Figuring out what inspires workers to put in a bit of extra effort can be a challenge for many companies. Numerous studies of workers from around the world have found little correlation between pay and job satisfaction, meaning money won’t always buy motivation.

But consider the way Walt Disney rewarded employees who figured out how Disneyland could make more money by staying open seven days a week. On Christmas Day, he had Mickey Mouse show up at their doors with cash. When they figured out the park could also make money staying open later at night, Mickey showed up again—this time with keys to a new Ferrari.

Target practice

Quotas and sales targets, meanwhile, can also have counter-productive effects. Senior management at American international bank Wells Fargo learned this lesson the hard way after the company instituted an aggressive quota system that required branch employees to sign up customers for new accounts. The requirements were so unrealistic that employees, feeling pressure to meet such targets, created bogus accounts for customers who never agreed to sign up. The US bank later agreed to pay $110m to wronged customers.

Threats are also unlikely to have the desired effect. When Alina Basina joined a fast-growing Silicon Valley startup, her boss, a vice president in the company, handed her a list of prospective clients. The list belonged to her boss’s former employer, but because of a non-compete clause, Basina says she was told to make initial approaches, as the boss couldn’t do it herself.

Basina, a lawyer by training, knew her boss’s request was unethical, so she said no. Her boss threatened to fire her unless she complied.

“I started to really withdraw. I’m a person that usually has a lot of motivation for my job, and suddenly I had no motivation to do anything,” Basina recalls. “I lost respect for my manager, and I lost my motivation for the job.”

Basina didn’t comply with the request. Instead, she quit and is now the global head of talent and human resources for Jobbatical, based in Estonia, which helps workers find jobs overseas.