by Rick Baker
On Sep 4, 2013
One of my early bosses advised me: Management is Motivating Mediocrity.
While I like the alliteration, I do not accept that advice.
I think we should not take the burden of motivating other people on our shoulders. That's a strategy doomed to fail. People are self-motivated...always. Their self-motivation applies whether or not we like the direction it is taking the person. And, poorly-directed self-motivation is rampant in business.
Leaders must create situations where people can self-motivate in directions that are aligned with business goals.
Leaders must delegate self-motivation and make sure they don't demotivate while they are delegating.
When delegating a task to a person allow the person to embrace accountability for 2 things:
- responsibility for self-motivation for full performance of the task and
- responsibility for communicating about performance of the task.
Take the task off your To Do List, literally and figuratively. Know the person has accepted full responsibility and full accountability. Create a process that will ensure both you and the person know how and when communication will occur...that is: (1) the person (not you) will lead the communication and the communication will be planned and concise and (2) the communication will occur at your next 'team meeting'.
This advice also applies when you delegate authority for many tasks to a person, i.e., when you delegate tasks that will be performed either by the person directly or by people on the person's team.