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New Leader Tuesday at Management Excellence

The New Leader’s Series here at Management Excellence, is dedicated to the proposition that one of the most valuable things we can do is support the development of the next generation of leaders on our teams and in our organizations. 

Motivation is one of those squishy topics that leaders at all levels deal with and often struggle with in their pursuit of high performance. Here are 4 ways practically guaranteed to do the opposite of “motivate.” And read on for the not so secret key(s) to motivating others.

4 Ways Practically Guaranteed to De-Motivate Your Team Members:

1. The Morning Group Hug. Many years ago, a friend worked in a medical office where the senior leaders brought in consultants who encouraged some rather odd behaviors in pursuit of team harmony. Odd and de-motivating tactic number 1 was that everyone was encouraged to hug each other when they walked in the door in the morning. While the world might be a better place if we all did this every day, make it a hard and fast rule to not hug or encourage hugging on your team. Your team members appreciate this and your HR team appreciates this!

2. “Tell Me What You Really Think About Me.” The number 2 odd and de-motivating tactic for the group huggers described above was to hold a weekly staff meeting where people were encouraged/required to share their feelings about each other. Not about the work…not about the business…but about each other. Every meeting ended in tears and people not talking to each others. Ah…the cathartic power of emotional cleansing. Not!

3. Repeatedly rewarding hard work and great achievements with t-shirts, coffee mugs and beer cozys. Engage in a repeated pattern of pushing your people to their physiological limits and then rewarding them with another damned coffee cup, and you’re likely to have one of these embedded in your operating system!

4. Doing anything that centers on  ropes, rocks, picnic tables or hot coals. Falling backward into the arms of your co-workers, supporting each other walking across chasms on narrow boards and walking on hot coals might be fun (?) but they don’t do much for motivation or trust. While these approaches might engender trust on some planet in a galaxy far, far away, they are gimmicks that fail to address core issues.

The Not So Secret Formula for Motivating Others:

The ultimate workplace motivators include fair pay AND generous helpings of challenging work, opportunities for growth, a healthy work environment, a respectful boss, frequent feedback and flexibility for life’s interruptions. While most of us can only influence pay over a period of time, you directly control all of the tools after the AND in that last sentence.  Wield them liberally!

Ropes, rocks, coals, cozys, t-shirts and even hugs aren’t part of the picture. Skip the gimmicks and focus on substance.

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For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check our Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Enebook cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.rgize Your Professional Development. 

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