be taught the skills to perform a specific job duty, but those who will excel at the job will be those who have the innate talent for it. 

Talent Filters

Each person has mental filters that cause that person to react to information and job demands differently than others might.  For example, an employee who filters stimuli with a "why" filter could be described as having a striving talent.  This is an employee who thinks in terms of logic.  Job processes have to make sense.  An employee with a striving talent might be most interested in jobs that are linear or mathematical.  He or she will know that two and two are always going to equal four, so the job makes sense.

A person with a thinking talent, on the other hand, filters tasks through the "how" filter.  The thought processes and styles used in coming up with solutions are far more important than linearity.   People who ask "how" may be best served by jobs that involve creativity such as inventing new processes to improve efficiency.

Lastly, some people have relating talent, meaning that they ask "who" when filtering information.  They are interested in jobs that challenge them to build new relationships or to decide who they can trust.  Such employees might be good in a sales capacity or in customer service.

Knowing which filters your employees use (and, incidentally, which ones you use) can help you match employees to jobs that will give them the most satisfaction, making it more likely you will be able to motivate them to peak performance.

The remaining three core activities will be discussed in Part V of this series.