In this motivational talk, Ryan Dohrn addresses how leaders can keep teams engaged and productive in the post‑COVID workplace. He begins by citing Shawn Achor’s research that happiness drives performance, then emphasizes that a leader’s role is to shape the experiences that form employees’ beliefs about the organization, which in turn drive actions. Dohrn introduces a "Performance Pyramid"—safety/security, rewards, growth, affiliation, and work‑life harmony—as a holistic model for designing employee experiences. He challenges the assumption that money is the ultimate motivator, referencing MIT studies that show financial incentives work for mechanical tasks but not for cognitive work such as sales or marketing. He advocates asking employees directly what they value, sharing anecdotes of low‑cost incentives (a parking spot, a day off) that outperform large cash bonuses. Dohrn then outlines practical reward‑program ideas (recognition awards, on‑the‑spot bonuses with gift cards) and stresses that consistent recognition boosts happiness and productivity. Throughout, he urges leaders to adapt to remote/hybrid realities, prioritize positive experiences, and continuously evolve motivation strategies to stay competitive.
Chapters
Love it when they put me on first thing in the morning. Heck yeah! A lot of times they put me on at the end of the day. They're like, Ryan, you can bring it in. I'm like, give me first— give me people first thing in the morning. Come on. You know, friends, we've been talking about motivating our teams for years. For some of you, this isn't the first time that you've heard me talk about this particular subject, but who would have thunk it that we'd be here today living in what I guess we're calling a post-COVID world, whatever that means, talking about keeping our teams motivated? Because man, now it is tougher than ever before. Would you agree or disagree? We're gonna have to grow, we're gonna have to learn, and we're gonna have to shape our own thoughts as managers, leaders, supervisors, CEOs, whatever your role is, keeping our teams motivated in tough times. Shawn Achor, Harvard researcher, 10 years of research, and what he learned was something pretty straightforward. The happier somebody is, the better they perform. So I don't know that it took 10 years to figure that out because I know when I'm happy, I always perform better. But what's interesting is the number of times, the number of circumstances where I'm asked to Consult or coach, where when we as leaders get frustrated, when we as managers get frustrated, we put all of our training aside and we start doing this. That is dropping the old hammer. And when we do that, we have to recognize that a lot of times, unbeknownst to even us, the happiness factor goes out the window. I've told this story before. Some of you have heard it. I walked into an office, an office building, and I could tell within seconds that this was gonna be a pretty interesting consulting gig. The boss said to me, oh, I'm so sorry for all the distractions, people laughing here and laughing there. And he said, these people just need more to do. And I turned to him and said, or maybe they're happy to be here at work. He said, I doubt that. When you think about motivating your people, one of the things you've gotta recognize, especially in tough times, is Almost no one is gonna work as hard as you think they need to work. If you're looking for people to work as hard or harder than you, you might spend a lot of time looking for those people. Some people criticize me online. I've got my haters. People say you're never anybody until you got a few haters online. I've got a few of them. Friends, recognize this. It is almost impossible to find someone that's gonna work as hard as you. Doesn't mean they're not gonna do a great job, but just recognize this: haters are gonna hate, and that you've gotta change the way that you think about the team that's in front of you. Number 1, you've really gotta recognize your role in this process. When you think about recognizing your role, make note of that as idea number 1. The experiences that you create for your team are going to drive the beliefs that they have in you and the beliefs that they have in your company. The beliefs that they have, positive or negative, are going to influence the actions that they're going to take on your behalf. When you create positive experiences, typically there's positive belief in you and your company, and because of that positive belief, typically there's positive action. When you create negative experiences for your teams, typically then they have negative beliefs about you and maybe about the company. Those negative beliefs are going to drive lack of productivity. It's as simple as that. 1, 2, 3. The experiences you create drive the beliefs that people have in you and the company, and those beliefs drive the actions they're going to take, positive or negative. Recognize your role. It's a top-down strategy. Positive experiences, positive beliefs, positive actions. It's pretty straightforward. So when you think about this, you're there to guide, you're there to motivate, you're there to push people to be all that they can be. But because they're never going to work as hard as you're probably going to work, you don't have to lower the bar. You've just got to recognize your role in the situation of positive Productivity. In the sales business, I hear it all the time. Well, you know, the proof is in the numbers. If they don't sell, they're out of here. That's a pretty great attitude if it was 1980. The 1980s are calling. They want you back. We've moved from a society of me to a society of we. So the question you've got to ask yourself, what does we really mean? And do you want to be a part of the we society, or should you just take early retirement? And just move on. Number 2, recognizing, friends, that if you will embrace the performance pyramid, you can fundamentally change your understanding and how people feel about you within your organization. Some of you already have your phones out and you're searching for what is the performance pyramid. It looks like this. When you think about the performance pyramid and your role within the pyramid, None of these levels that you see on the screen are more important than another, but there is foundational and there's things at the top. You've got to drive all the way through the pyramid. Let's look at the bottom, safety and security. When people are fearing for their job, when they're fearing for the longevity within your company, they're not going to perform. Next level, rewards. Are they adequately rewarded, or do you feel like they're adequately rewarded to move on? Well, Ryan, shouldn't they just be happy to cash that paycheck? The '80s are calling. They want you back. Rewards are so important. Third step is growth. What are you doing, no matter the role in the company, what are you doing to help them grow? Is there a trajectory for success? Is there a path for them to one day have your job? Your job. Affiliation. Do they feel like they're a part of the team? And then work-life harmony at the top. Doesn't mean it's not important, but recognize that nobody's going to work as hard as you're going to work. People do need to get a life, and maybe you need to get a life. Sorry, just being real. Idea number 3, recognizing what truly motivates people. If I was to poll this room, which I'm not going to do because I'm going to get the same answer whether I'm in Las Vegas or I'm in Los Angeles or if I'm in Tampa, what truly motivates people? Everybody says money. Is money really the ultimate motivating factor? It was a question that MIT asked. A worldwide global study. MIT asked this question: will more money cause people to perform better? What was the answer? Yes? No? It depends. It depends. Okay, good. I like people like you. You always add excitement to this, to the speech. Will more money cause people to perform better? Here's what MIT brought back: yes, if the task was mechanical. What's a mechanical task? That would be putting a bolt And screwing on a nut or cranking out widgets, that's a mechanical task. MIT found that yes, money is the ultimate motivating factor in mechanical tasks. But once the task moved into a cognitive skill like sales, the answer was no, money wasn't the ultimate motivating factor. Sure, it's a factor, but it wasn't the ultimate motivating factor. What? Everyone's motivated by money, Ryan. You've got to be wrong. Well, maybe it's just people in the US because we're jaded. So what did MIT do? They said, OK, fine. Let's go over to India and ask the same question. Will more money cause people to perform better? What was the answer in India? Don't even answer. The answer was yes if the task was mechanical, but no once the task moved into cognitive skills. Like sales, like marketing, like customer service. If we think about that, you have to ask yourself this. What part of no don't you understand? Money may not be the ultimate motivating factor. Well, crap. Have I been wrong for years? I don't know that you've been wrong, but things have just changed. Think about this depending on how your people are paid. If we have an employee on our team that's making, say, somewhere between $60,000 and $80,000 a year, Not much is going to change between a pay increase of $60,000 to $80,000. You're not going to live in a different house. You're not going to drive a different car. You're probably not even going to eat at different restaurants between $60,000 and $80,000. Now, when someone moves from $60,000 to $100,000, then all of a sudden things start to change. But then you're going to have another gap between $100,000 and $150,000. Beyond $100,000, things begin to change for folks. But you've got the majority of your employees that are caught in a gap where even when you give them another 5 grand, their lifestyle doesn't change. And that's why money isn't the ultimate motivating factor. So how do you figure it out? You've not been wrong. When we move to this society of me and contests for me and rewards for me to a society of we, we just have to adapt and then adopt new ideas. Here's what I like to do. Ask my teams, what do you want? What motivates them? The answer might surprise you. It wasn't but a few years into my management style, trying to create some changes, where I asked my team, and it was in sales, I said, hey, what do you want? Do you want more money? Yeah, sure, everybody wants more money, but what do you really want? If you guys will do these 6 actions to get to this end result, what do you want? And this one woman, she said to me, Ryan, I want your parking spot. What? Parking spot? I didn't really have a spot out front. It didn't have my name on it or anything like that. It just happened to be in moderately close proximity to the door. That parking spot probably cost me $30 a month or something along those lines, $30 to $50. I was offering them $5,000 in bonuses and she wanted a parking spot? Somebody else in the room said, you know what, anytime a holiday lands on a Thursday, we should get that Friday off. Give them a Friday off. Give them a Friday off. That cost me way less money than a $5,000 bonus, right? When you ask, you'll be surprised at what motivates people and what they really want. Idea number 4, if you're not doing it already within your organization, you need to create reward programs, things that are well thought out. Work Human Research says 79% of employees said that recognition and rewards make them work harder. When you think about this, some reward programs that you might consider— maybe an Above and Beyond Recognition Award, or a Strategic Vision Award, or a Best New Idea Award, or a Sales Satisfaction Award, or an All Grits No Glory Award for those employees that work their tails off and never get thanked. Most Improved from Last Week Award. Now you might say to yourself, well, Ryan, this sounds childish. Do we have to play these games? And the answer is, it's not about playing games. It's about recognizing that 79% of employees prefer recognition and rewards. It makes them happier. Why are we so opposed to making people happy? I know what it is. I'm 48 years old. Maybe you're like me, where we actually were told to do something, we just would do it, and we'd have a smile on our face, and we'd leave work. At the end of the day and be pretty happy. Times are changing, friends. With COVID in play, we've got remote employees. We've got changes in how our workforces are set up. We've just got to ask ourselves, what are we going to do different to be bigger, badder, and better? Because if you don't do it, another company is going to do it. And that's why you lose employees. You've got to set your own personal bias aside and recognize if we're going to be bigger, badder, and better, these reward programs will really drive things forward. One of the things I really like that I've observed is what's called an on-the-spot bonus program. I work with a guy, he's great. He carries around $25 Amazon cards right in his pocket. Anytime he hears a good idea, anytime somebody exceeds at something he didn't expect, he gives out these Amazon cards to people or gives out $10 Starbucks cards or whatever the circumstance is. See, a lot of times we miss opportunities to really reward our teams because we're not ready for an on-the-spot bonus program. For me, it's easy to do. It's easy to make happen. It does require consistency. But friends, if you're going to motivate your team during tough times, you've got to be willing to change. The experiences that you create drive the beliefs that people are going to have in you, and that's going to directly impact the actions that they're going to take on your behalf.
