As opposed to looking at what leaders need to do to motivate employees, let's look at what they must not do because it demotivates people. What demotivates good people? Mediocrity. If I work hard and achieve results, but the guy next to me who just cruises gets the same pay and bonus as I do, I will question why am I going above and beyond. Good work must be recognised. Poor work must be…
Being leaders, one challenge we often think about is how to motivate our people to do good work. Here is one important angle on employee motivation shared by Jim Collins in the book Good to Great - Don't motivate your people. If your people need to be constantly motivated, you are doing it wrong. You should not have recruited them in the first place. Bring the right people on board, and put them…
I learned this concept from one of my students. I was conducting a training session about motivating employees when I posed this question to the class - what motivates YOU at your work? Now according to the course content, the three major intrinsic motivations are autonomy, mastery and purpose. I waited for my students to mention reasons which were related to one of these, so that I could expand…
To understand employee motivation, the concept of intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation is important. Extrinsic motivation is when people want to do a good job because it helps them achieve something else. I want to excel in my career so that I can be rich. I want to get good grades because my parents promised a prize. Intrinsic motivation is when people want to do a good job because they want to do a…
This is one of the questions I get asked many times. Let's do a series to explore this topic. In the context of the workplace, the elephant in the room is compensation. All of us work for money. Don't believe anyone who tells you money doesn't motivate employees. It does. Just that it is not the only thing, and often it is not the most important thing. Money is several things at once. Money is…
Some leaders think they should lead with fear. They want their employees to fear them somewhat, because that's the most effective way to get things done. Some leaders who do lead with fear deny it even to themselves. They cannot bear to think of themselves as a bad boss that employees fear. They think of their employees as unconfident, incompetent and passive. Fear is a poor motivator. It…
In cross-cultural negotiations, focus on the person, not the culture. When we need to negotiate with a person from a different country, or industry, or background, we tend to be alert about the differences in culture, especially when we are not familiar with our counterpart's culture. It is a natural instinct and the intention is good. However we have to be careful not to make the wrong…
Know your counterpart's intention. Is he here to take, or is he here to truly negotiate a give-and-take? Everyone wants a positive outcome from a negotiation, but not all negotiations will work out. If you identify early that your counterpart is manipulative and wants to take advantage of the situation, you may need to be prepared to walk away, or you must show your strong grasp of the situation…
Look beyond what you are negotiating. If both parties fixate on the price, and neither are willing to concede, the negotiation goes nowhere. You need to explore what else you can ask for from your counterpart which is also important to you, or what else you can offer which is important to them. When teaching negotiation skills, I give my students this negotiation scenario for discussion. A ship…
Name it to tame it - address the emotions. This will sound like a rather "Western" thing. In Asian culture, people usually don't talk about emotions. Certainly we don't consider it in business or work related negotiations. So this feels awkward to us. Explicitly addressing an emotion can be an important step in preventing a negotiation from being derailed by impulse and ego. "I sense you are…
Ask open questions. Don't be fixated on the parts you get stuck on, else you cannot move forward. Ask open questions so that you can discover more about what is important to your counterpart. Open questions invite your counterpart to share information and views which you otherwise might not know. From there maybe there is something else you can offer. An HR Manager looking to retain talent may…
Keep your own ego in check. We want to win. We think highly of ourselves. We feel we deserve more. We feel insulted when the other party offers less than what we expected. Sometimes it is because of our ego that we become stubborn and unable, or even unwilling, to see the true picture. So yes, sometimes we are the problem. Now this is not about always giving in to the other party's requests. It is…
Understand and address the emotions. Some negotiations go nowhere because both parties are emotionally charged. People become stubborn and unreasonable when they are emotionally charged. In many negotiations, the physical items being fought over, or the tasks being debated, are not actually the main point. You need to address the emotions involved. One minor shareholder who has been with the…
Be on the same side. Most people when they consider themselves in a negotiation, they automatically see themselves in a zero sum game. You and the other party are on opposite ends of a table. When one side gains, the other loses. So both sides fight mercilessly to get what they want. This limiting mindset results in many people walking away from negotiations having gained little or nothing. What…
Strong leaders often feel frustrated by the incompetence they see in their organisations. One important thing we must do is to reflect on our own definitions of competence. Is it really a competence problem, or do you just want things your way? We become leaders because we are good at what we do. From our successful experiences, we have formed opinions and preferences on how things should be done.…
I learned this simple framework about understanding why people do not perform. Reasons for underperformance can be classified into four types: Don't know - They don't even realise that they are performing below expectations. Don't know how - They know what they are supposed to do, but they can't do it. They are not trained. They have never been taught. Can't - They know how to do the job, but they…
Train your people. Teach them. Guide them. Give them learning resources. Assign them mentors. Motivate them to want to learn and be better at their jobs. I'm not saying this just because I am a leadership trainer and more companies looking for training means more business for me. When you know the reason your staff cannot do their jobs is they don't know how to do it, the simple answer is they…
If an employee is not performing, sometimes the best decision is to let the person go. This is a simple answer which everyone knows, but when it comes to actually doing it, many will say "it's not as easy as you think". I'm not just talking about legal matters and HR procedures. Many leaders just don't want to be the bad person asking the employee to leave. Or we fear damaging morale because the…
All of us experience this. An employee who simply doesn't get the job done. You give him the time and resources he needs. What you ask of him is not complicated. Yet he makes mistakes which are so fundamental that it makes you wonder whether he is qualified for his position in the first place. It is frustrating. The first thing you need to ask is this - are you making it worse? Time and again, I…
I recently conducted my business simulation activity Rivers and Lakes with a group of entrepreneurs. It is amazing to see how creative they are not only in solving problems, but also in supporting one another, and interestingly, also in breaking rules. As part of this learning activity, I designed a rule which forbids participants from showing a piece of information to others. It is a trick I play…
At one recent training event, one of the activities required participants to make as much money as possible, and it was done as a closed economy. Everyone received $500 toy money at the start of the game. It was a zero sum game. During the debrief, I came to a difficult situation. I asked the participants their biggest takeaway, and more than one said, "In business, it doesn't pay to be honest".…
This was what I kind of did, when I had the opportunity to put on professional grade medical scrubs from Oslo Scrubs (https://www.iamoslozen.com). I had this opportunity because of the BNI business network I am in. I started my own business as a leadership trainer only 5 years ago. Back then I had run other people's businesses, but I had not built my own from scratch. It was my business community,…
If a potential client asks me this question, it usually means I will walk away from the discussion. Now it is fair to want training to be effective and to yield results. However when a potential client frames the question this way, it is an indication that they expect the leadership trainer to magically transform the participants into great leaders who quickly make more money for the company.…
Lack of exposure outside of the family business. Some 2nd generation business owners started their career in the family business right after graduation. They have never worked for someone else other than family. They have not played the role of just an employee. They have always been the scion, the successor. They have a world view which is different. It gives them different insights, and also…
Conflict between 2nd generation owners and 1st generation staff. If you are the 2nd gen, and these uncles and aunties have known you since you were a kid, it may not be easy for you to ask them to change the way they work. "We have be operating this way for years and we have been fine." It is hard for people who have worked in the same company for 20 years to get out of their comfort zone. Also,…