Reporting on a line in a blog post on the best small workplaces Wally Bock puts his finger on a small but critical nuance when thinking about motivation and engagement.
“”Motivating and engaging workers – and giving them opportunities for professional growth – helps a business retain the best people and ultimately boost the bottom line.”
That sounds pretty conventional. But read it again. It treats “motivation” and “engaging” as something you do to “workers” who, presumably, are different from you and need your help.
“Workers” are people. They can motivate themselves just fine, thank you. They’re quite capable of deciding whether or not to be engaged. “
Spot on Wally. If we have got workers who are not motivated and engaged the problem lies not with them, but with us and our practices of management and leadership.
You can read Wally’s full post here.