Chapter 7. Motivation.

7. Motivation

“The best motivation always comes from within”

– Michael Johnson

“And here are your incentives.”

Those were the words from Tony D’Arcy,

who was in charge of contract negotiations for the NSW Waratahs. He turned over the page of the contract to show me the incentives included in my first professional deal.

It had been a whirlwind of a year. I had moved back to rugby union after having spent my first year out of school with the Bulldogs. I got injured in pre-season training in the Waratahs Academy which disrupted my preparation for my first season in the professional Rugby Union system. I had played for the NSW Waratahs Academy team, and got injured in an internal trial and been put out of action for six weeks. I’d come back to make my first grade debut, then got injured again playing for the Waratahs Academy against the Australian 21’s.

Then, I’d managed to earn my first NSW Waratahs cap. It came out of the blue and was a huge surprise. We went down to Viking Park in Canberra and had a good win. My game definitely wasn’t anything to light the world up, but I was vocal out on the field, not shying away from the challenge of coming up against players who were far more experienced than I was. Many internationals took the field that night, but I wasn’t intimidated. I was having the time of my life.

I really enjoyed it when players took the challenge to me personally. I thrived on the battle. I threw my body around,

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no matter who I was playing against. It felt comfortable but I didn’t want to let my teammates down. I had looked up to many of my teammates for years, and I admired them so I was keen as mustard to show them I wasn’t going to drag the chain and be a weakness to the team.

After a tour of England and Ireland, Ewen Mckenzie told me that I had done enough during the Australian Provincial Championship and tour to earn myself a three-year professional contract. This would mean training full-time with the squad, and meant I would no longer be in the Academy even though I still had another year on my Academy contract, which led me to sitting in a room with ‘Darce’ as he outlined the incentives I could earn.

As he went through a series of goals and milestones, and the financial bonus I’d receive if I met them, I felt a bit dumbfounded. I was thinking, ‘What a strange choice of word. I don’t need financial incentives to pursue these goals and milestones.’ I wasn’t doing it for the NSW Waratahs, I was doing this for me, for Beau Robinson. Getting paid for it was a bonus.

That extra money would be no incentive for me to work hard or have any impact on my motivation. Absolutely none. It was only ten years earlier that the game of rugby union had gone professional. Before that no-one was paid, well not officially anyway. Money wasn’t the motivator for those players and it wasn’t for me.

In 1968, Frederick Herzburg wrote One More Time - How Do You Motivate Employees. He revealed research that found that the two primary internal motivators for people are achievement, and recognition for achievement. All forms of research around motivation has shown that progress is one of the most effective forms of motivation. A small concrete win creates momentum. It changes how people feel and perform. People want to make small progress in meaningful work. I am the same.

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I left the room and wondered, ‘why use the term incentives as opposed to rewards?’ In my eyes, those financial bonuses were a reward for your hard work and your achievement.