But how do leaders actually motivate people? Why do people even come to work? More importantly, why do they choose to do what they do?
Having a ‘choice’ seems like it’s a pretty big deal. But is it? You think to yourself:
Do we really choose what we do? How much of a “choice” do we have? What kind of say do we really have in the matter? If we do in fact make most of our choices independently and intelligently, why aren’t most of the people that I know happy with their jobs?
If everyone in a corporate world is prone to be lazy, does the same thing apply to life?
You know that unless you are the 10% at either end of the human ‘bell curve’ (normal distribution), you are really similar with the rest of the 80%. You are not particularly intelligent, hardworking or even lucky. You are not likely to commit any violent crimes but you are also not going to devote you entire life doing volunteering work overseas. Yes—by definition, you are the average.
So you go to school, hopefully get a decent grade and study a degree in university. At the time you decide on your major, you have no idea of the world, career, industry, or anything like that. You pick the subject that you are most vaguely interested in, or (perhaps more likely), you pick the one that other people tell you is a good choice.
Talk about choices.
After doing just marginally well enough to graduate, you drift your way into an average job. You are not Harvard or Stanford graduates, no top investment banks will hire you. Google won’t hire you. Of course it depends on which jobs you apply for within these companies. You must be qualified as a janitor in Google, right? (No, they outsource that part of the operations!) The point is, upon graduating, you have no idea what job awaits you, and what that job really entails. You land a job because the employer selected you.
Talk about choices.
And as you work diligently through your career, you move up steadily. Slowly but surely. Yes, it has everything to do with your performance, but it also has a lot to do with what’s happening to the guy that sitting above you. Is he moving on to bigger, better things? Is he retiring? Is he having an accident?
Talk about choices.
Back in the meeting room. Finally, the five minutes are over. Your boss has managed to get around to the all-magical ‘but‘, snapping you out of your daydreaming.
“But as a team, we did not accomplish the goals that we set at the beginning of the year.”
You know all too well the rules surrounding your boss’ use of the word ‘we’. It never really means ‘we,’ like you’d hope for. It’s you he’s talking about. You are the one who is the root cause of the problem. Of course, it’s then your privilege to cascade that down to your team.
It’s like the opposite of what happens in big league sports, really. Usually in team sports (let’s say football), the players get all the credit when the team does well. But when the team isn’t doing well, the first guy that gets fired is the manager. Why is this the other way around in big companies?
“But it’s a stretched goal, that’s what we agreed at the beginning, right?” you said.
“Yes, I know that—but that’s not what top management believes. They expect us to exceed our goals,” says your boss.
You can sense he is trying to be compassionate. It’s ironic that your boss also reads that same leadership book you read. He is trying to show care. You are not sure how sincere he really is —so were you when you had to deliver the similar messages to your staff.
“The economy is really tough right now. We’re unable to give you a pay rise or bonus for this year.”
It’s funny how everyone becomes a macro-economist when they have to deliver the bad news.
You are not asking much. For everyone in the middle classes, you look for stability. You have your family, mortgage, loan repayments, and all those other delightful things. If the employer is going to guarantee you your job for the rest of your life, with a decent increment every year, you would take it right away, right? Yes, you want that incremental rise, no matter how small. Because you know inflation is what’s going to kill you. “Compound interest” is going to increase your portfolio incredibly but if it’s compound rate of inflation, it’s going to wipe out your wealth completely sooner than later. All you want is to match inflation.
Are you asking for too much? You just want a bit of security and stability. A bit of certainty, that’s all.
You then asked yourself—have you reached your peak? That so-called ‘career peak’, where your income level (because of all the years of compound interest on your salary!) starts to exceed your value to the company? You feel like someone with ten years less experience could do exactly what you do. They might even outperform you. Yes, experience counts, but there’s only so much daily routine that requires that unique experience. You feel like you get to hold on to the job because of your ability to fight company politics, rather than your ability to do your job outstandingly.
Overpaid, obsolete. These are the words that start to ring around your head.
Dream Small 