Be Careful of Punishment

How do you motivate people?

Many leaders take two clear approaches to motivation:

if you do what they want, you get rewarded - OR,
if you do NOT do what they want, you get punished

How does that work?

It has an immediate impact. People do respond. We will do nearly anything to avoid getting punished. And there is part of the problem - if we will do anything to avoid being punished that includes all sorts of things that a leader probably doesn't have in mind - such as gaming the system, cheating, stealing, lying, and covering things up. Probably not the team environment that you've got in mind.

Plus, punishment pushes the problem further down the road - the lack of belief and engagement - and amplifies what you lack even more. It reaches a pitch where bigger and bigger punishment is needed to have the same impact. Again, that's not what you want as a centered, high performance leader.

I'm not saying that there is no place for punishment. Some crimes can only be stopped by removing the perpetrator from action. But as a team leader - as a supervisor - as a project manager - all punishment will get you is bigger problems, disgruntled team members, broken trust, and endless manipulations.

Just because punishment is powerful does not mean that we should use it as a motivator.

How can you motivate without punishing?

Easy:

Find out what motivates your people
Create an environment where they can make that happen

Real motivation is never manipulative. We aren't trained animals, are we? Real motivation comes from an inward focus on something dramatically important, noble, and life changing. While that's not easy - it's dramatically effective.

How will you seek to motivate your team today?

-- Doug Smith

doug smith training: how to achieve your goals

Front Range Leadership: High performance leadership training

Comments

High Performance Leadership Combination

We can rationalize anything without making it justified. Leaders should always ask: who is this good for other than me? High performance leadership does NOT mean performance at any cost. It means performance that serves a noble cause while also benefiting people. High performance leadership is a combination. Results without relationships are shallow and temporary. Take care of both, and you'll be a high performance leader. -- doug smith

New Ideas

New ideas won't break you but they can make you bigger. -- doug smith

Your Reputation

More authority means higher levels of responsibility. More power requires more service to others, not less. What you do with your power is who you will be known as. Also, how you use the power you have creates who people will remember you as. How do you want to be remembered? -- doug smith

Start With Kindness

When you start with kindness you don't have to stay there, but you probably will. It works better for others. It works better for you. If you're human, you'll probably relapse. It does take practice to stay the course. The course starts by starting. When you start with kindness, it becomes more naturally the way. High performance leadership develops from the core leadership strengths of clarity, creativity, courage, and compassion. Build one of those strengths today thru some act of kindness and the others will get stronger as well. -- doug smith

What You Need

Use what you've learned to become what you need. -- doug smith

For example

Get good at something that won't obsolete itself. For example: emotional intelligence creating great conversations encouraging people leadership What would you add to the list? Which ones are you developing? -- doug smith

Decide

What do you want? Are you getting what you want? Intention is direction. Decide. And, then go. -- doug smith

Personally

Improving performance does require us to take our work seriously. But it does not require us to take ourselves too seriously. Taking things personally is a waste of self-esteem. -- doug smith

Measures Matter

Some people measure quantify first and quality later. Some people measure money first and impact to the team later (not even second!). How you measure productivity might determine your character and your reputation. Put people first. -- doug smith

Show Integrity

The goals we seek bring a lot of pull to them. We get wrapped in them. It's useful and it's powerful when we care about our goals so much that they propel us forward and keep us working even when we're tired, beyond the boundaries of our usual limitations. But they should not take us beyond the boundaries of our usual values. They should not trick us into bending the rules just because the rules are in the way. Truly high performance leaders of character who are focused, and centered, and noble maintain integrity. No cheating is ever worth the outcome. Integrity is so rare that many people don't even recognize. If you do, be thankful. We need leaders like you. To truly understand integrity you've got to keep it. Even when it's hard. Even the lines are blurred. -- doug smith

High Performance Leadership

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