Motivation means to inspire and encourage, and it is an indispensable link and activity in the process of team management. Effective incentives can become the driving force for team development and achieve team goals. In the daily team management process, we will more or less take some incentive means to encourage team members to work harder. It is a positive incentive; some not only fail to achieve the purpose of incentive, but also affect the morale of team members, these are negative incentives.
Positive incentives are divided into positive incentives and negative incentives. The positive incentive mechanism is to positively strengthen people's behavior, so that people can continue their behavior in a happy mood and further mobilize their enthusiasm; while negative incentives are It is to strengthen people's behavior in a negative direction, and use coercive and threatening methods such as criticism, blame, and punishment to prevent the occurrence of certain types of behavior.
Generally, positive incentives are mainly in the form of incentives and praise. There are usually two forms. One is material rewards such as bonuses, commissions, paid vacations, and options, and the other is spiritual rewards such as trust, praise, and promotion. The purpose of negative incentives is to make employees feel a sense of crisis and urge employees to maintain good professional ethics and behavioral habits. The main forms are criticism, fines, demotion, and elimination. Both positive and negative incentives are part of the incentive mechanism. According to the principle of "equivalence of rights, responsibilities and interests", in actual work, positive incentives and negative incentives should be used together organically and should not be neglected. Overemphasizing the role of positive incentives and ignoring the restraining role of negative incentives is the same as overemphasizing the deterrence of negative incentives and not paying attention to the positive effects of positive incentives. It is an incorrect and one-sided management method, which is not conducive to Effective team execution.
The introduction in the above paragraph is more terminological, and it is a noun explanation of positive incentive methods. Here is a summary to help everyone understand, because incentives are a relatively theoretical management method. In daily work, the power of product managers is not as large as that of leaders, and they can only adopt some incentive methods within a limited scope of authority to keep the team passionate at all times and achieve the team's product goals. Common positive incentives include the following:
1. Cash . These days, the best use is cash, but product managers do not have the right to raise salaries for team members, so how to use this incentive method? The answer is project bonuses. Generally speaking, project bonuses are at the discretion of the team. We can reach an agreement within the team. The project bonus is used as the team's bonus pool to reward outstanding members of the team, and it can also be used as the team's activity funds, so that it can be used Cash incentives are in this way. Although the amount is small, the effect is very good and it is very easy to use.
2, painting cakes . The word flickering is not new anymore. A product manager who can’t fool people can only show that you are a novice, or you are too shallow. Product managers must make good use of various news, organize various grand effects, and create big scenes to attract team members, make them full of longing and yearning, and rush forward like chicken blood. The premise of using this method is that the pie you draw will not be punctured by others.
3. Empowerment . Product managers have no power, let alone empower others. But we can use some very virtual power to achieve the purpose of incentives. For example, when you are not in the company, you can designate someone to act as an agent for a certain job, or designate a team member to be responsible for a specific matter during work, and use this small power to satisfy the psychology of some members who are willing to take responsibility.
4. Challenge . Most Internet practitioners have a restless heart and like to challenge themselves, especially developers. When a product manager describes a function in the plan as a heavy responsibility and high technical difficulty, there are usually developers who are willing to accept this challenge, but a little skill in description is needed here, not all developers are like that easily excitable.
5. Recognition . Especially for new employees, it is very important to be recognized by old employees. Anyone can feel very comfortable when their work is recognized. The product manager does not need to be stingy with your praise, the fact is, recognize the work of team members, and do not retreat, it will make people feel that you are very fake. The pragmatic way is that you can list the work performance of team members to win the company's reward for him.
6. A sense of achievement . In fact, this is similar to recognition, except that recognition is given by others, and the sense of achievement is felt by oneself. How to give team members a sense of achievement? For example, node milestones can be set in the project process, and when a certain node milestone is reached, a small celebration can be made, or some praise letters can be obtained to make team members feel that their work is valuable.
7. Examination . Why put this last, because this is a method that can't be used. Once it is linked to the assessment, it becomes a mandatory measure. If the assessment is achieved, there is nothing to say. If it is not achieved, there will be some negative effects. Therefore, assessment is an auxiliary method. A vigorous team should not be restricted by KPIs or the like. Team goals are generally a matter of course, as long as your team has combat effectiveness.
Negative incentives can affect team morale and discourage team members. In fact, the above-mentioned positive incentive methods will immediately become negative incentives once they are used at the wrong time or object. Therefore, when using incentives, we must pay attention to the characteristics of team members, which vary from person to person, and cannot have a unified standard, so that we can achieve targeted goals. Negative incentives are mainly divided into the following categories:
1. The wrong way to motivate. Maybe the starting point is good, but the wrong object is used or the timing of the selection is wrong, resulting in the failure to achieve the effect of motivation, but instead causing the opponent to be hurt.
2. Uniform standards for all. There is no distinction, and one-shot killing is the most undesirable way. For example, it is not appropriate to use the number of bugs to measure the work performance of all developers. The old employees have rich work experience, so naturally the number of bugs will be small, and the new employees are inexperienced. There will inevitably be bugs.
3. It has nothing to do with motivational goals. Before using the incentive method, be sure to figure out what the goal of the incentive is. Originally, you wanted the team to complete the project as soon as possible, and then you set a release time, and there are rewards for releasing on time or ahead of time, but the completion of the developer's task is based on the time of sending the test. In this way, the starting point of the work is different, and once the development is delayed, it will not achieve the proper incentive effect.
4. Incentives are not in place. If there is no incentive for those members who complete the work independently, that is, a work was originally completed by a member alone. When you praise, you only praise the entire team, and you do not distinguish who did what, so the effect of motivation will not be achieved.
Motivation is actually a double-edged sword. Using it well can improve your product team’s combat effectiveness. Using it poorly can lead to conflicts in your team. When product managers are managing product teams, they must pay attention to the timing of the use of incentive methods and the analysis of the objects used.