What Not to Do When You’re Trying to Motivate Your Team
hbr.org
hbr.org
The most demotivational thing a boss can do for me is to provide criticism that indicates contradictory demands, or that they don't know what they want, or that they are unwilling to accept my limitations.
Compliments are not bad, but kind of superfluous - if I've succeeded at something, genuine recognition means being given something more challenging. And if I've failed at something, nice words are just twisting the knife if they are an attempt to obscure the fact someone has given up on me.
- achieving trust is the ultimate motivation
- losing trust is the end of a relationship and motivation
Criticism can be a powerful way of demonstrating trust, but it can also signify a loss of trust - it's very contextual. Being ignored, too, can indicate complete trust, or it can indicate disengagement or absence of trust.
The article got close to touching on a successful method of motivating, which is making sure individuals’ contributions are communicated throughout the organization in a clear and ideally public manner.
My question is, what should I do when I'm on the not-receiving-recognition end? I've tried to think of ways of maybe giving myself positive feedback, etc. but haven't really fleshed it out yet. I'm basically in a situation where I don't want to give up the fight to succeed in my role, but it feels like all that is ever visible are my and my team's failures...
This seems to be vaguer than what I thought of before clicking on the link. I generally react to any proposition that seems compelling and obvious and motivational by asking myself "what if the opposite were true and how would one determine that?" If the opposite could be defended equally well, then the original statement doesn't mean much. Sometimes it seems to me like it's most of what people talk about. Instead of debating, perhaps it's best to just put it aside as non-productive. Apparently that's a subset?