You Don’t Need To Motivate Good People… Just Stop Demotivating Them!

7 min readNov 29, 2019

If we’re honest with ourselves, the key thing that demotivates us at work tends to be other people and most notably, the managers or senior execs we report into isn’t it. This is why bad management today is regarded as the biggest barrier to employee productivity. Source: ADP Workforce View in Europe 2019 Report — Sample size 10,000+

This particular phrase has been my mantra ever since my first people management role many years ago.

Why? Because I knew what if felt like to work for managers who made you feel lousy and stole your emotional energy with their demotivational attitudes and yes, this affected my respect for them and consequently the effort I put in for them.

I’ve always found it difficult working for managers who were ignorant of the negative style they had on me and how I felt about them. In my early years, it could be disabling and whilst I learned to deal with, challenge and overcome the impact they had on me, it was never easy.

I think I have a strong sense of justice and part of this is how I feel people should be treated at work, namely: with respect, appreciation, and understanding — basic human dignity.

When these are compromised I see it as an injustice. Even if it’s in ignorance and not intentional, it eats away at me. When I see this happening to others, it has the same effect and I’ve found it hard to let it pass by. I have to call it out and especially if it’s a high-level boss taking advantage of a low-level employee, for me that’s just an abuse of power and position. My protective nature takes over and I’ll admit that it’s gotten me into hot water with bosses more than a few times.

Attacking the ego of such bosses is rarely a wise move but one of my core beliefs is that regardless of the consequences, you must do the right thing. I believe young up and coming managers would do well to heed such advice so they don’t become the kind of manager where their people do as little as possible for instead of as much as possible.

Respect and trust are not ‘givens’ because of position or title, they’re earned by who you are as a human being managing other human beings.

I didn’t want to have this negative effect on the people I led and managed because I knew first hand how the baggage that comes from managers who demotivate people weigh them down and stop them from realising their full potential.

Eliminate the demotivators (negative distractions) however and you clear the path for more people to be at their best more often, and when you do this across the whole team, you see an awesome collective impact that can deliver some outstanding results.

My experience is that good people come to work to do a good job but the single biggest reoccurring obstacle that gets in their way is ineffective management practices, ones that often, managers don’t even realise they’re doing, including but not limited to the following list:

You want appreciation — I mean really?

Being dismissive of contributions, e.g. Why should I show you appreciation or value you for doing the job you get paid for?

Involve you in ‘my’ plans — Are you kidding?

Excluding people, e.g. I’m the boss, it’s ‘my’ responsibility to decide on the direction and how things get done, it’s your responsibility to follow my plans, it’s that simple.

Oh, you have an opinion and you want me to listen to it — No, I’m fine thanks!

Not listening, e.g. I’m too busy to listen to what you have to say and besides, I’ll ask you if I feel the need for it. Why should I involve you or listen to your opinions when I know more than you do?

Having to be right all the time — I’m Right, OK!

Being overly competitive and having to ‘win’ all the time by being right, e.g. I’m the boss, you’re beneath me and I’m more successful, I’m higher up the pecking order so I must know better. If I’m right, you must be wrong, get over it.

Abuse of power and authority — My position is senior to yours!

Being dictatorial, e.g. You must do what I say, even if you disagree, just do it because I’m the boss and you report to me.

This is my style, it’s the ‘authentic’ me!

My style of communicating and doing things has served me well (up to now) so I will continue to manage everyone the same way, my way, even though I know you’re all different, with different needs, skills and experience, we’ll do things ‘my way’ thanks.

I just can’t trust you!

Constantly looking over the shoulder of employees and checking up on them, e.g. I micro-manage you because I need to be sure things get done, I’m sorry if it offends you and drives you mad but hey, it’s my job to drive performance and that means driving people.

“Individually these (and many more) traits can negatively impact on team performance. In combinations however, they can derail a whole department, function or even a business!”

The thing about these traits and others like them is that they demotivate good people, taking their focus away from being and doing their best work, it affects morale, motivation, commitment, loyalty and ultimately productivity.

I’ve seen many good people, including top performers, get to the point where they couldn’t tolerate such bad management practices any longer and they left otherwise good companies, whilst these poor managers remained in situ… it’s sinful really and these managers need to be called out but often:

a) People are afraid to speak up

b) Senior leadership teams have no way of knowing what’s really going on at ground level because all they do is look at the numbers and listen to what their managers tell them.

‘You Don’t Need To Motivate Your People — Just Stop Demotivating Them’ is such a simple philosophy and yet, it’s one that eludes the ability of many managers to see until it’s too late and the damage is done. In fact, in some cases, even business leaders themselves are the problem as their big egos make for bad people leadership practices and examples to the management population below them.

Having said this, young up and coming managers, and especially those who will rise to be our future leaders do not have to follow suit and can be the special people leaders that others look up to, trusted, respected, admired leaders that leave a legacy of positive, constructive energy behind them wherever they go.

In a nutshell, enabling people to achieve higher and higher performance can be considered as more of a ridding process than having to add anything, i.e. just become more aware of and remove the things that get in the way of superior performance and free people up to be and do their best — that’s it!

Stand back and observe, notice what impact your style of management is having on people and their results because sometimes, the more you push people the more you push them away, along with the desired performances you need!

Also, don’t just rely on your own manager for feedback because they’re likely to judge you purely on the results you get, i.e. the numbers! Unless they watch you in action with your people (and hardly any do) they won’t see how you’re really leading and treating your people.

The people who should really judge you as a leader are the people who report into you, so why not do something radical and seek feedback from them by asking them forward-looking questions that influence future desired behaviours instead of inviting potential criticism about past behaviours.

For example:

What would make you say WOW about working in this team?

Is there anything I can do to help make your job more satisfying?

Are there any areas in particular where you need special support from me?

Is there anything I do that stops you being at your best and if removed would make it easier for you to achieve what you need to?

Is there anything you’re not saying to me that’s on your mind that might be useful for me to hear?

I think many managers would be surprised by what they can learn from their direct reports by asking as opposed to assuming they know what people need and in fact, as far as demotivators are concerned, what people don’t need or want.

The assumption that we already know is often what gets in the way of improvement and consequently becoming a great manager and leader of people. It’s the assumptions instead of the understanding that is the enemy of earning the respect and admiration of those we lead. Drop the assumptions, drop the demotivating traits and you clear the path for your own success more easily and collaboratively as well as theirs.

Best Regards,

Reece

PS. If you’re interested in a cool tool that helps identify and remove demotivators, check this out BP2W.