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Beyond the call of duty.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Why do some employees do much more than is required or even expected, while others do only as much as necessary? There are just a handful of common motivators among high-performance workers, And managers can take actions that enhance those drivers, which make employees want to go above and beyond the call of duty.

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Some time ago, one of the authors was addressing a group of mid-level managers at a conference. The topic was developing a performance culture in the organization--one in which workers can bring the maximum amount of effort to their jobs. The talk began with a story about an air traveler who boarded a flight in Seattle on the way home to Lexington, Ky. On the Seattle-to-Portland leg, he snacked on peanuts; from Portland to Dallas, more peanuts followed. Because of time zone changes, more peanuts were served after he changed planes in Dallas bound for Atlanta.

While traveling from Dallas to Atlanta, the hungry traveler could almost taste the fresh popcorn he would buy in Atlanta before the final flight. But since the plane was late getting into Atlanta, he had no choice but to hurry to the gate, only to find the Lexington flight boarding. After he checked in, he ran to the snack area and found the popcorn machine closed for the night.

Disappointed and desperately hungry, the passenger boarded the plane and took his seat. While the flight attendant asked him how his day had been, he said not bad considering he was starving. She informed him that she would be happy to get him some peanuts. He muttered something about popcorn and the fact that he had been craving it all the way from Dallas to Atlanta.

Just as the airplane door was about to close, a gate agent ran into the plane with a bag of freshly popped microwave popcorn for the hungry passenger. It seems the flight attendant had phoned in an order from the plane.

Why do some employees do more than is required of them while other workers do as little as possible? Through a series of interviews with close to 200 employees from all sizes and kinds of organizations and in all types of positions, we identified 13 drivers that impel individuals to go beyond the call of duty, to walk the extra mile, to expend the extra effort. And what is particularly interesting is that while some individuals are driven by fame and fortune, others are well aware that their bosses will probably never find out that their meritorious behavior occurred. Regardless of the reason for their going beyond the call of duty, high-effort workers engage in such activities at their own discretion--they are not mandated to do so.

What is particularly intriguing about our findings is that those who go beyond the call of duty are not solely people at high levels of an organization, nor are they necessarily the luminaries we read about in the popular press.

A major challenge facing organizations today--especially in this time of intense competition--is inspiring high-discretion workers to go willingly beyond the call of duty when circumstances call for it.

We will describe each of the 13 drivers that lead to such excellence and suggest how managers can create the right culture in which employees will go beyond the call of duty.

1. Internal motivation

Certain people are simply highly motivated. They have a high need for achievement, for success. They expend their energy in job-related pursuits that likely will be mutually beneficial for them and the firm. They create win-win situations. These kinds of individuals tend to be overachievers. And not only are they internally motivated, but they also receive a high degree of self-satisfaction from their jobs.

Motivated employees who receive tremendous satisfaction from their jobs are a manager's riches. These people usually need relatively little guidance, seek additional work, use creativity, and identify potential problems before they occur (as well as solutions to them). They aren't afraid to look at new ways to solve old problems or adapting the old ways to make them more effective and efficient. They run on a seemingly unending energy source. And believe it or not,...

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