Up until 2008, most individuals and companies have used the desire to prosper as their main method of motivation. We were in an era where most people had their basic needs of food and shelter met and were focusing on becoming wealthy or very profitable.
When to Use the Desire to Prosper to Motivate…
1 When people are not afraid and focused on survival but are ready to thrive.
2 When someone is easily motivated by dangling carrots—getting rewards for certain outcomes.
Problems with Using the Desire to Prosper to Motivate…
1 After a certain income level, which is subjective for each individual, it gets extremely hard to motivate most people with more rewards. For example, if someone is making $200,000 a year and has and does everything they desire, they are less likely to work harder for more money.
2 Rewards narrow our focus. People will pursue the reward, but fail to see the big picture or solve problems. An example is when you are focused on making increasing amounts of money but don’t realize your overspending addiction.
3 It creates short-term outcomes and disregards long-term effects. An example of that is BP cutting corners to get the oil well completed on time.
4 Goals imposed by others (sales targets, quarterly returns, standardized test scores) can have dangerous side effects. People will often choose the quickest route there, even if it means taking the low road. (Cheating, steroids, moving the numbers.)
5 People who are motivated by profiting, grow more expensive as time passes. An example of that are the banks handing out outrageous bonuses to employees.
As you can see, motivating by the desire to prosper can be a slippery slide. Too many dangling carrots can easily get us in trouble and cost us more in the long run.
Other related quiz and blogs by Vickie Champion you might be interested in are:
Quiz- How Ready Are You to Get Your Dreams?
Three Methods of Motivating Yourself and Your Employees
or check out the entire Life in General section.
You can also contact Vickie Champion for a discovery coaching and consulting session.