Demotivation Is A Learned Response

Have you ever taken a job with a new manager, or with a new company, thinking the experience was going to be great only to find it nothing like you expected? Despite your disappointment, you probably tried to make it work. But in time you learned to ratchet down your expectations.

You may have been like Jill whose leader told her the company wanted her fresh ideas and new approaches, that she should not hesitate to challenge how things currently were. That she would get all the support she wanted. The leader convinced Jill that the job was everything she hoped for. So she left the interview feeling like a kid headed for the donut shop excited to sink her teeth into the work.

But shortly after starting the job, Jill found her ideas weren’t so valued, after all. Her manager told her to use tools that she knew were not designed for the work. She had to produce work that was familiar to her manager because new approaches made some leaders uncomfortable. Jill identified improvement opportunities and offered suggestions, but the support Jill’s leader had promised didn’t materialize and she found herself stigmatized as a troublemaker. Jill’s new work experiences left her feeling like she had walked a mouth-watering mile to the promised donut shop only to find it boarded up. Having left a decent job, she was frustrated to say the least.

Jill’s experience clues us in on why there are so many frustrated and disengaged employees. It confirms that demotivation is not something we typically carry with us to work. It’s something we learn on the job. In fact, we usually look forward to a job change thinking it’s a better opportunity. It’s our experience with the new job that teaches us to become demotivated.

Think of these experiences as us receiving a kind of electric shock. It’s what we get instead of the tasty pellet (or donut) we expect whenever we step on the engagement lever. Under these conditions, it doesn’t take long for us to want to stop pressing the lever, or trying to contribute. If these bad experiences—the electric shocks—continue, we not only become less motivated, but in some cases resigned and cynical, as well.

For most, this downward slide happens within the first year or two of taking the job and few are exempt. Every employee engagement survey available supports that fact. They broadcast that the majority of employees have disengaged and are demotivated at work.

Now, if our work experiences teach us to to be demotivated, it begs the question, “Who is administering the metaphorical electric shock?”

Let’s consider that employees work in systems that can punish employee engagement. Managers have the greatest influence on those work systems. It is managers—directly or indirectly—who are the primary teachers of employee demotivation. So, no, the Jills are not the problem.

Unfortunately, research shows that few organizations (and managers) are addressing the problem. To that end, we recommend managers who want to break the curse of employee demotivation focus on these four elements:

1. Awareness
2. Knowledge
3. Capability
4. Support

If I am a manager, I may ask myself, “How aware am I that I may be punishing employee engagement?” If I am aware, do I know what to do instead? If I happen to be both aware AND know what to do, am I capable of doing it? Do I have the necessary leadership skills? And assuming I am aware, knowledgeable, and capable, what is stopping me? Do my leaders support me managing in new ways? If not, what can I do to get their support?

This is a great place to start. If you’re tired of hiring motivated employees only to see their spirits break within the first year or two on the job, begin asking yourself these questions. Try to become more aware of your management practices and develop yourself to support your employees’ enthusiasm for the work.

Remember, the easiest way for your employees to escape their negative experiences is to leave. Management practices that support motivation and engagement give employees good reasons to stay and help your team to produce more. So anything that moves you in the direction of greater employee motivation and engagement and slows down demotivation is not only good for the employee, but also good for the business.

Kevin Herring is co-author of Practical Guide for Internal Consultants, and President of Ascent Management Consulting. Kevin can be contacted at kevinh@ascentmgt.com.

Ascent Management Consulting is found at www.ascentmgt.com and specializes in performance turnarounds, leadership coaching, and appraisal-less performance management.