Motivation and De-Motivation
You can’t motivate other people.
People can only motivate themselves. You can’t make other people feel anything. They and they alone are responsible for their own feelings. So you can’t make people love their jobs or want to do what you want them to. You can only give them incentives — reasons why they might love their jobs or want to do what you want them to — and let them decide for themselves.
You can, however, de-motivate people.
You can give people reasons for hating their jobs or for not wanting to do what you want them to. You can make their jobs tedious and meaningless. You can make them attend endless meetings that accomplish squat. You can make them work with bullies and idle gossips. You can reward incompetence and overlook people’s meaningful contributions. You can enforce rules and policies that make no sense. You can overwork and underpay them.
The job of a leader or of anyone who wants to motivate others is first to un-de-motivate people. To un-de-motivate them, remove as many irksome, useless, and onerous impediments as possible. (In the real world, an impediment-free workplace is an impossibility.)
Create the right environment — not a perfect workplace, but a good-enough one. Give people the guidance, support, and tools they need to succeed. Then it’s up to them. If they become engaged — if they motivate themselves — great. If they remain detached or bored or passive — if they choose not to be motivated — it may be your responsibility to help them find someplace else to work.
Do you agree? Disagree? What would you add?
Tags: how to motivate people, motivation
October 31st, 2009 at 12:41 pm
I agree. Once people have figured out the general direction they want to head with their life and choose to work in a certain line of work, then it’s a matter of giving them the tools they need, the flexibility to succeed and fail, and a creative environment to work in then internal motivation is theres to control and grow.
November 20th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Frank,
I couldn’t have said it better.
If you give people the tools, the flexibility, and creative environment you talk about and they still aren’t motivated, I think it’s your job to give them the opportunity to look elsewhere. (I don’t want that to sound overly harsh, mind you.)