I would like to write this article from the experiences observed in the Development Actions that we carry out. One of the most frequently asked questions is "How can I motivate…?" There are several answers to this question, of course, but the most common is that of acknowledging the work that the collaborator does, and "congratulating her" on a job well done.
When you say this, you usually notice how the face of the person who has asked often denotes a certain disappointment. I expected something more modern, something newer, more groundbreaking.
The truth is that the human being continues to expect the same thing that he hoped for in the time of Jesus Christ: to be effusively understood, and lovingly welcomed (José Mª Cardona).
However, it is also true that the art of motivation and congratulation is not easy at all. It is not enough to say "Congratulations…!" To get motivation to emerge, many other ingredients are needed.
Depending on how the person is addressed in general, the congratulation can have a very positive effect… or just the opposite.
It is also true that normally the question of "How can I motivate…?" It does not usually end there, but has multiple endings: "
How can I motivate… who does not want?… Who has been doing the same thing for 30 years?… Who does routine work?… Who has to do things because they come from above like that? ". These, and many others are examples in which a "Congratulations !!" It may not make sense.
Next, I am going to expose some of the traps of motivation into which we bosses fall with good intention and predisposition to motivate, and for which we do not understand why the desired motivation is not achieved.
Trap 1.
A boss who does not delegate well and congratulates one of his collaborators is congratulating himself.
In these moments in which the satisfaction of the "internal customer" is so fashionable, we often find ourselves with the following: we have gone from a culture of "command and command because I say so", to another of "command and control, but if you have something to say I will be happy to hear you and so we dialogue ”(this if you have time). In the latter case, they continue to do what the boss says, only that he says it well and dialogues, so that he is convinced that the collaborator has “collaborated”.
Once the collaborator has done what the command “suggested in a dialogical way to motivate him,” he congratulates him. In this way we find ourselves with the curious situation that trying to motivate another, one ends up motivating oneself, because in the end it was done as oneself said, and it turned out well that way. If this is so, our problem is not one of motivation, but one of delegation.
In this case, the boss should not learn motivation, but delegation, and not theoretically, but experientially. You have to start risking giving authority once your co-worker is trained, letting him do it, and trusting that he will do well supervising you.
If it were done this way, then the congratulation would touch his heart, because he is congratulated for what he has really done. (That is, he has not done it only in an operational way, but he decided to do it that way. That is why the congratulation is his).
Trap 2.
Suppose the boss learned to delegate, but delegates minor tasks. A boss who congratulates a collaborator for a job well done, but who is not intimately linked to achieving the company's common and final objective, really motivates him, but in an ephemeral and punctual way.
In this case, you have been left to decide and therefore the motivation is achieved, but if all the types of motivations that are given are in this way, there will ultimately be no motivation, because there is probably a problem of strategy.
What motivates you without a doubt is knowing that you have made a real and genuine contribution. Otherwise, the congratulation ends up being meaningless.
This usually happens in companies where everyone works, and works a lot, but nobody knows the end goal of it, or simply this is not defined.
Trap 3.
Let's suppose that this boss already delegates, and that the collaborator does a job that really contributes to the ultimate goal of the company, but has been doing exactly the same for many years.
A boss who congratulates a professional who has been doing the same thing for 20 years, makes the other think that if he were not able to do what he has done eight hundred thousand times, it would be useless. “(…) I am talking about people who, no matter how busy they seem to be, have stopped learning and growing. I'm not making fun. Life is hard. Sometimes focusing on moving forward is an act of courage.
We have to face the fact that most of the men and women in the world of work are less inventive and more tired than they think, than they know, and more boring than they dare to admit (…) ”. (Paragraph of the Fish Book! The effectiveness of a team lies in its ability to Motivate)
In this case, the problem, again, would not be one of motivation, but probably of Implication for Innovation and of introducing the necessary changes in each and every one of the jobs.
Making changes is not something that can be done suddenly with professionals who have been doing the same thing for too long.
For this reason, this situation of profound demotivation must be foreseen from the moment a person joins an organization. You must always introduce changes, training, giving new responsibilities from time to time.
In other words, professionals must be developed so that motivation does not decline.
Trap 4.
A boss who congratulates a job that is not really well done, not only encourages mediocrity, but also leaves the other thinking that his job should not be very important because it can be done in any way.
The first thing one thinks when this happens is that the collaborator is going through a bad streak, perhaps a personal one. In many cases he will be right and therefore you have to talk to him.
However, there are times when this is not the case, simply the collaborator has relaxed the self-demand.
What is clear is that the first one who knows how he is doing things is oneself, if he is not told anything, he may be very comfortable, but surely he is not motivated. In this case, it would be a problem of demand and development.
Trap 5.
Let's suppose that the boss who goes to a motivation course with the most sought-after guru on the 21st century Management market, and learns the most modern techniques to achieve it, but meets someone who definitely does not want to be motivated.
Giuliani says that when choosing the members of the team, you should not be impressed by their studies, but by the concrete achievements they have obtained throughout their lives.
In this case, if the person has just been incorporated, the problem is not one of motivation, but rather it may have been one of selection.
If you have been in the company for a long time, you will have to do an analysis of everything else: Is it delegated well ?; Were promises not kept? Are you fed up with your work ?; Was the requirement relaxed long ago ?;
Do you often talk to him?; Do we know what he knows, what he thinks, what he likes, what he wants, what he does well, what could have changed and improved…? And the most important:
Is the strategy well defined and does he do a job that really contributes and helps to achieve it?
In conclusion, speaking of Motivation, the manager must learn to motivate, and must realize the great importance of Recognition in capital letters, which is the only one that a collaborator accepts as their own because: they decided to do it this way, they did it well, they He developed as a person and as a professional, and made a real contribution within an organization that knows where he is going.
