Motivation, such an aggravation. Nik

As I worked through this week’s readings and thought about what from my personal experience I could share (that’s meaningful) about work motivation I reflected back to my job as a technical sales representative at Caisson Laboratories. Caisson is a small competitor in the biotechnology research supply world that is slowly making a name for itself. I started working there when it was still fairly young-about six years ago. At the time it was blossoming; business was expanding and the economic downturn hadn’t hit yet. Caisson had to that point relied on 100% organic growth but was desperately in need of the more stable, predictable growth that comes from a strong sales force. It just so happened I was nearing the end of my undergraduate and looking for an opportunity to start making a name for myself. I interviewed, was hired, and put my nose to the grindstone.

Working fulltime slowed my progress in school, but I wasn’t in a rush to get my degree. I was comfortable where I was and so I spent another couple of years wrapping it up. Work was going surprisingly well and I was making great money for a young 20-something. When it finally came time for me to graduate I was hoping that Caisson would have bigger and better things for me, but much to my disappointment they offered nothing, so I went chasing after different suitors. It wasn’t until a couple years ago when in a management position with another company that I realized what had actually happened at Caisson.

As it turns out Caisson did have plans for me. Apparently though my leaders at Caisson had never seen anything like the Martin and Schmidt (2010) paper. As I look back now they really didn’t understand what it was going to take to keep me engaged as an employee, nor did they know how to convey their interest in continuing to develop me as a part of their staff. Only in passing did the CFO make a comment regarding how the company would like to “keep someone like [me] on staff.”

It just so happens they made mistakes in all six of the areas covered by Martin and Schmidt. After more than two years of the same work I was ready for a change in my daily routine-I was no longer engaged. They never really tested my abilities and as a result where to a certain degree ignorant of my potential. Also I was managed by an individual who had little experience in talent development. In spite of telling me that I was appreciated and doing much better than any other rep they never ‘put their money where their mouth was’ and offered me bonuses for my exceptional performance or a higher base salary. Lastly I was rarely given forewarning about moves the company would make which would affect my work life. And all these are just to name a few, but all likely reasons why I found it easy to move on to greener pastures. In other words, they were providing me with amounted to introjected external motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and I needed more fulfillment, which falls in line with the research on mentoring millenials.

I specifically feel that they could have taken tips from Meister and Willyerd (2010) regarding mentoring millennials. I believe that I could have remained engaged and personally fulfilled as they put it at Caisson Labs, but the management didn’t have the in site to accomplish this. Only the CFO took a personal interest in me and mentored me as he had time. Unfortunately it proved too little too late. As I have thought about it more after reading the other papers I realize that all of them had relevancy in the explanation to my leaving Caisson. Nohria, Groysberg, and Lee’s (2008) paper on motivation could have served just as well as any of the others to help me achieve more sustainable motivations. My lack of engagement discussed earlier could have been remedied by following the examples given by Heymann and Barrera (2010) from the box or cookie factory.

In short I have realized that motivation is a very important piece to the puzzle. My personal experience more than anything has proven that without proper motivation the employees that a company needs most are likely to leave at the most in opportune times. When I left Caisson struggled to rebuild the sales force. It was leaning on me like a crutch to get it through and unfortunately the knowledge and abilities I had developed weren’t effectively passed on to the next generation, but that is a story for another day.

·         Heymann, J., Barrera, M. (2010) Engaging Employees in the Company's Profits and Their Own, Harvard Business School, pp. 1-28 (full article)

·         Ryan, R., and Deci, E. (2000). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology. No. 25, pp. 54-67 (full article)

·         Martin, J., and Schmidt, C. (2010). How to Keep Your Top Talent. Harvard Business Review, pp. 3-9 (full article)

·         Meister, J., and Willyerd, K. (2010). Mentoring Millenials. Harvard Business Review, pp. 17-20 (full article)