When a performing member of our team loses the momentum, we as leaders need to understand the reasons and act quickly.
First things first: what do we mean as motivation?
Motivation is the willingness to get the job done by starting and finishing rather than procrastinating, persisting in the face of distractions, and investing enough mental effort to be successful. Is a definition like many others but renders the idea.
Why people leave
When it happens, the key to damage limitation is for managers to accurately identify the reason for an employee’s lack of motivation and then apply a targeted strategy. The sooner the better, but should be a paced rush because carefully assessing the nature of motivational failure – before taking action – is crucial. Applying the wrong strategy (for example, pushing an employee to work harder, when the reason is that they think they can’t do it) can actually backfire, causing motivation to drop even further.
We can identify four categories and each has a specific strategy to be implemented to counter it:
Value or objectives mismatch: “I don’t care enough to do this”
How to help an employee out of this: find out what is relevant to the employee and connect it to the activity he performs.
Lack of self-esteem: “I don’t think I’m capable of doing this”
How to help an employee out of this: Build the employee’s sense of trust and competence. This can be done in several ways. One, for example, is to bring the activities back to similar ones that have faced each other successfully in the past. But there’s a world of opportunities.
The world of emotions: “I’m too angry to do this”
How to help an employee out of this: approach people with a listening attitude. Let them know that you want to understand why they are angry and engage in active listening. Don’t get emotionally linked or you will go through the risk of entangling too much.
The chaotic trap: “I don’t know what went wrong.”
How to help an employee out of this: Help the employee think clearly about the cause of their difficulties with a task.
