From the course: Leading the Organization Monthly

Motivators vs. demotivators

- A guy works 80 hours, sleeps at his desk for two nights, and pulls together a hundred-page RFP just before the deadline, and the firm wins its first multimillion-dollar contract. The company celebrates and toasts this person's heroic actions. Hooray! Right? Not so fast, where was this guy's team? What happens now that this guy was rewarded? Everyone is going to want to be the hero, right? Maybe they'll even shun collaborative teamwork so they can grab the spotlight next time. Let's take a step back and really think about the subtle motivators. Some of the motivators might actually derail core values and vice versa. As you move from leading others to leading the organization, it's critical you're able to determine motivators and demotivators that exist in the system that is your environment. First, the motivators. We know that there are intrinsic motivators, things like achievement, recognition, and the work itself. These are the things that get us out of bed in the morning. But now determine the subtle intrinsic motivators that exist within your environment. Consider these questions to do a little housekeeping. What is praised during all-hands, town halls, and company meetings? What sort of behavior or accomplishments get rewarded? Does any motivator contradict the company's core values? An example could be someone being praised for fixing a client complaint. Perhaps the issue existed because of bad policies or the team didn't perform or the salesperson overpromised. Someone had to do something different because the system didn't make it the way you do business all the time. Second, the demotivators. These are things that don't motivate per se, but if they're not right, can definitely demotivate the people on your team, things like the boss, administrative requirements, pay, and burdensome and time-consuming, time-wasting procedures. Now determine the subtle demotivators in your system. Perhaps expense reports get micromanaged when salespeople are investing in relationship building. But after a while, the salesperson decides to give up. And you probably don't hear them say, "Not doing that again, "not worth it, it's their problem now." In other words, processes and procedures can completely demotivate and disengage people. The issue is that the disengagement is usually invisible, so you're not able to know damage is being done to the morale of the team internally and the culture that's expressed externally as your brand. So as you move from leading others to leading the organization, know that your job is to create an environment where most of the people do the right thing most of the time with minimal managerial intervention. When you do, you'll motivate your team on the right things, at the right time, in the right way.

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