Motivational Management: Inspiring Your People for Maximum Performance

Avoiding Extremes: The Right Level of Challenge

As you manage your people's opportunities, you need to be aware of the relationship between level of difficulty and motivation. Opportunities that are too difficult are simply not motivating. In fact they are demotivating. So be careful to make sure that the work you ask people to do is truly doable for them. Employees seldom feel it is appropriate to express their fears or anxieties or lack of understanding, so you have to ask. You have to probe with lots of open questions until you are fairly sure you have assessed the level of difficulty from their perspective and know that it is not ''over the top'' and too difficult in their eyes. If it is, it doesn't necessarily mean they can't do it. But ...