The other day I had a lengthy conversation with the owner of a cabinet shop on the subject of employee compensation, the age old carrot and stick debate about what really motivates people to perform. It reminded me of the time I almost ripped the tail off a poor little calf while working on a Montana cattle ranch.

Midnight Canyon Ranch was situated high in the Beartooth Mountain Range and the rimrocked canyons contained steep rocky hillsides that were hard on cow's hooves. And when a cow's hoof got chewed up on the rocky terrain, it generally became infected and swollen. We called it "foot-rot."

The cows with foot-rot were easy to spot because they limped along in obvious pain and the sight would send us immediately into "doctoring" mode.

If they were way out in the hills, where trucks couldn't travel and the distance was too far to trail the mountain moo moos to the corral, we'd operate out in a literal field hospital.

This would entail roping (not me) then wrestling and tying (me) the animal before we could administer our mountainside medicine.

If you will, imagine complete pandemonium... cowboys bailing, horses flailing, and ropes sailing in every direction in scenes that don't resemble a conventional rodeo performance in the slightest.

On the other hand, when a cow, and her everpresent calf, happened to be near a road, we'd load them into the livestock trailer and haul them to the corrals where they had easy feed, flat ground, and water. There were also squeezechutes to contain the animals while we went about our business, which was orderly, controlled, and unfortunately, a lot less exciting.

On one such occasion I came face to face, or rather face to rear with a calf, and learned the awesome potential that proper motivation can provide.

While trying to load a small bunch of afflicted cow/calf pairs for transport to the doctoring corrals, a perfectly healthy cow sneaked into our cow crate on wheels where she became separated from her little calf by a gate at the front of the animal trailer.

Immediately she began to moo loudly in displeasure and her bawling calf responded by barreling past me into the trailer to find her.

Randy, the ranch manager, seeing another unwanted animal complicating our plans, attempted to slam the rear gate shut before the calf could get in but it was too late. As the gate swung closed towards the side of the trailer, the 350 pound calf got its head through the opening, but the gate latch caught it and dug into its rib cage.

The calf panicked and began to flail with all its might, trying to break through to be reunited with its momma who herself stood restrained only a couple of feet away. Unfortunately, the harder it strained, the tighter it wedged itself, and the deeper the gate latch jabbed into its side.

The manager was yelling at the top of his lungs that the calf was impaling itself on the gate latch, the cows were mooing, and the calf was bawling and pounding its feet on the metal floor. It sounded like a rock concert inside a shipping container, yet somehow over the din, I heard his shouted instructions to grab the calf's tail and pull him back.

So I did.

With a boot on the side of the trailer and the other on the gate, I threw my head back and heaved with all my might. I pulled so hard that the fibers in that calf's tail began to tear and I honestly thought that it might rip off entirely.

With Randy wrenching on the gate and yelling that the calf was a goner if we didn't pull him back, we strained the calf back just enough to free the gate latch from his side. The gate banged open and the free once again, the calf raced to his momma's side. Being with momma was a natural instinct so important that the calf nearly killed itself trying to reach her.

And thus, an object lesson on the power of proper motivation was born and it relates quite nicely with the conversation about employee compensation, carrots and sticks, and what ultimately compels people to perform.

For most employers who were once employees themselves, it's obvious that using the stick of fear or threats to "push" someone to perform, only works temporarily if it even works at all.

Conversely, the natural desires and secret passions that dwell deep in the individual's soul have an unparalleled power to "pull" them towards their goals and towards peak, workplace performance in the process.

But what motivates the individual? What animates their emotions? What engages their reservoir of resolve?

In other words, what is the mooing mamma that motivates our calves to move?

We have to ask them.

And if we listen, we will be shocked by the raw power of their determination and the magnitude of their achievements!

Aaron J. Crowley is the founder and president of FabricatorsFriend.com, the exclusive promoter of Stone Sleeve fabricator sleeves and Bullet Proof aprons. He is also the author of Less Chaos More Cash. You can reach him by email at Aaron@CrowleysGranite.com

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