The Mindset

Many companies face a motivation problem. Some of them are aware of the problem, which is, of course, a good start. But even these companies often tend to sweep the problem under the carpet. They don’t really ignore the problem. They just try to solve it using the easiest possible solution — a solution that never works.

The easy solution usually involves spending money on useless “motivational” stuff. Timothy Johnson describes it better than I can in his ransom note. This kind of stuff never works. At least not for long. If anything, it raises the cynicism level of employees to new heights.

Clearly, this is the easiest solution from management’s perspective because it appears to be immediate. You just print a couple of posters or buy cute little toys for your employees and the problem is solved. Allegedly.

But motivation cannot be bought using coffee mugs, stickers, or posters. We don’t fall for that stuff. We need something else. It’s not expensive, but it is invaluable. It’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

In a great article in the Slow Leadership blog, Carmine Coyote accurately describes The Cycle of Respect and The Cycle of Contempt.

Respect is indeed the greatest reward. You cannot expect your employees to be motivated, innovative, and productive, if you don’t respect them. It’s that simple!

Well, it isn’t really that simple. This might be one of the hardest changes to make in an organization. I am almost tempted to say that you are either born with the ability to respect others or you’re not.

But this does not change the fact that without respect, the motivation problem will just keep showing up over and over again. No poster in the world will ever change that.

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• Passion Killers

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 6th, 2006 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Organizational Culture, Management, Motivation, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.