Quotes in motivation

Top management should publish a resolution that no one will lose his job for contribution to quality and productivity.

The idea of a merit rating is alluring. The sound of the words captivates the imagination: pay for what you get; get what you pay for; motivate people to do their best, for their own good.

The effect is exactly the opposite of what the words promise.

One gets a good rating for fighting a fire. The result is visible; can be quantified. If you do it right the first time, you are invisible. You satisfied the requirements. That is your job. Mess it up, and correct it later, you become a hero.

My philosophy is that you don't motivate players with speeches, you have motivated players that you draft. That's where they come in and those are the guys that are competitive. You can not teach competitiveness.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

In short, "Do this and you'll get that" makes people focus on the "that" not the "this." Do rewards motivate people? Absolutely. They motivate people to get rewards.

A raise is like a martini: it elevates the spirit, but only temporarily.

I think one thing I find very motivating -- and I think this is probably a very common form of motivation or cause of motivation is, I love people counting on me, and so, you know, today it's so easy to be motivated, because we have millions of customers counting on us at Amazon.com. We've got thousands of investors counting on us. And, we're a team of thousands of employees all counting on each other. That's fun.

The answer to the question managers so often ask of behavioral scientists "How do you motivate people?" is, "You don't."

Classic economic theory, based as it is on an inadequate theory of human motivation, could be revolutionized by accepting the reality of higher human needs, including the impulse to self actualization and the love for the highest values.