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When people are demotivated they become negative and cynical, and can pollute the attitudes of their co-workers. And if they’re really demotivated, they may quit. How you may be demotivating people
T hese are difficult times we live in. It’s especially challenging for those trying to run businesses where many – if not all of the employees – are working remotely.
person in the firm they first talked to or met with. This happens frequently and it almost always upsets the person who made the introduction and confuses the client. 2) Giving public credit to someone for bringing in a new client or selling a job, but forgetting to mention the person the relationship started with. This is always upsetting, and understandably so – the double-edged sword of giving credit. Anyone left out could easily be demotivated. 3) Giving public praise to someone for doing something that other people whom you aren’t mentioning regularly do. Again, this is the dark side of “providing praise publicly,” something that is almost universally hailed as good management practice. 4) Not including someone in a meeting that they think they should be at. We often see this with
When people don’t see their manager very often, if at all, and the external environment is in turmoil in terms of the economic and political climate, it’s easier than ever to inadvertently demotivate someone who works for you. Adding to that is the fact that many people are basically insecure and have fragile egos, and you have a high probability of demotivating someone whom you don’t want to demotivate. You obviously want to avoid doing that. When people are demotivated they become negative and cynical, and can pollute the attitudes of their co- workers. They don’t work as hard or care as much. And if they are really demotivated, they may quit. Here are some common ways managers of A/E firms demoralize and demotivate their people: 1) Setting up a phone call with a client to attempt to sell them some work without including the
Mark Zweig
See MARK ZWEIG, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER AUGUST 3, 2020, ISSUE 1355
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