Are You Paying That Guy Enough To Do A Job For You? If No, Do Yourself A Favor To Understand This Key Concept!

If you are a full time employee or if you are among those people to get paid to do a job for X, then you have surely hit yourself across the wall of frustration at some point, at least once. Well, I have..

Today, I have haphazardly landed on a post entitled ‘A Story About Motivation’, written by Peter Bregman who is perceived to be a leadership consultant. At first glance, the title was not so much appealing to me until my mind processed the word motivation. Finally, I were to have a quick look; it turned out to be a well thought article about what motivates a person to do an action, as applied to someone who gets-paid to do ‘a job‘.

The Key Concept At Glance

If you do not pay someone for the right (fair) price, he will not be motivated enough to do the job properly.
On the other hand, if you asked that same person to do you a favor to help you with this job freely, he might as well do it better than when you would have under-paid him.

Now that does not imply, people will work free for you! Continue to read..

Consider the following:
Let’s say it normally takes $100 per hour to get job A done. And if the person is skilled, the price might as well vary between $100 to $200. (it’s just an example)

Now you as an employer, you hire someone, let say Mr Smith, for $69.99 to get job A done for you. Because at that time, Smith needed a job he accepted. After some quick enough lapse of time, you realise that Smith is not delivering the quality needed for job A – in short Smith is not productive.
Such employer (in this case you) will immediately tag Smith as a jerk or a lazy fellow or even as a not-skilled person.
While it can be true, I think this is not the right question to ask. The right question to ask yourself is: “is the price you are paying fair enough to motivate Smith?” (because Smith apparently have some good references from other people)

Based on the reasoning of Peter Bregman, the following 2 observations are deduced:

1) Because when WE consider whether to do something, WE subconsciously ask ourselves a simple question: “Am I the kind of person who . . ?” And money changes the question to “Am I the kind of person who . . for $yy per hour?”

In the case of Smith, when he was offered $69.99 per hour for this job his question was “Am I the kind of person who works for $69.99 an hour?” The answer was clearly NO.

2) But when WE are asked to do it as a favor? The new question is “Am I the kind of person who helps people in need?” And the answer is YES.

The deduction above is illustrated more clearly and in-depth with one real-life scenario experienced by Peter Bregman himself and some experiments conveyed by 3 University professors. I would strongly advice you to read his article if you are concerned by this subject matter; at least you would know what motivates a person to do an action.

Last Thought

In this outstanding Social Media era and in this time of fierce entrepreneurship boom, the Gen-Y or millennials generation is surely no more among those people to consider being under-paid for a job. While some companies still get into the game of paying low to consume most of the profits, the wise company has surely understood that it needs a well motivated collaborative team to mould a consistent, successful and feasible growth.

What is your point of view on this matter? I’m sure you have something to add, use the comment form below please..