Can you motivate someone?
The gurus tell me that you can’t. You can’t give your staff motivation. It is not within your gift. Motivation is intrinsic, it comes from within. It isn’t something you can hand out with a carrot or a stick. You can make somebody do something, but you can’t motivate them, not in the long-term.
Can you demotivate someone?
The gurus (and personal experience) tell me that you can.
- You can make them feel average
- You can forget to thank them for a job well done
- You can give them unattainable targets
- You can incentivise them (contentious that one)
- You can pay people inequitably
- You can put the ever-living fear of God into them
- And you can be just plain rude
Demotivating people is really very easy. — Believe me, I am the master.
All of which causes a conundrum…
If you can’t give motivation but you can take it away, then surely, over time even the keenest most motivated self-starter will have their motivation slowly drained away
drip…
drip…
drip…
If you believe the surveys most people are thoroughly demotivated at work — which kind of proves the point.
So what can you do about that?
Apparently it is about creating an environment where people generate their own flow and motivation.
Could you create an environment where the work matters?
- Disney want to create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment
- Google want to organize the world‘s information
Could you create an environment where the work is interesting?
Ok the job may be tightening the top of toothpaste tubes, but it is easy to make that interesting, give people the challenge of working out how to tighten the tooth paste tubes cheaper, faster or better, people love to improve their own work.
Could you create an environment where people can see how they are doing?
How many toothpaste tube tops did you fasten today? How many do you need to fasten tomorrow? What was the best day for toothpaste tub tightening?
Wouldn’t you want to know?
Could you create an environment where people work together?
We are social people we love to serve one another
Could you create an environment where people can do their best work?
- Give people the tools to do the job
- Remove the bureaucracy that stops people being their best
Instead of forcing people to do the work you need, force the work to fit the people you have.
You can’t give someone motivation
It has to come from within, but you can nurture it.
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Read another opinion
Image by katiew
James,
I’m reminded of the Eleanor Roosevelt quote: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” If that’s the case, why is demotivating so easy?
And yet, when I think about the carrot and the stick, doesn’t the carrot motivate?
So many questions… :-)
Annette :-)
Only if it is a carrot shaped stick Annette
Hello James,
It occurs to me that the experts are inconsistent. Motivation and demotivation are inside jobs which is my way of saying that ultimately one lifts oneself up (whatever the circumstances) or permits one to sink to the lowest level – depression. This is the Sartrean way of looking at the matter: the human being as the sole master of his being.
Another way of looking at the matter is as you say the social view: we exist in relationship with one another. Everything that we do (that includes what we do not do) matters: it impacts our fellow human beings. Sometimes this impact is not under conscious control for example in a room where one person yawns others start yawning. In a room where one person takes the risk to share his authentic voice permission is created for others to take a step into vulnerability and in the process one or more souls take up that invitation. This is the Heideggeran view of the way of the being of human being.
As for the matter of creating a context where the people within it are inspired to give of their best, it occurs to me that one way is to make the work itself intrinsically rewarding. So the joy lies in the doing of the work and as such the work is not experienced as work. An alternative is to create a work environment where people enjoy being, talking with one another, helping one another, laughing with one another, irrespective of the intrinsic worth of the work. Finally, it occurs to me that there are some travel souls who can transcend both the work and the work environment. They can and do give of their best because they looked towards and are uplifted/motivated by the ‘toward which’ of the work: the ultimate purpose of the work e.g. saving lives, improving living conditions, coming up with something awesome….
Maz
Hi James,
Spot on.
I believe that we choose to be motivated or demotivated. I also believe that it is very hard to make someone do something and it is still a choice.
However, our ‘choices’ about motivation or how we go about something are heavily influenced by our environment, our experience and the people around us. One very sage HR leader once said to me ‘we’d solve a lot of problems if we could just make every manager better and nicer to work with’.
Adrian
A lovely quote Adrain