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

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