Secret of an Efficient Secretary

Arnold Bennett, the British novelist, had a publisher who boasted about the extraordinary efficiency of his secretary. One day while visiting the publisher's office, Bennett asked her: "Your boss claims you're extremely efficient. What's your secret?"

 

"It's not my secret," said the secretary, "it's his." As it turns out, each time she did something for him, no matter how insignificant, he never failed to acknowledge and appreciate it. Because of this, she took infinite pains to provide extraordinary and efficient work. The appreciation and affirmation given to this secretary ("his secret") obviously was a motivating factor for her to do great work. However, she did extraordinary work because of pride and attitude.

 

Do your people take "infinite pains" to provide "extraordinary and efficient" work? How do you motivate your people? Since the beginning of recorded history, the two most common forms of motivation have been incentive and fear. Some combine both with the carrot and stick approach. However, a third, and perhaps more effective approach is motivation by attitude.

 

Fear and incentive are external motivators and tend to be short lived. Motivation by attitude is more powerful and sustainable. It is a motivation of pride and independence where people want to achieve because it makes them feel good. It's a purpose versus a task. The appreciation expressed by the secretary's boss just affirmed her attitude and her actions.

 

Motivation by fear is about avoiding. Motivation by incentive is about getting. Motivation by attitude is about becoming.