How to kill the motivation of your employees?

You can kill the motivation of an employee by using demotivating factors. And it does not matter, in fact, how it is done – consciously or unconsciously.

What is it about? About demotivators. They are so different that sometimes it is very difficult to identify them in advance. Often there are even situations in the spirit of the saying “the road to hell is sent with good intentions”. This means that not all demotivators are obvious, most of them are just hidden and disguised. Let’s name the most common ones.

A permanent part of the salary, the so-called fix. It is especially disastrous for sellers and all those categories of workers whose wages can be considered “from production”. The KPI system is perfect for them: how much you have done, so much you get. Fix corrupts people from whom the owner and the manager expect results. Fix turns them into processors. In business, especially in small and medium-sized businesses, such form a harmful ballast.

Equalization. Let’s say Petrov works better than Ivanov, and both get the same. That’s the point of Petrov to work hard and give everything while Ivanov goes on smoke breaks, drives teas and has lunch for an hour and a half. Equalization is not only a violation of justice, it is also a killer of competition.

Lumpenizing factors. If a manager is constantly rude to his subordinates, if he is not an example for them in work, in relation to the business, assets and resources of the company, this discourages employees.

Lack of prospects and real development mechanisms. Having reached a certain level, the employee understands that there is nowhere to grow further – neither in terms of income, nor in terms of career. For example, the company does not have the practice of regular professional development, in other words, studies, trainings. In such an atmosphere, the employee becomes uninterested in this company, in which he does not see himself in the future, therefore, with a clear conscience, he begins to look intently “to the left” and look for more interesting options for himself to leave.

Non-involvement. Not even just in terms of the absence or shortage of team-building substances, but the mental non-participation of a person in work, in the affairs of the company. When he is bored, when he does not see the value in what he does. When in his activity he sees only soulless mechanics, but does not see the point.

Managerial mistakes of the manager. For example, in matters of assessing the potential and capabilities of a person. This is when a manager overestimates his employee, believes that he can get a star, and a person really can’t even lift up his head to properly examine the sky. Here is a real example. A person came to the organization for the position of a business coach. As a business coach, he was completely satisfied with his boss. The employee had a professional type of motivation, he liked working with people, going on business trips, pumping his competencies, developing. But the manager had an idea to give him the opportunity to prove himself in the framework of consulting projects. But management consulting is a completely different genre: if someone is successful in training, it is not at all a fact that he will be well given consulting. Therefore, having received several consulting projects, the coach did not pull them, his level was insufficient for a new job. The manager began to express dissatisfaction with the fact of performing tasks in management consulting. And eventually the employee’s mood and motivation changed, and he slid down to such an extent that he even began to lose the position of business training. As a result, I had to part with him. What happened? He was pulled out of his seat and given something that turned out to be beyond his strength. As a result, the company lost a valuable frame.

This example seems to be about the problem of personnel: the employee turned out to have an insufficient level of competence to perform the tasks that were assigned to him. But in fact, the problem here is the level of competence of the manager.

Demotivation of the manager. For example, his unwillingness to engage in any particular employee. Let’s say a person comes to the company who, in general, works normally. But he does not demonstrate obvious loyalty to the company. Does not violate anything, does not neglect anything, but also does not run forward with a flag with cheers. Rather, it takes a neutral position. He does not participate in corporate events, evades under any pretext, the command is low. And a manager who likes external demonstrative involvement loses motivation to work with this individualist employee, and this affects the motivation of the employee himself. And ultimately, the business loses a reliable labor unit and misses the potential benefit from it.

Organizational factors, for example, the lack of a correct understanding of where we are all moving. This is called a lack of strategic vision. Sometimes even the owner of a business cannot establish the vector of the company’s development. work is also a demotivating factor. Here there is a frequent change of direction, non–systemic, pendulum solutions. In the same row – lack of awareness or, conversely, an overabundance of information.

Naming the factors and causes of demotivation, one should not miss an important pattern. When it comes to what can demotivate, then first you should remember what can motivate. So, for example, you can start from the fact that there are five types of employees — some are motivated by money, the second – fame and honor, the third – autonomy, the fourth – the opportunity to develop professionally and professionally, the fifth – a comfort zone, the absence of disturbing, disturbing factors. Accordingly, what demotivates them? From the opposite: there is no money, fame, honor, independence, autonomy, development, comfort zone.

But there are also factors that generally demotivate an employee of any type. Mistakes of the manager, for example. And there are local, situational factors: someone is demotivated, someone is left indifferent.

The analysis of all the above factors of staff demotivation, thus, gives one general conclusion: the root of motivation problems lies in the level of competence and motivation of the manager himself. If he cannot distinguish personal from professional, if he does not understand anything about the potential of an employee and the level of his abilities, if he does not see the situation deeply and does not monitor the operational level of work, but looks only at distant prospects, in this case there are problems with staff motivation.