Are You Inadvertently De-Motivating Your Team?

I saw an article from INC.com about how NOT to motivate employees and wanted to share some of their content with you – along with my thoughts and comments.

The essence of the article is that we as leaders sometimes say things to our team that have the opposite effect of what we want. Maybe we are trying to motivate them but going about it the wrong way, or maybe we are just making a random comment that inadvertently demotivates someone.

I’ve broken my 13 items into 3 categories – Team Dynamic Saboteurs, Feedback Fails, and Leadership Derailers.

Team Dynamic Saboteurs

1.    Making comparisons.

Whether you are trying to motivate someone to improve or actually trying to shame them, comparing employee A to employee B is never a good idea. The reverse is also true – if you tell employee A that they are much better at X than employee B, it WILL get back to employee B.

2.         Bashing others.

Paint this one with a broad brushstroke – whether it’s your boss, your peers, or pretty much anyone. They will assume you’re also bashing them when they are out of earshot. This also, most definitely, includes your predecessor. This is far different from telling the truth with respect.

3.    Telling your team to bring only solutions to you.

You WANT problems surfaced – preferably with some ideas on how to solve, but that won’t always happen. If you require them to bring only problems for which they have a strong solution for, you will be missing other problems they see but have no ideas on how to solve.

4.    Telling them you will do it yourself.

This reveals that you are a control freak who doesn’t trust your team – and that you don’t care about them enough to help them learn and grow. This also shows a lack of strategic mentality – making sure your team is competent in the short term will ultimately save you time in the long term.

Feedback Fails

5.    Telling an employee you don’t have feedback for them.

This is a signal that you aren’t paying enough attention to the employee’s performance. Certainly, you can ask probing questions to determine what area or type of feedback the employee is looking for, but you should always be able to coach them on a moment’s notice.

6.    Not being direct with feedback.

In this scenario, you DO have feedback for them, but you are holding back. You are couching your feedback with words like “Don’t take this the wrong way,” or “I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but…” It can also indicate you haven’t taken the time – or have the skill – to provide helpful feedback to them.

7.    Questioning their process with an accusation.

Saying “Why did you do it that way?” instead of something like “How might things have been done better?” or “How might you do it differently next time?” invites defensiveness rather than collaboration and growth. If you need to take a minute to get in the right mindset, DO IT.

8.    Conveying your disappointment in THEM.

Focus any negative feedback in their performance, with specific examples aimed toward improvement – not them as human beings.

9.    Non-specific praise.

If you have children, you know to tell them what they did well and why – the same goes with your team members. “Good job” doesn’t facilitate growth; “I really like the way you handled that potential delay with Purchasing by…” does.

Leadership Derailers

10.Not giving a reason for your decisions.

Not knowing why I’m asked to do what I’m doing is a major demotivator for employees. And if you can’t give them a reason – why is that? Is it because there is no justifiable reason – or because you have a reason that you don’t want your team to know about?

11.Avoiding accountability.

Here’s two problems with this: One, you are demonstrating the “pass the buck” mentality to your team, which doesn’t engender confidence or loyalty, and two, if you’re the leader – it is your problem too. No matter what.

12.   Being too busy to talk…pretty much all the time.

You aren’t telegraphing how important and essential you are – you are telegraphing that you aren’t a good time manager, don’t delegate effectively, and/or don’t care enough about your team to develop them. This doesn’t mean you have to drop what you are doing in the moment, but provide an explanation and set up a time to speak soon.

13.   Saying the quiet thing out loud.

Specifically, asking a team member if they are questioning your authority, or accusing you of showing favoritism or outright lying…you get the idea. You are showing your insecurity and inability to handle conflict. Rather, you want to welcome questions and pushback – as long as it is done professionally, with respect.