It is proposed to provide an explanation for the fact observed by many business leaders regarding the low motivator of money. For this, the concepts of Personality of the Leader and Imaginary Record in Lacan will be articulated.
A high number of employers comment, quite insistently indeed, their concern regarding the low levels of motivation they observe in their employees.
When asked about the facts that allowed them to affirm that, they mainly mention that their collaborators only do what is asked of them and that they do not have a great sense of belonging to the company.
Let's see if we can articulate some ideas.
1. What expectations the employer has of its staff (current and future).
In the first place, it goes without saying that it will depend on the position in question, the case of a Jr. worker not being the same as a Mr.
Is it yours? The quick answer is in the affirmative. In other words, it is obvious that what is expected of an operator is not the same as what is expected of a Middle Management, Manager or Director. However, the issue becomes more complex as reality raises questions.
Namely, would it not correspond to analyze the potentiality of the person?
In that case, the projection for him outlines a path to follow in the future and therefore, the expectations that fit him may be higher, even if it is a staff with a clearly operational profile.
This leads us to consider the personality traits of the company leader. If he is demanding of himself, he will most likely pass this on to others and consequently ask the workers for more in exchange for their work.
Then your expectations will be higher. Even in low-ranking positions.
Ultimately, the first concept that appears is that of the Leader's Personality.
Those with high aspirations will tend to pass them on to their people and expect more from their employees. On the contrary, those who are grouped within the group of conformists, will not demand from their personnel more than strict compliance with schedules, and eventually, compliance with some other objective of little relevance.
Summarizing, the reasoning is:
Demanding leader = Employee Potential Analysis = High performance expectations.
Let us add that if these expectations are not satisfied, the Leader becomes concerned about the possible causes that hinder a high performance of the employee.
The mediocre Leader does not care about the worker's motivation indexes because it is enough for him to only do what he is paid for and was hired.
That is to say: The lines that follow are dedicated to particularly demanding leaders and not to those who do not have above-average aspirations.
2. From good intentions to effectiveness to motivate.
We commented that for a virtuous leader the desire of his workers is key. And most of the time, we observe that this desire tries to be fueled by money, resulting in a significant increase in its motivation in the short term; to later lead to a languor in its thrust.
The easiest way, it is supposed, to motivate someone is that of money. And yet the facts reveal its evanescent power with pristine clarity. Today's amount will be insufficient tomorrow. And the responsibility is not for inflation but in any case for the imaginary register to which the silver belongs.
Let's take a step back. Lacan distinguishes in his teaching the Real, Symbolic and Imaginary registers. I intend to use the latter to shed light on something that appears somewhat enigmatic.
Lacan starts from the Freudian understanding that infans have anarchic perceptions of themselves at the approximate age of one year. At a certain point, these drives must meet under the frame of the body itself. And the child manages to do it through an artifice.
To explain it, the French author uses a metaphor.
It develops its so-called mirror stage by taking an experience of optics by which a mirage is produced from placing an inverted object below a surface, which if reflected by a concave mirror produces its manifestation as a virtual image in the area superior of that plane. And it will depend on the position of the observer who can experience the above.
In this way, we constitute ourselves as subjects based on the combination between the gaze of a truly significant person who observes us (let's call her mother for didactic purposes), and the self-image that a mirror returns, which we see complete in the first stages of the life.
But it's just that: an image. Imaginary comes from image and therefore we must understand it in those terms. That we assume it to be real does not mean that it is. That is their deception. Or rather, its mirage.
That initial moment of life makes us, along with other variables, become subjects, somehow avoiding the dimension of loss. Or what is outside the image (the symbolic and real records).
Each one of us, as subjects, needs the imaginary dimension to sustain ourselves in the world, along with others, whom we will henceforth consider as our peers.
What is interesting about these Lacanian insights is that there are some objects that will come within this register, that of the imaginary, to cover potholes or rather to avoid constitutive absences or losses. The passion of the neurotic, in addition to justifying his existence is not seeing. To avoid the horror that confronts you with an incomplete image. To a void. At a pure loss.
We call that impulse that constantly pulls desire and its energy, drive.
At this point, the warned reader will be able to realize that one of these objects, almost privileged in adulthood, is none other than money. For Freud, money, feces and even a child are synonymous in the unconscious.
3. Why money doesn't motivate.
Now we can answer this question with more elements.
We see that money is part of the imaginary record, both of the employee and the leader. And we learned that this dimension plays a vital role not only at the moment when all our subsequent identifications capable of shaping our character will begin; but it is also the register that allows us to become subjects and accept that others are something different from me.
Articulating then the register of the imaginary with money, we will say that the latter is nothing more than a mirage that carries the illusion of transforming ourselves into someone complete, as we perceive it at that time.
But just around the corner the disappointment of the failed match awaits us.
Of verifying that it was not. Money is only one object, similar to others. The perversion lies in believing it capable of suturing a basal wound.
The above clearly explains the unease of the employer when he sees that the money will never be enough for the employee. Just like love…
And before this the suggestion is to be warned. Take money as important but not crucial in worker satisfaction. And that there are intangibles capable of triggering enormous motivating potential, such as time for the employee to enjoy outside the company; the feeling of tranquility produced by knowing where the direction of the company is heading or feeling identified with the task at hand.
The latter is probably the most difficult to achieve, but it is the one that ensures having someone truly comfortable with their work and having a high potential for the company as a correlate.
Returning to the beginning, the employer's question about the low sense of belonging to the organization must be reformulated in these terms.
Specifically, the worker may feel identified with the company as long as he is first identified with his own task. Then you can really feel motivated if you don't just give it a try.
