One of the most difficult things a manager will ever undertake to understand is how to motivate people. The field of industrial psychology has entire subfields dedicated to this topic, as do the fields of education and of course, general psychology. Motivation is an important concept, and it’s worthy of a lot of study.
But sometimes the problem of motivation is simple, and all the organizational psychologists in the world can’t resolve it.
I was speaking with a colleague the other day, and she has been struggling for some time with an unsatisfactory assistant. She was getting some grief from a co-worker for not doing enough training, and for being intimidating. Truthfully, this person probably isn’t the best trainer in the world, and she’s a bit of a dynamo, so I suspect she’s intimidating as well. But I had been at the receiving end of that assistant’s poor performance quite a few times, and I had to take exception to what her co-worker was saying.
“You really think this is a training issue?” I asked.
“Well it must be,” he said, “or otherwise she would be doing her tasks more effectively. She’s not stupid, that’s for sure.”
I asked the colleague (let’s call her Mary, because this is getting confusing), I asked Mary what the tasks were that the assistant was failing in. All of the things she was botching up had to do with detail management. I probed a little deeper to be sure this was correct.
“Does your assistant know all of the steps to do her tasks?” I asked.
“Yes, she does.” Mary replied.
“How do you know she knows all of the steps?” I asked again (the co-worker was squirming at this point, no doubt from boredom – this kind of detail is for lower levels than we).
“Because sometimes she does all of the steps, and when she forgets steps, she doesn’t always forget the same ones. That’s how I know,” an exasperated Mary replied.
And that makes Mary right – the problem isn’t training. It’s discipline. And discipline is a motivation problem that can’t be trained.
Am I saying that someone with a discipline problem can’t change? Absolutely not! I could name numerous wonderful examples of former employees who have made remarkable turnarounds related to personal discipline. But did I train them? No! Because it can’t be trained. Discipline can only be chosen.
In each of those examples I was very direct with the individual. I said something like, “the problem is not lack of ability, or lack of knowledge. It’s a lack of discipline. And discipline is something you have to choose for yourself, and you have to practice it constantly. Without it, not only will you fail in this job, but you will fail in any job. Furthermore, discipline doesn’t take time to grow on you. It starts from the moment you choose it. So I need to see a difference in discipline. On Monday.”
Does that sound harsh? I guess that depends on who you are. I’ve said that to some folks who never got around to succeeding. And I said it to those aforementioned wonderful examples, each of whom took it as a personal challenge to master.
I could write numerous blogs on how damaging it is to fail to train or to provide substandard training. But there is a problem on the other end of the spectrum, and that’s the problem of blaming poor discipline on training. If someone is performing poorly, there are a few quick questions to ask that will get you to the heart of the problem – which is where one finds solutions.
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Are there others performing the job in a satisfactory manner? If yes, how did they get trained, and was the training different for the poor performer?
- Does the poor performer consistently do the same things incorrectly (indicative of a training issue), or does he commit acts of random poor performance (indicative of a discipline issue)?
- Has this person been told specifically what they are doing wrong (if not, shame on you, do not pass GO, do not collect $200)? And if they have, are they still making the same mistake(s)?
- Has this person ever improved in this area, and then lost their performance improvements?
If the poor performer was trained in a similar manner to others, makes random mistakes, has been told specifically what they were doing wrong, and has improved and then slipped again, you don’t have a training issue. You have a motivation issue. And it’s discipline.
Since discipline can’t be trained, try saying something similar to what I said. Give them until Monday. And if they don’t improve, get them out of your organization at the soonest possible moment. People that lack discipline are fairly democratic about it, and there isn’t another area of your organization that needs that problem more than you do.
Be sure to watch for situations where someone’s skills aren’t a good match for the job, but that will likely present itself as an employee who is consistently struggling with a few specific things (not random acts of ineptitude). And watch for employees who were once great and are now making mistakes. This could be a sign of being overwhelmed, of boredom, of depression, or an indicator that they are considering leaving.
Get really good at figuring out when you have an employee with discipline issues, because they will pull you and the rest of your team down. Train them well, be specific with feedback, and if random errors continue to occur, tell them clearly, kindly, in-no-uncertain-terms one time that they need to fix it.
The other issues of motivation are far more complex, and many of them form the basis for all that is exciting about leadership. Once you get the discipline problems out of your way, motivation is a very fun and challenging area to spend some energy on.
P.S. - If you are committed to discipline, but you're so overwhelmed that you're still not keeping it together, I highly recommend a book called "The Other 90%" by Robert Cooper. Everyone I've recommended it to has reported getting great value out of it.
(c) 2007, Andrea M. Hill
