the ceo magazine, leadership, employee engagement,

Years ago, I worked for a boss who would have told you how much he admired, encouraged, and inspired discretionary effort. And he would have been wrong on all counts. However, he would have also told you that he went to great lengths to hire highly motivated people who would ensure his success as a business owner, and he would have been right about that. So, how did the wheels come off his plan?

Highly motivated people don’t need external forces to encourage them to go above and beyond. It’s in their DNA. But these same top performers can cease to perform when their bosses engage in demotivating behaviors, as my former boss did.

the ceo magazine, leadership qualities,
Paul J. Zak, PhD, Professor, Claremont Graduate University

Fear or love?  At the most basic level, these are a leader's choices when seeking to motivate followers. Most managers, perhaps due to some hangover from the eighteenth century, lead by fear because, well, it works. Fear may not be explicit, though some managers still scream and yell, but it is often implicit in the "do this or you're out" approach.

Today, we hear a lot about seemingly squishy leadership approaches like "empathy," "humanity" and even "love."  Many business leaders I know would be happy to be Mr. or Ms. Nice at work but they have a feeling that this leadership style is not going to get the job done.  Or, at least that has been the prevailing wisdom.

the ceo magazine, motivation,

In 2016, Wells Fargo fired more than 5,000 employees who learned the hard way that carrots don’t work—at least not in the long run. Decision-makers tied a substantial piece of these employees’ compensation to steep sales targets and made reaching them a condition of continued employment. They saw movement, if not true motivation. Even when launched with the best of intentions—which the leaders at Wells Fargo did not display—evidence shows that carrots-as-motivators ultimately fail. Incentives designed to spur workers to do their best can push them to engage in unethical behavior—to do their worst. 

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