One Of The Most Common Mistakes a Manager Can Make Which Will Unwittingly De-Motivate Their Team – And How To Avoid It!

The final quarter of a year is always busy for anyone in an organisation – and particularly so for those of you who manage others. Eyes are focused on how you’re doing against targets, and on achieving that final “push” to realise the organisation’s goals. If you’re a little behind target, the pressure is on. And if those targets aren’t hit, the eyes of the wider organisation fall on you, first and foremost. “Kitchen and heat” come to mind!

Our article this month considers how, as managers, we can sometimes unwittingly, de-motivate our staff at a time when we’re actually hoping they’ll “raise the bar”.

The role of a manager is absolutely critical in building and maintaining staff commitment. At times like these, as a manager, you depend upon the engagement and enthusiasm of your staff to not only maintain, but increase their commitment and performance.

If you’ve looked at your targets, and realise your staff are going to need all the focus, team-work and commitment they can muster to achieve them, what are you doing to rally your troops? How can you communicate in a way which will ensure you do successfully get their backing and their engagement?

Equally important, are there some things you should studiously avoid communicating or you might sabotage your own attempts at motivation?

A common tactic for managers faced with underperformance against targets is:

You tell your staff you know many others are struggling to hit targets this year, but you know that with a little more effort and teamwork they have the ability to turn things around.

What’s your objective in saying this?

If you stop to analyse what you’re really doing here – (and lets face it, how many of us, as busy managers actually have the time for such a luxury? Most of the time we’re on autopilot – doing what “feels” right or what we’ve seen others do in the past) – you’re probably hoping:

a) Your staff  will appreciate your empathy for the tough challenges ahead.
b) You’re demonstrating a belief in their ability to be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat!

You probably hope this will inspire them to greater things! With these messages in their minds, you believe they will each make a commitment to work harder for you.

If you’ve ever tried this tactic, you may already have been somewhat disappointed at the overall result! And yet, I’ve seen managers bring out this same “rallying of the troops speech”  over and over again, in the hope this time, it may produce a different result!

What every manager needs to understand about “SOCIAL PROOF”

OK – so I’m going to talk psychology here for a moment! Bear with me – it is relevant and possibly insightful!

Social proof is a term used by psychologists to describe how all humans look to what others are doing to guide their behaviour. Every one of us has an inbuilt, automatic instinct to be drawn to take our lead from others we feel are just like us. We look at them – notice what they’re doing, thinking or feeling, and then use this information to guide our behaviour.

Simple demonstrations of this in action? Your son or daughter’s persistent pleas to buy them the latest trainers or mobile phone, because their peers have them. Our own reluctance to buy a brand new product until we have consulted what others we like and trust have said or experienced about the product first. The belief that “if everyone else is breaking the speed limit – then  it’s OK for us to do it too.”

What it is most important to realise about this universal phenomenon, is that most of the time we are unaware that this is actually influencing us at all!

Moreover, most of us would deny we were being influenced by others if challenged! We’d prefer to think we have autonomy of thought and courage to strike up our own path.

But numerous studies have shown that, whatever we choose to say or think, our innate desire to be accepted, to “fit in” and to be associated with those with whom we feel we are affiliated, is a powerful, often unconscious, motivation which shapes how we behave.

Once you recognise and understand this powerful, yet subtle influencing strategy, you’ll see it everywhere! No-one is immune!

So – a manager who wants, for example, to help increase his teams’ belief that they can turn around  a record high number of customer complaints, might look for examples of where others, in similar situations, have done just that. By highlighting what others, just like them, have managed to do, helps focus minds on the positive and the possible, rather than the negative and the seemingly overwhelming.

How “Social Proof” can backfire on you.

Sometimes this principle backfires on us. Let’s take two real life examples of this in action. Health centres and hospitals place posters on waiting room walls decrying the numbers of patients who don’t turn up for appointments, then get frustrated when non-attendance rates rise further.  Managers who focus on communicating how many departments or colleagues are still not employing the new systems and processes, who get frustrated because this does not seem to galvanise people to make the required changes.

In both cases, the social proof was negative. In both cases, people see that others, just like them, are not turning up, or are not using the new systems.   And so they feel no motivation to change their own behaviour.

If you tell your staff lots of others are not hitting targets – there’s a strong possibility that, rather than think “In that case I need to make a real concerted effort here” they will instead say to themselves: “In that case if I/we don’t hit targets it won’t really matter”.

By finding and broadcasting any successes in the organisation, rather than broadcasting where it’s not working, you set a positive benchmark for your people. Your aim should be to get them to say: “So what do we need to do or think in order to be like them?” This is not about pretending there are no problems. Your staff will see straight through that, and hang you up to dry! But don’t focus on negative social proof – focus on positive social proof – real life examples of where things are working in your industry or organisation, and you’re more likely to get the behaviours and attitudes you’re seeking from your staff.