Motivating the Unmotivated

Some time ago I asked for your help to figure out what to do with the unmotivated. The responses I received were nothing short of amazing, and they are very worth this follow-up article.  Thank you to all who contributed to this article!

Mike Chitty shared this gem:

First thing to do – recognize that you have found a Unicorn. A mythical creature.

Part of the human condition is to be motivated to do something. Even a choice to do nothing requires motivation.

You have to recognise that you have not got the right relationship with this person. They don’t trust you enough to tell you about what they really want to achieve – so they go underground.

So don’t worry too much about motivation. They have it. Worry about performance and behaviour. Give feedback. Establish and communicate consequences – and leave the rest up to them.

Pete offered this insightful comment:

Just fired a totally unmotivated person based on errors they were making. If a person is completely unmotivated, monitor their work to see if they’re doing it up to snuff. If not, document and show them the door.

If their work is fine and you just don’t think they are motivated as much as you think they should be, you may need to adjust your viewpoint. What you may think is what everyone should want may be out of sync with your staff persons’ circumstances and state of life. For some people, simply managing their family and a job together is enough to worry about. They will not go to school for an MBA (perhaps like you), and they might just stay in their job for a long time. Lower turnover is good, right?

Tisha White shared:

Ask them what *will* motivate them to do good work; what excites them that can be related back to their job? Brainstorm with them to see if you can change up their job duties to help get them excited and wanting to come to work and WORK! CREATE! GET STUFF DONE!

You must also be prepared for the possibility that they aren’t a good fit for the position and may move on at some point; be sure to conduct an exit interview to find out what made them want to seek a position elsewhere.

Rhett Laubach said:

1. Identify what you mean by “isn’t motivated” for the person. What exact actions are they not displaying that you wish they did?

2. Ask yourself these questions…

A. Do they know they are supposed to do those actions?
B. When was the last time they were reminded of those actions?
C. Are there clear reasons why those actions are important, necessary, valuable, etc.
D. Are there clear guidelines on what will happen if they don’t do those actions?
E. Are there regular or irregular sessions between you and the person to discuss their movement from where they are currently to where you wish them to be?

3. Your strategy for dealing with the “isn’t motivated” will come directly from your answers to those questions. They either aren’t clear on what is expected of them, there isn’t a clear reason for doing the actions, there aren’t clear repercussions for not doing the actions and/or no one is coaching them to get from point A to point B.

R. Rajaram offered this:

With out making any proper effort or assessment we should not classify some one as unmotivated. The problem is only with the leader (motivator). Do not fire them. They do also have fire in them and make the fire within. Every person is blessed with many positive points and also cursed with few negative points. Take the positive in a person.

Ollie had this perspective:

A lot of possibilities. How much “self-motivation” you are looking for? Because for every genuinely “unmotivated” worker there are oodles of ruthless climbers in management & thousands of other workers who have their self-motivated ideas, initiatives and work thanklessly overlooked, exploited, ignored, stolen, plagiarized and – well – you get the point.

Just be careful in assessing motivation that you have located the problem correctly.

Ron Kibbe offered the most recent comment:

Wow! A diverse range of responses. For me, I like to find out what is going on the employee. Is there something at work or outside of work that is bothering them? Is there anything you, as a leader, can do for them? If so, do it! If not, can you help them sort any of it out?

Sit down and have a heart to heart talk with them. If you hired them, share with them all of the qualities you saw in them when you first offered them the job. Talk about all the times you saw them “on fire”. Then, talk with them about your current observations. Explain to them that things cannot continue and what will happen if they do.

Finally, where possible help them create a roadmap for success.

Whenever you have an unmotivated you must take a good hard look in the mirror and ask what role have I played in this. If you have have truly given your all to help the person, great! Most of us have a little more to give. It’s called “tough love”. It is confronting the issue and traveling down the road to recovery, where possible, with the individual. There will be times when the “unmotivated” must travel alone.

All of these insights are helpful, and they cut to the core of motivation: That it’s intrinsic for most, and that for others, that the manager must take some responsibility for the lack of it and try to do what she/he can to help find the motivation that is inside all of us.

My opinion on what to do with the unmotivated can be found within these comments. I’ll post a summary of my thoughts tomorrow.

But for now we are young, let us lie in the sun photo credit to Joe L-C