Associations, Volunteerism and More

Sometimes the best leadership lessons are not positive examples of what great leaders are doing but rather examples of what poor leaders are doing – in other words, what not to do.

I read an article today entitled, “The Three Habits of Highly Effective Demotivators”.

The article suggests there are three habits de-motivating (DM) leaders have:

1.  They tell people how to do things they are already doing – and often are doing well.

2.  They criticize (and often humiliate) their team members publicly.

3.  They surprise their team members in negative ways.

Very interesting suggestions that I must say I have experienced (and I bet many of you have as well) with poor leaders I’ve been associated with.

I really liked the article.  It caused me to think not just about these de-motivating activities – and hopefully to make sure as a leader I am not doing any of them.  But it also caused me to think about motivating actions I can and should be taking as a leader.

It stands to reason that the opposite of de-motivating actions are motivating ones.  So, instead of focusing on not telling people how to do things they are already doing and criticizing my team members publicly and surprising my team members in negative ways, I am going to focus on the opposite.

So, I’ll compliment my team members on the way they do things and ask them for suggestions on improving our processes and procedures.  I will also compliment my team members publicly and when necessary, criticize them privately.  Finally, whenever I surprise my team members, it will be positive.  Good news can be a surprise, bad news shouldn’t be.

Let me know if you are motivated by the article on de-motivators!