The so called War for talents is one of the current main topics of HR and Recruiting departments. Especially in Consulting companies where the fluctuation is higher as in other industries and the relation between headcount and revenue has a direct correlation. A stable workforce requires motivated employees. The present book Seven simple tools to build a motivating work environment deals with the question what Consultants keeps motivated and moves them to perform in challenging work environments. Based on a questionnaire answered from more than 100 Consultants from different Consulting companies in Germany the author analyses the needs of employees in the consulting industry. The author compares the results with available motivation tools. Based on the evaluated GAP the author recommends seven different tools to support leadership building up a motivating work environment. To measure the results of the tool usage the author describes how the Personal Balanced Scorecard Approach can be utilized.

Text Sample: Chapter 2.2.3, Myths about motivation: ‘All motivating is demotivating’, is the initial statement of Sprenger’s theory about motivation. It is critical to understand that he does not mean the state of motivation that an individual has. He means the activity of motivating people. Therefore it is important to differentiate between motivating as an activity and motivation as a state. Motivating is mostly used to manipulate someone to do what he wants and does not take into account what the manipulated person wants. This controlling aspect of motivating is evident for the ‘motivated’ person and can lead to resistance. Even in case that the affected person does not see the manipulation from the beginning he will see trough sooner or later. Sprenger criticizes that existing theories see people as: • effort deniers. • bunch of hierarchal needs. • stimulus-reaction machines. In his opinion every employee brings his own motivation too work and influences his motivation depending on inner attitude and external influences. But what can be done to obtain this motivation? Leading instead of trying to motivate is the key. Sprenger subdivides this approach into two areas: • Demanding instead of misleading. • Avoiding demotivation. The first part of his advice based on deliberations from Dostoevsky and Nietzsche. People are not happy if they can get everything they want without spending any effort. ‘Nothing is more difficult to endure as several happy days in a row’. People are motivated and this motivation needs to be used to do something meaningful. They are happier about a success if they had to fight for it instead of getting it without any effort. The risk of the ‘Motivation’ as it is used in many companies is the spoiling of employees with the result of bored and demotivated employees. The better approach is to believe that employees are motivated and to demand this. To explain this approach three dimensions of effort need to take into account: • Commitment. • Ability. • Opportunity. Commitment will be brought by the employee. Therefore ability and opportunity needs to be supported. In consequence this means to agree with the employee what are the expectations under consideration of his abilities and give him the opportunity to fulfill these expectations. The second part tends to avoid demotivation. It is not necessary for the dissertation to explain all aspects of Sprenger just some examples should be described to get an understanding of his intention. If an employee does not meet the expectation then something has demotivated him or he did not have the ability or opportunity. In many cases Salesmen are paid by commissions. If the revenues shrinking because of unattractive products then management try to attract the payment terms to ‘motivate’ the Sales force. In the short run this can raise the revenue because the sales force will try to get the payment. On the long run this will not eliminate the real issue of uninspired salesmen that are not willing to invest in a bad product. A key role of demotivation is the direct responsible manager. He has the most power to demotivate with his behavior. Responsibility of the manager is therefore to avoid this demotivation by showing real interest in the employee instead of building an image as leader. Additionally the manager should not concentrate on motivating the employees. He should rather focus on the elimination of work hindering aspects. Finishing this aspect of demotivation the following list shows some ways of successful demotivation: • The manager knows it always better. • Lonely decisions by the management. • Announcements and behavior are coincident. • Permanent interfering of the manager. • Mental under load. • Ignoring of the employee. 2.2.4, Conclusion and consequences: Summarizing the different theories and approaches we have an employee that brings his own motivation to work and wants a meaningful and demanding assignment. On the other hand he has needs that he tries to satisfy. As long his elementary needs are not assured he cannot use his motivation to fulfill the demands of the company. Therefore the goal of the management must be to support the employee in reaching satisfaction of his needs and give him space and opportunity to fulfill the requirements of the company. ‘On one hand we are too tolerant against companies that procure us a sense and safety. On the other hand we demand self determination. In fact we demand simultaneous self determination and safety with the same resoluteness’. With a look on consulting companies the support of the motivation of ‘junior professionals is harder today than it used to be, and it is more important to the success of the professional service firm’. Beside the recommendations of Maister to spend ‘more attention to personal supervisory skills and a reexamination of the firm’s recruiting, work assignment, feedback, and outplacement system,’ even the ‘private’ needs of the employee should be taken into account. ‘Effectiveness [of the employee] lies in the balance – what I call the P/PC Balance. P stands for production of desired results, the golden eggs. PC stands for productivity capability, the ability or asset that produces the golden eggs’. Only a balanced employee can ‘meet the intensity demand by today’s practice’. An approach how to support employee finding this balance is described in the following chapter.

• Motivation

• Personal Balanced Scorecard

• Multi Duty Life

• Consulting

• Project Management

• work environment

• contentedness

Christian Friedrichs, MBA, was born in Göttingen 1977. After his study at the University of Cooperative Education in Mannheim he started to work as a Consultant. First he worked for Hewlett-Packard and since 2002 for Accenture in the area of system integration. In 2006 he decided to deepen his skills in the management consulting area and started his Master study at the Institute of International Management Consulting in Ludwigshafen. As Project Management became one of his main work areas the he took over more and more Leadership responsibility. To get a deep understanding what moves Consultants and therefore their motivation to work in challenging project environments he decided to analyze the motivation driver as part of his Master Thesis.