Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement.

“As an emotional catalyst, wealth maximization lacks the power to fully mobilize human energies,”

Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace BY RICARDO SEMLER

are noncontingent “now that” rewards, they avoid the seven deadly flaws of most corporate carrots. And because they come from a colleague, not a boss, they carry a different (and perhaps deeper) meaning. You could even say they’re motivating.

3. IF YOU USE PERFORMANCE METRICS, MAKE THEM WIDE-RANGING, RELEVANT, AND HARD TO GAME Imagine you’re a product manager and your pay depends largely on reaching a particular sales goal for the next quarter. If you’re smart, or if you’ve got a family to feed, you’re going to try mightily to hit that number. You probably won’t concern yourself much with

Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else BY GEOFF COLVIN

Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes BY ALFIE KOHN

“If your 20 percent idea is a new product, it’s usually pretty easy to just find a few like-minded people and start coding away.”

The people who remain receive decent pay, and just as important, they have autonomy over technique. Zappos doesn’t monitor its customer service employees’ call times or require them to use scripts. The reps handle calls the way they want. Their job is to serve the customer well; how they do it is up to them.