Janelle felt like she was having one of those dreams where no matter how hard you try to run, you can’t go any faster.
Her team of six HR professionals was attempting to process all the yearly employee evaluations within three weeks. Knowing how sizable a challenge this would be, Janelle clearly set out a plan for how many evaluations would need to be processed per day to meet their goal. She talked about how if they exceed the target, it would create a little more work now but would far outweigh the stress that would happen if they fell behind.
One week in, they were already behind. Janelle adjusted the required target, and talked about how the rest of the company was depending on them completing on time and that some people’s promotions and salaries were on the line.
In the middle of the second week, one team member asked for a day’s leave because a close relative was ill. Thinking her team would perform better if they felt that she was sympathetic, she agreed to the leave.
At the start of the last week, they were still far behind and the possibility of finishing seemed hopeless. Another team member asked for leave to go on a holiday he had planned a few months before and for which he had already booked the tickets. Janelle was furious and said, “No more leave for anyone until we get all these reports processed!”. She turned into a very strict disciplinarian, started monitoring how many minutes people took for lunch breaks, and forced them all to stay late every day until it was done.
How do I motivate my Indian team? Motivation is a common challenge for cross-cultural managers, and one with a lot of different answers.
Types of Involvement
Traditional business theory suggests there are three types of involvement managers can have with employees.
The first category is called alienative, and suggests that people are motivated out of fear or respect for the leader. In India, you can get some short-term mileage out of being extremely authoritarian, but it won’t last for long. Similarly, you can also see some initial positive motivation out of being extremely accommodating, but this will also come back to bite you in the long run.
An effective Parent Leader manages bounces off both ends of the spectrum, but the motivation employees feel towards them is much more about who they are as a person, rather than how much fear they command.
The second category is called moral, meaning the leader appeals to his/her employees’ conscience. This is like Janelle saying that other people are dependent on this work, so it needs to be done quickly. This technique has some validity in India, but remember that India is not a country with a strong universal sense of right-and-wrong. Relational Ethics reign here, and ‘doing the right thing’ comes after ‘doing for the right person’, so be careful how you frame these ideas.
The final category is calculative, meaning the leader tries to motivate based on the employee’s self-interest. This is when Janelle said they would relieve themselves of more stress later if they worked a little harder now. Using self-interest as a motivating factor can work in India as well, but the concept of ‘We’ll-all-do-better-if-we-cooperate’ hasn’t really stuck in the Indian mindset in a large way. Just stand in any queue, and you’ll get my point.
Other Motivators
Outside of the direct involvement of the manager, here are some other things that can motivate Indians.
Public Praise. It not only feels good to have someone point out how well you did, but it also holds you accountable. If you have one team member who consistently struggles to meet quality checks, and then you publicly celebrate the time he does, now you have created a public accountability system.
Titles/Designation. Titles and designations mean a lot in India, primarily because it is a way of measuring success relative to people in other companies (a very important factor when it comes to getting married as well). But the shine of a new title can go away fast. A good idea is to create more levels in an organization and opportunities for advancement. If your home office only has 2 levels for engineers, you might need 6 in India.
Money. Bonuses and higher salaries are always appreciated and will always be a good motivator. But like titles, these will fade away over time so this shouldn’t be your only strategy.
Punishment. This basically never works in India. If think that you can show you are serious by docking pay or not giving time off, you are mistaken. That only creates bitterness that will ruin your relationships.
Personal Motivators
No matter how much sage advice you can collect on motivating Indians, it all comes down to individuals. And this is the real secret. It’s #IndiasNotIndia, and what works for one person will not work for another. What you learned from the manufacturing plant you set up in Rajasthan will have very little application to an IT startup in Bangalore.
The more you know about the individual people, the easier it is to know how to motivate them. You need to know about their likes, dislikes, how they preferred to be remembered, and what they admire in a leader. This kind of knowledge is hard to get, but pays huge dividends.
That’s why something like the Culturally Agile Discussion Guides is such a great tool for the cross-cultural manager. It helps you understand the unique motivators your team members have and what appeals to them the most. If you aren’t already doing this on your own, you need to start now.
If you rely on generic answers to complex problems, you won’t get far in your cultural competency, and you will likely find yourself in a bad dream like Janelle. Think through your motivation plan now, and don’t address it only when your back is against the wall!
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Photo Credit: mynameisharsha on Flickr
i’d agree that individual motivators are the way to go. The irony here is that though India is known as a group culture and the US an individualistic one, individual motivators tend to work better in corporations in India, while group or team motivators work better in the US.
Saying “If we finish this now and get this stressful part over now, we can relax later.” Probably won’t work in India. This phrase on it’s own shows the US or Western approach toward time (that it’s linear) and destiny or self-determination (we can control the future). Both, not really popular or understood ideas in India. Plus, with the way time shifts from moment to moment in India, people wouldn’t trust in this approach.
Regarding the other points on praise or criticism, I will share what I have seen in companies of various sizes in Kerala and coaching managers on motivation.
Public Praise doesn’t work the same in India, surely not in Kerala. Public praise gets people suspicious. Public praise to one person will make that one person often demand a raise, and the others will be jealous and competitive. Public praise that the team or company is doing well (especially financially) will not motivate to work harder in most cases, but again be a reason to demand a raise (the thought – if the company is doing so well, it has profits, we must share the wealth). Not sure if this stems from the communist ideals in Kerala.
Criticism. I actually see that in some teams criticism done publicly motivates the team because they don’t want to be shamed. But, rather than criticize and individual, criticize a group. However, I have seen individuals criticized, too. I think the idea is, “See the manager’s job is to make us better, and if we are good, there’s no point in giving feedback, only when we do bad he needs to point it out. That’s his job.” People may be motivated by fixing their mistakes rather than pointing out the positives and building off of those (anyhow this approach does take creativity). This approach also stems from the education system as a whole.
I am ready to be challenged on these points, too! Please share any other stories that contradict these or align with them differently!
I’d agree that individual motivators are the way to go. The irony here is that though India is known as a group culture and the US an individualistic one, individual motivators tend to work better in corporations in India, while group or team motivators work better in the US.
Saying “If we finish this now and get this stressful part over now, we can relax later.” Probably won’t work in India. This phrase on it’s own shows the US or Western approach toward time (that it’s linear) and destiny or self-determination (we can control the future). Both, not really popular or understood ideas in India. Plus, with the way time shifts from moment to moment in India, people wouldn’t trust in this approach.
Regarding the other points on praise or criticism, I will share what I have seen in companies of various sizes in Kerala and coaching managers on motivation.
Public Praise doesn’t work the same in India, surely not in Kerala. Public praise gets people suspicious. Public praise to one person will make that one person often demand a raise, and the others will be jealous and competitive. Public praise that the team or company is doing well (especially financially) will not motivate to work harder in most cases, but again be a reason to demand a raise (the thought – if the company is doing so well, it has profits, we must share the wealth). Not sure if this stems from the communist ideals in Kerala.
Criticism. I actually see that in some teams criticism done publicly motivates the team because they don’t want to be shamed. But, rather than criticize and individual, criticize a group. However, I have seen individuals criticized, too. I think the idea is, “See the manager’s job is to make us better, and if we are good, there’s no point in giving feedback, only when we do bad he needs to point it out. That’s his job.” People may be motivated by fixing their mistakes rather than pointing out the positives and building off of those (anyhow this approach does take creativity). This approach also stems from the education system as a whole. (However, positive and glowing praise could be taken better behind closed doors!)
I am ready to be challenged on these points, too! Please share any other stories that contradict these or align with them differently!
Very good points, Jennifer. Public praise can often garner more skepticism than anything else, I’d agree. While it may increase morale some, it also doesn’t last long, and it’s harder to draw a straight connection to motivation. However, I do like the part of publicly holding someone accountable for something through praising them. I think that still stands.
How much criticism does a good job of motivating in India, I am quite skeptical myself. It may be an individual thing, but I don’t see a lot of people responding well to repeated criticisms (occasionally perhaps). I’ve seen many people on the point of tears because they feel all they get is criticism from their superior, and it generally makes them bitter. I can’t say much about the jump between criticising the individual and a group, but I don’t think it’s too much different. Hopefully others with more experience will weigh in!