The “Course Topics” series from Manage Train Learn and Slide Topics is a collection of over 4000 slides that will help you master a wide range of management and personal development skills. The 202 PowerPoints in this series offer you a complete and in-depth study of each topic. In "The Plateau-ed Performer", you'll learn what causes a drop-off in performance and how you can use motivation to re-energise performance.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
APPRAISAL SKILLS
The Plateau-ed Performer

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
The Course Topics series from Manage Train Learn is a large collection of topics that will help you as a learner
to quickly and easily master a range of skills in your everyday working life and life outside work. If you are a
trainer, they are perfect for adding to your classroom courses and online learning plans.
COURSE TOPICS FROM MTL
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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
The de-motivated or plateau-ed performer is the person
who reaches a certain level of performance, in both meeting
standards and producing results, and then goes no further.
In time, without further improvement, staying still results in
a decline in achievement, as others pass them by or
standards are raised. When a person can perform but
chooses not to, the problem is likely to lie in motivation.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
PLATEAU-ED PERFORMANCE
All activity, work and performance have motivation at their
heart. We take action - move ourselves forward - in the
belief that we will gain in some way. This view is not shared
by the plateau-ed performer.
The plateau-ed performer is typically an experienced
employee who knows their present job well, can perform
without too much effort and is content with the rewards
they already get. They may no longer have the expectation
of promotion or large pay rises and are likely to convince
themselves that it is better to stick to a low level of
performance than to work for anything better.
Performance can plateau, or level out, when it fails to reach
the level of others in the team; it can also plateau in relation
to what the individual is capable of achieving themselves.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
MOTIVATION
For many years in the mid 20th century, it was believed that
the key to improving the contributions of workers was
motivation. Motivating people - what you need to do to get
others to do what you want - became the holy grail of
management.
The motivational psychologist, Victor Vroom, studied 500
companies in search of one universal theory of motivation.
But to no avail. Nobody, it seems, and least of all ourselves,
knows precisely and in any predictable way, what motivates
people and what doesn’t.
Some of the theories of motivation work some of the time,
others don't. What is clear is that, except by using physical
force, which is ultimately counter-productive, you cannot
make another person do anything they don't want to do by
their own free will.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
HOW TO MOTIVATE
Amongst the many theories put forward by those who have
studied people at work, nine motivational theories pre-
dominate.
These are...
1. the associations of pleasure and pain
2. money
3. recognition
4. personal needs
5. matching expectations with outcomes
6. team chemistry
7. goal motivation
8. meaningfulness
9. personal motivators
It is now generally believed that internal motivators, such as
commitment to goals and meeting personal needs, are
more motivational over a long period than external
motivators, such as money and recognition.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
CARROT AND STICK
The most basic form of human motivation is pleasure and
pain. We seek those courses of action that we believe will
result in pleasure and avoid those that we believe will end in
pain.
This simple instinctive theory suggests why many plateau-ed
performers dislike the thought of change. They believe it will
be uncomfortable, require too much effort and involve
painful self-awareness.
The "carrot and stick" is the practical application of the
instinctive theory of pleasure and pain. In these cases, we
are offered the prospect of something pleasurable as a
carrot (money, praise, kind words, a happy workplace,
security...) and the prospect of something painful as a stick
(loss of money, loss of job, bad feelings, unhappiness, a
dismal cv, a poor reference...)

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
MONEY
F.W. Taylor and the early management theorists were in no
doubt that money was the only true motivator. Their simple
management theories were built around the concept that,
to get a person to perform and continue to perform, you
only needed to pay him enough. Taylor proved this by
showing how people responded to incentive schemes.
Much later, in the 1950's, Davison proved again that when
more money is offered by way of bonus schemes, profit pay,
productivity pay and piece-work, performance improves.
Davison measured a 60% rise in output at six British
factories when bonuses were paid.
But money is not a simple motivator. Its motivational effects
may last only a short time and when it is given
disproportionately and unfairly or in place of things people
would rather have, it may even act as a disincentive.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
MONEY AND MOTIVATION
While money is undoubtedly the major motivator in
performance, our attitudes towards money are far from
simple...
1. money regularly figures low on people's lists of why
they go to work, often after "security", "self-
achievement" and "companionship“
2. money may act as an incentive only for a brief period
after it is given and then it is taken for granted
3. it is not the possession of money itself that produces
the feeling of self-worth but how much you get
compared to others
4. people expect some relationship between what you
have done to earn it and the amount of money you get.
Most people agree that people who are qualified or do
hazardous work should receive more than those who
don't.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
RECOGNITION
Recognition and non-recognition are the emotional
equivalents of the carrot and the stick: recognition of
ourselves and our work makes us feel good; non-recognition
and being taken for granted makes us feel bad.
Recognition of others is one of the simplest motivators. It
includes...
• using a person's name
• showing interest in their work
• remembering things about them
• asking questions
• asking people for help
• giving simple strokes, both verbally and non-verbally
• praising work well done.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
THE HAWTHORNE EFFECT
While seeking their own theory of motivation, a team of
psychologists led by Elton Mayo carried out a series of
experiments at the GEC Hawthorne plant in Chicago from
the 1930's onwards.
In one renowned study, they experimented with different
levels of lighting, lengths of break, and lengths of the
working day, to find a connection between the best
conditions and the best output. What they stumbled on
instead was that productivity defied any set conditions. To
their amazement, productivity went up when conditions
deteriorated. In one study of lighting levels, it even
continued to rise when the level was close to moonlight.
After a series of such findings, the experimenters concluded
that it was their own presence and the recognition given by
them to the workers that made all the difference to how
well people worked.

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Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
MEETING OUR NEEDS
Needs motivation theory argues that we are more
motivated by what we don't yet have and need, than what
we do have and no longer need.
This is the motivation that drives both rich and poor to
work: the rich, perhaps, to meet a need for achievement,
the poor to meet a need to survive.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow identified five recurring and
ever-present needs that motivate us...
1. the need for basic requirements such as money and
what money can buy
2. the need for security, both psychological and real
3. the need for social contact
4. the need for recognition from others
5. the need for self-fulfilment.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
EXPECTANCY THEORY
I Porter and E Lawler were two motivational theorists who
suggested that we are motivated at work only to the extent
that we expect our efforts to bring about desired rewards.
Motivation = expected rewards x strength of desire for the
outcome
The model is complicated by the level of ability, control over
performance and role perceptions. So motivation is higher
when we believe that by working hard we will receive the
promotion we want, knowing that we have the skills, the
control over what happens and are in the right job to make
it happen. It is correspondingly lower when we don't believe
we will get it or because we don't have the skill or the
power to make it happen.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
TEAM CHEMISTRY
The performance of individual employees can be as
adversely affected by the team they belong to as much as it
can be beneficially affected.
No fool-proof formula exists where team chemistry is
concerned but as a general rule the performance of
individuals can be improved when...
1. they work physically close to others whose performance
is high
2. they work in teams where people have more things in
common than things which divide them
3. they work in teams where people like one another
4. they work in teams which co-operate rather than
compete
5. the combination of different skills produces a synergistic
result of added value
6. they join teams whose overall performance is
achievably higher than their own.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
GOING FOR GOAL
Research shows that goals which are clear, specific and
reachable produce a higher level of motivation than goals
which are vague, unspecific and out of reach. Desired goals
that are just outside our reach have an almost magnetic
effect on us.
Research by Harold Leavitt and Ronald Mueller found that
when a group was given specific goals, 62% of the targets
were met as against only 27% when the goals were not
specified.
Motivational goals need to be more than specific: they
should also be ones that people feel strongly about, should
be worthwhile and should fit in with other things that the
person wants.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
MEANINGFULNESS
When people see little or no connection between what they
do and why they are doing it, there is usually a low level of
motivation. People are merely going through the motions.
This can happen when there is distance between the
producers and consumers. Bridging the gap through
information, education and feedback can turn
meaninglessness into meaningfulness.
Wyatt describes how during the Second World War the
output of British armament factories rose by three times
after the factory workers met and spoke to the air crews
who were to use their products.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
PERSONAL MOTIVATORS
All one-to-one appraisals between boss and subordinate are
effectively exercises in personal motivation. They should be
attempts by the manager to discover the one thing that we
are highly motivated to do, in other words our unique
personal motivators.
When managers discover personal motivators, the chance
to plan work around them can be held out as an incentive,
("if you complete the main project on time, we can give you
time on your pet project,") or as a reward for work well
done ("you've done well; I think we can give you time on
your pet project").
Personal motivators, when discovered, are always more
powerful than using artificial motivators, such as money and
status. Good appraisers recognise the value of finding out
the things people want to do because they want to do
them.

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Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
THE THINGS I WANT TO DO
We each have our own personal motivators. They are the
things we like to do which come easily to us. We often do
them for little or no additional reward.
Nine important personal motivators are...
1. the chance to excel at something
2. the chance to work with others
3. the chance to do something high-profile
4. the chance to be creative
5. the chance to do research
6. the chance to serve others
7. the chance to do new and exciting things
8. the chance to take charge
9. the chance to do things in our own way.
"The more I want to do something, the less I call it work."
(Richard Bach)

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
APPRAISAL MOTIVATION
When appraisal interviews are conducted successfully,
people often report a rise in motivation. This can be due to
any of the many motivational factors which theory tells us
inspire people and which can be present in appraisals.
These include...
• handing out rewards and bonuses
• offering incentives
• showing interest as the boss
• providing useful and meaningful information
• enhancing the feel-good relationship between boss and
subordinate
• feeling more secure about your job and yourself.
"I'm slowly becoming a convert to the principle that you
can't motivate people to do things; you can only de-
motivate them. The primary job of the manager is not to
empower, but to remove obstacles." (Scott Adams)

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Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
APPRAISAL DE-MOTIVATION
Just as appraisals can inject a high dose of motivation,
particularly for those who need it such as the plateau-ed
performer, so they can equally result in de-motivation if
they are not managed well.
This can happen when...
1. expected or promised rewards are not forthcoming
2. the boss shows no genuine interest
3. the discussions do not centre on the needs of the
appraisee
4. there is a feeling of control and manipulation aimed at
getting the appraisee to agree to plans that have
already been worked out
5. changes are made that take the employee away from
the team
6. new goals are not in line with what the appraisee wants
7. enough is said to make the appraisee start to feel
insecure.

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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The Plateau-ed Performer
Appraisal Skills
MTL Course Topics
THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn