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My name’s Napoleon Bonaparte, I am the conqueror of all nations,
I’ve banished German leaders, and sent Kings from their thrones.
I’ve banished Dukes and Earls and splendid congregations……..
Taken from a song collected by Captain Tommy Flynn of Bangor, North Wales.
Was Bonaparte the great leader he appears in these lyrics?
Read the great leader article to find out.
 Sometimes, when I explain what Motivation Matters does, the response is sharp and to the point – just hire motivated people surely!
If life comprised things that were immutable and constant, how easy it would be.
People do not think or sense in absolutes. I have difficulty judging distance, but I know if the dog is nearer to me than the lamppost.
The hot and cold-water demonstration is the classic one. Three bowls of water, one hot, one warm and one cold, plunge a hand in the hot and the other in the cold. Now wait for the hands to be sufficiently affected. Then put both hands into the warm bowl. Your brain says the water is hot AND cold. Your brain is telling you that relative to one hand it is hot and cold to the other.
Our motivation, our innate willingness, our response to the management and work context, is also relative, not absolute.
When we move to a new role, job, organisation or manager we bring with us our memories of our experiences. We use those as the measure.
That is not to say that we do not vary, one to another, in our response to life’s experiences. We are all different. We are on a continuum ranging from positive to negative, volatile to placid, with good and bad experiences.
Research shows that people have the same range of basic motivators and demotivators. Our internal drivers are affected by cultural, social and economic circumstances as secondary factor.
This raises some rather curious considerations when we are recruiting.
If we recruit a well-motivated individual from a great organisation, are we going to be able to deliver the same motivating work context? Will the recruit feel less well  motivated and have their performance suffer?
Should we recruit a poorly motivated job seeker from a terrible organisation? At least the work context and motivation management will be so much better the new employee should be delighted and strive hard to please.
Is it dangerous to use performance in a work situation to judge motivation? Is it better to search for demonstrable motivation in a domestic situation? Have they run a marathon, looked after an invalid relative, or recovered from some other life crisis? These are motivated people after all!
We know, don’t we, that performance in a job is the product of innate willingness and the management of that willingness. A poor score in either factor will produce poor performance.
Have you experienced this?
I was fortunate to attend a grand event, a few months ago which promised to be very instructive. The event was well run, rich in content and informative.
One of the headline speakers gave a first class performance. He was a polished public speaker and held us all as he described his successes and current challenges: A superb performance in fact.
I sat there entranced by the delivery but open mouthed in horror at the spoken words!
The speaker was currently engaged on a major change programme as CEO. He had told the staff that when he had decided what the new working arrangements should be, they would be informed if they had a place in the new organization. These people had worked for a decade or more to succeed, under the previous management.
Previous management must have thought their performance satisfactory; otherwise, they would have been disciplined. Can you begin to imagine how they felt at being excluded from the decision making process which set the course for their institution in the future?
How worthless do they feel now, their previous work debased, their opinions irrelevant,  their hopes and fears ignored?
Their effectiveness in their jobs must be approaching zero!
Sadly, this makes the appointment of this Tsar appropriate. The old staff are shown to be incompetent.
It is true that as you progress to senior management positions the amount of time spent on people issues declines. That does not mean that the CEO is not responsible for the culture, the mores of the organization. She or he has to ensure it is appropriate.
Sadly, people who should have known better, as well as the great and good, had lauded this CEO. They were mesmerised by the personal performance and had not seen the reality. The peresonal performance was very good indeed.
How much better would this CEO's organization have performed if he had engaged with the staff?
Yes, sometimes we need to make a break with the past. Sometimes we need to be startlingly novel. Sometimes what did not work last year will work now. Sometimes we need to go against what our people are saying. Sometimes we need to be tough and blunt. But never do we have to beat people into submission.
None of these circumstances improves by ignoring history, current practice or creating gainsayers from loyal staff.
It is sad that the power of celebrity will ensure he is successful for some time to come.
Should we look at the skills needed to achieve the task when we recruit CEOs and not be dazzled by celebrity status and PR razzmatazz?
But you may have experienced bad choices yourself.
Call us now to achieve high performance through our Top Team services.
Motivation Matters 01787 378851.
 Thought provoking?
Have we made you stop and think about your own organisation and what could be gained by improving things?
If you are curious about the improvements in performance that are possible, or you would like to know how to solve specific performance problems, then resolve to make a difference this minute.
You pay people to come to work. What they do when they get there depends on their motivation.
Our next Perform
We hope you enjoyed this Perform. Please forward it to anyone you feel would enjoy it. Please look at the information on our website for more details and articles.
© Motivation Matters 2007
Motivation Matters is a limited company registered in England and Wales, number 5295383.
Registered office: Clockhouse Farm Estate, Cavendish Lane, Glemsford, Sudbury, Suffolk, CO10 7PZ
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