Advice & Blog
Profit over people
Posted on November 05, 2015
Can you help people propel themselves to greatness and deliver sustainable business performance at the same time? Or must business goals always come before individuals?
Those in the latter camp often believe that human beings inherently dislike work (known as Theory X) and that strong carrot-and-stick incentives are needed to cajole them to action. They may also believe that, because successful businesses are run across the world on extrinsic reward structures that aim to push performance by setting higher and higher goals, there’s no reason to consider an alternative.
High performing organisations know this is a mistake and that external carrot-and-stick motivators quickly become hygiene factors. In fact, these organisations know this path has a limited shelf life, because we live in a world filled with empowered customers who demand a more engaging experience from the organisations they do business with.
