Many managers believe that motivating employees is their job. They believe that workers are not motivated by nature and can only become effective when they expect either punishment for breaking the rules or a large bonus. This attitude is based on the widespread suspicion that workers never fully use all their knowledge, abilities, and skills for the benefit of the company. Therefore, motivating employees is about stimulating employees to perform specific actions that they would not have performed on their own initiative.
This view is not shared by one of the leading German experts in the field of management, Dr. Reinhard K. Sprenger, who says: "When you try to motivate employees, you get the opposite result."
Dr. Reinhard K. Sprenger, author of the bestseller "The Myth of Motivation - A Way Out of the Deadlock," is considered the best management consultant in Germany.
Anything that is an external incentive, such as a bonus system or commission, is just manipulation and nothing more. Their main message is: " Do this, if you want to get that ." No one should believe that this form of management will pass without negative consequences. The employee responds to his free choice with such manipulation of the bonus system by manipulating it.
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Motivation leads to demotivation, as the employee focuses on the reward and the work or achievements take a back seat. External stimulants like rewards act like drugs. As a manager, you will have to constantly increase the dose for the reward to have an impact and effect, otherwise you will get less work efficiency from your employees in response.
Sprenger believes that motivation does not need encouragement, because it is inherent, natural in humans. Every person has motivation to pursue their own goals, interests, and priorities.
In psychology, this is called intrinsic motivation , and it is an important part of our personality. It is virtually uncontrollable by managers. Those who are intrinsically motivated respond to actions because they find a particular issue interesting, enjoyable, insightful, or challenging.
Sprenger advises managers to allow themselves to be motivated by their employees. All you have to do is not become a source of demotivation for your employees. So try to first identify and then eliminate all motivation-killing components from the work environment.
By doing this, you will be able to take an important step in motivating employees.
The second step is to identify which "language" of motivation the employee understands, what individual motives and goals they have, and build a bridge between their intrinsic motivation and the interests or goals of your company.
Want to delve deeper into the topic of employee motivation? Want to understand what motivates you and your employees and how to declare war on motivation killers?
Then visit our seminar on "Self-Motivation and Employee Motivation": https://bpngeorgia.ge/business-academy/seminars-workshops/selfmotivation-and-employee-motivation
