20Is There Such a Thing as Motivation?

SOME MANAGERS’ DEFINITION OF MOTIVATION is “do what I want you to do, with a minimum of trouble from you.” That is authority, pure and simple. It is definitely not motivation. It is using your positional power to get people to do things not because they want to but because they have no choice.

Motivation is getting people to want to do what needs to be done, willingly and not by force. The best managers spend time finding out what motivates their employees, blend those motivations with the needs of the organization, then create an environment in which their employees can be successful. There are many ways to find out what motivates your employees. You can observe their behavior, get to know them after a ...

Get The First-Time Manager, 6th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.