The Demotivated Employee

 The 2017 Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report found that eighty-five percent of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged at work. The economic consequences of this global "norm" are approximately $7 trillion in lost productivity.  When your employees are demotivated, they are disengaged.  Not only are they less productive than they should be, but their motivational funk has a negative impact on their co-workers as well as the customers, which can result in loss of future business.  

Much has been written over the years about how to actively motivate people to achieve performance goals.  This assumes that employees start out with an empty "basket" and the leader fills that up with motivation.  We believe that this starting premise is false.  In fact, most people start with a full "basket" of motivation that they bring with them to work, but things happen along the way that pokes holes in their motivation "baskets."  Our goal is to help leaders stop creating these holes and repair the ones that are there.

In our book, we address the common belief among managers and leaders that the employee is to blame when they lose motivation.  We break down what might be the personal factors that contributes to their demotivation, and what a leader can do to help turn that around.  There are also many things going on in the environment around employees, including stressful events, difficult co-workers, and challenging rules and processes in the organizational culture.  Any of these can turn a motivated employee into a "slacker."  

Perhaps the single biggest influence on employee demotivation is the leader.  This includes the way that they communicate, support, provide direction, and build trust with the people on their teams.  If an employee feels that his leader is failing to meet their needs for high performance, they will lose motivation very quickly.  As the saying goes, "People leave managers, not companies." What do you see when you look at your leadership behaviors in the mirror? Are you a part of the problem?

Our book is filled with examples that come from our various experiences working with leaders as well as family and friends who are experiencing demotivation at work.  We designed the book to help leaders understand the different sources of demotivation, but also to provide lots of ideas about out how you can prevent demotivation from sneaking up on employees, as well as ideas about how you can repair demotivation once it happens to your valued employees.  

Our goal is to help leaders understand employee motivation and the challenges of demotivated employees, and consider the various ways that they can impact a change so that employees are engaged, productive and successful.  Once you have examined the many ideas presented in the book, we would love to work with your leadership team to help them develop skills and approaches that will create a highly motivated, productive and positive place for people to work.