Leading People and Teams

To realize a business idea, you need a good plan. You don’t need a great idea just a good one that works. To execute your plan, you need people with the appropriate capabilities. You are not gonna do everything alone. To make your people excel, you need to create a special work environment. Do we need a formal place or not, what are the procedures, how many do we need, etc.

Oneself
LPT starts with the study of oneself. Why do we do what we do? what are the root causes of our motivation? What drives us? The question is key as a key part of companies is to make sure that employees (agents) do what needs to be done.

Maslow was right but wrong
One of the most famous and early theories of motivation was Maslow's pyramid. The premise was that a satisfied need no longer motivates us and the next one in the pyramid becomes dominant. It seems easy to understand but research does not validate it. Rich countries, where all the basics need are met, suffer from greater divorce rates, suicides rates, and other negative behaviors like boredom, apathy, resignation, etc. According to Maslow we should be instead witnessing way more creativity, altruism, and self-transcendence. At the same time, people struggling with basics needs (food or shelter) in debt themselves to buy goods that provide social status (phone, clothes, luxury).

Maslow offers a good starting point but one with many flaws.

Douglas Mc Gregor's Theory X and Y
Mc Gregor formulated the hypothesis that businesses work under two models. In the X model, managers believe employees dislike work and must be directed. Under the Y model, employees view works as being as natural as rest or play and will look to perform better and get more responsibilities.

It also lacks empirical evidence, forcing people into 2 extreme categories tend to oversimplify human interactions.

Frederick Herzberg's two factors
Frederick Herzberg based his model on 2 factors: hygiene and motivation. Hygiene factors are responsible for dissatisfaction in the job (pay level, policies, supervision, etc.). Failing to meet employee's standards will generate dissatisfaction but meeting said requirements will not necessarily provide motivation as they are perceived as minimum requirements. On the opposite side, motivation factors (promotions, personal growth, achievement), once present, improve job satisfaction.

No models give a perfect view of how you should motivate people, what works, and what does not. Yet, the offers tools to interpret specific situations. They should be used to diagnose and find pinpoint improvement in the system rather than to build a full HR policy.

Integration
Boîtes à idées:

To raise commitment and moral: offer employees to donate part of their bonuses to a charitable organization of their choice. Proposed in the book Drive, and also by Myriam when we were perceiving ridiculously low bonuses. When you are giving employees 10/15€ yearly bonus, why not cut the joke and offer the aggregated amount (6k€) to a charity. Employees, voluntary employees, will certainly fill happier to be part of a large donation rather than a small bonus.