What motivates a person to work? by Amarjyoti Krishnan

"Amar, if we implement this new performance evaluation system, all the kids would be demotivated and frustrated. It has a negative effect on morale!!!"....
Now this is something I have heard so many time in my life. And maybe I get very frustrated just hearing the word "frustrated" :-D

The first question to be answered here is what motivates a person to work ?

According to many these are the reasons that motivate people to work -

-> Work Environment and colleagues. ->Salary, status and security ->Achievement ->Recognition for achievement ->Interest in the particular assignment ->Growth and advancement to higher levels


So now the simple question is that even if we have all the above at your work place we get so "frustrated and demotivated". Here's what I hear about it.

->Repetition in the job we do i.e. we are do the same thing over and over again
->Lack of appreciation
->Lack of an environment to learn new technologies


Here are some situations that could happen to anyone of us.

Consider that your Mom is running a high temperature and you take her to the doctor. When you reach there the doctor says that "This is the 125th fever case this month, I refuse to treat your mom... Nobody appreciates my job, I will not get a lot of money for treating you and this is repetitive work." If this leads to something fatal, I am sure you would not be very happy with what the doctor did. But if the doctor thinks like us, he has all the right in the world to be frustrated and demotivated.

Many of us think that doctors are supposed to be more services oriented. Doctors needs to understand their "Job Responsibility". Hence, they have to look after their patients under all circumstances.

Let's move the story further. The doctor was a nice and understanding man. You went to the nearest drug store to buy the medicines the doctor prescribed. The guy there is really frustrated because he does not get any appreciation for his work. He feels that he is sick and tired of giving the same medicines for fever so instead of paracetamol he gives rat poison. You did not notice it and gave the medicine to you mom... Let's not even think what happened next... :(

Let's take another example where you are sending your mom on a flight to London. The aircrafts maintenance engineer is "frustrated" with his job because all he has to do is handle the same Boeing 737, 747 and Airbus 320. His dream job was to work in NASA, but unfortunately NASA had other dreams... The maintenance engineer feels that there is nothing challenging in his job and it was repetitive. So on this day he decides not to check the aircraft well and the flight crashes. I am sure you would not like him..

So now I again I wonder what is the most important aspect that should motivate us to work. Well here's what I could figure out. The first and the most important aspect is to understand our responsibility. We must understand that for each job there is a customer and he comes to us because he needs us. We have to cater to this need, else this job would not exist in the first place.

For every profession there is a role and responsibility and we have to live up to it. I remember reading an interview of <a href="http://www.rd-india.com/newsite/other/facetoface_feb05.asp">Shah Rukh Khan , the famous Indian actor, on Reader's Digest once. Here's one question which drives home my point very well.

RD: Besides the fame, what pleasure do you get out of acting?
SRK: For 21/2 hours I am able to control people's emotions in the sense that I lend a smile to their faces and take them away from everyday problems. That's a great achievement. The rest is peripheral--the labels attached to me, King Khan, Badshah of Bollywood, XYZ...

For somebody in the entertainment business it is essential that he understands that people come and watch his movies to forget their tensions and worries in life and they want to go back happy. Money, fame, new challenges is secondary. I think Shah Rukh understands his responsibility. When he works he works from his heart. He does not work with the intention of getting an award or any recognition. And I guess that is the reason he is King Khan...

A distraught man approached the Zen master. "Please, Master, I feel lost, desperate. I don't know who I am. Please, show me my true self!" But the teacher just looked away without responding. The man began to plead and beg, but still the master gave no reply. Finally giving up in frustration, the man turned to leave. At that moment the master called out to him by name. "Yes!" the man said as he spun back around. "There it is!" exclaimed the master.

Sometimes we need time to understand our true responsibility. We must be patient and it is essential that we fall in love with our work.