Are You Willing to Let Others Be the Smartest People in the Room?

Are those around you motivated? Maybe you should answer a couple of questions before you say yes or no. 

• Do you agree that it is a leader’s job to motivate their staff? Yes, or no? 
• Do you agree that leaders need to put the right incentives in place to get people to align with the company goals?  Yes, or no? 

If you agree with these statements, it is likely that you are confusing manipulation with motivation. These are both statements that reveal manipulation. When did we decide that motivation is something that we can or should do to someone else?

For most of us, when asked, we take personal responsibility for our own motivation.  It is up to me to determine what actions I will or will not take. And if I am motivated or unmotivated to do something, that is on me. I get to choose what motivates me. When others attempt to motivate me to do something, it doesn’t take me long to feel I am being manipulated, and that is never a good feeling.  Why would we think it is any different for the folks doing the daily work of the organization?

Some Leaders Are Overtly Disrespectful 

It gets worse!  In my consulting, I sometimes witness things that just do not make sense at all. Brazen disrespect for professionals is at the top of the list. I have many examples of this phenomenon but will cite just a few to make the point. While the leaders think they are motivating people with these behaviors, I call them “humiliators”:

1. Leaders who flagrantly refuse to follow policies and rules that pertain to all. In one case, a vice president parked in an area reserved for disabled customers, despite signage and repeated warnings. Professional staff observed this and called it out as inconsiderate in staff forums and on the company’s engagement surveys. Eventually, the vice president of HR had to have the executive’s car towed away, much to the executive’s embarrassment.
2. Leaders who make demands on employees for overtime, and then take that same time off for themselves. In one notable case, the executive would place a set of keys on his desk, signaling that he was in the building somewhere, when in fact he was at the gym, working out. And everyone knew it.
3. Leaders who bring up past offenses in a public setting to a professional who is obviously working to change for better. Never berate someone in public, particularly someone who is trying to improve.
4. Leaders who use fear of any kind. In one organization, an executive was fond of telling people, “We are all ‘interim.’” This left professionals in a state of ambiguity about their future in the organization, and turnover was high.
5. Leaders who discipline, and even fire someone by email or text. This is rude and totally insensitive. Professionals deserve more respect than that.
6. Leaders who claim to be “too busy” to take time with the professionals who are doing the daily work. If you cannot spend time with them, why are you there? As a leader, that is your most important role. In one organization, I asked a professional team about the support they were getting from their executive vice president, and no one in the room knew who that was. And several of those folks had been there for more than five years. One participant said, “I bust my butt every day to put food on my table for my family, and make a difference for our customers, not to get my idiot boss (who doesn’t even know my name) a bonus in his next check.”

It is behavior like these that drive professionals to cynicism and apathy. If leaders cannot model behavior for the professionals working with them, why should the professionals behave any differently than they are? And why would these folks be engaged in their work?

Do you make others the smartest people in the room? 

Perhaps we need to take a different perspective on the work, and on what really motivates people. Perhaps we need to make others, our professionals, the smartest people in the room. Most people want to shine! Perhaps, our job is to help our professionals solve their own problems, rather than filling in for them and fostering what has been described as “learned helplessness.” Perhaps our job as leaders is to get out of the way of people who do the daily work, and find ways to get them the resources and training they need to be successful beyond their wildest dreams in achieving their potential. Perhaps we need to engage our professionals as co-authors when things need to change. Perhaps we need to do our real job of leadership, making them the smartest people in the room!

Real motivation comes from within.  It is when I am doing something that I really want to do, because I deem it to be valuable in some way for me to do it.  It is internal, intrinsic. And when that happens, whatever I am doing becomes a joy, and no longer “work”! Why would it be different for anyone else? That is motivation. People motivate themselves when given the opportunity to do so, no incentives required.

This article is a condensed section of this latest book, Lead with Purpose: Reignite Passion and Engagement for Professionals in Crisis.
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Written by Dr. Roger A. Gerard.

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