“I am 57 years old, and 35 years in the Industry. This is how we do business in this part of the world”
“I have operated in the Asian market for more than 20 years and this is how business is done here”
In short, both these sentences were provided as justification for two different business cases that were presented and needed approval by a panel of approvers. This was not a request. It was a statement and we had to accept it.
In both cases, they also stated “Our manager has already approved it”.
Which indicated, that we also better approve it - or else.
Now as a reader, a couple of things that I would ask you to ponder over:
Do these statements indicate if they were making a request?
Can you guess the gender of the persons making each of these statements?
Perhaps ethnicity?
Whoever said it and wherever they come from - does it matter?
When there is no consequence for poor work ethic, and no reward for good work ethic, there is no motivation. -JD Roberts
Hi Friends,
I came across this quote a couple of days ago.
I have been in more than a few situations by now where I’ve observed that people with average work ethic at best, and mediocre at worst, can glide by with with poor work ethic or results.
This quote hit a nerve and made me reflect on why good people leave organizations.
Change is not a new thing, especially in large organizations. People moving organizations to further their careers is not uncommon, but when the fabric of culture within an organization changes, the signs are not too hard to read - unless you are self-absorbed and caught up in your own Kool-Aid.
I have seen times of strong leadership, leading from the front, and ambitious steps forward. I have also experienced the times when we failed, which led to deeper introspection and course correction. Despite the circumstances, you could recognize the ethos by which people operated and whether you agreed or disagreed - you respected the choice made.
This is why it becomes so easy to recognize mediocre work or mediocre results by people who have been propped up for a myriad of reasons which include but are not limited to some of the following:
being friends with the leader,
the leader is unable to call out poor work and results to be liked or fear of getting a bad review from one of the employees,
or worse yet, people who have gotten to positions because of preferential treatment or quotas on DEI
Eventually, these situations lead us to a point where good people are left with no motivation to work, as their incentive to deliver excellent work has been killed.
The saying “Nothing breeds success like recognition” is true for both situations. If we “recognize” people who slide ahead on nothing but hot air - then there is an acceptance that this is a criterion for success.
The situation shared above is a couple of many that I have encountered with increasing frequency over the past couple of years. I have heard similar from friends and colleagues in other companies, and locations too. This is not limited to a few unique cases.
Motivation is a key factor for accomplishing anything meaningful.
If an artist is not inspired, you will not get great music or art. If a sportsperson is not inspired, he or she will not deliver great performances. If an employee is not motivated, they will not be delivering the best value to the organization.
Nothing is more demotivating than seeing someone who does not deserve it, getting recognition.
When you see senior leaders talk about people delivering great results, but the people in those teams don’t see it, that is usually a sign that average or mediocre results are being recognized.
The responsibility at the end of the day lies with leadership. As leaders, it is important to know what areas to prioritize.
Recognizing what good looks like is usually a good starting place - What are the results you want to achieve? What would you like to have accomplished - Hard results like specific targets, or softer goals like learning skills, putting a team of effective people together, etc.
Identifying what behaviors should be promoted to deliver those results is probably a good next step - It’s important to know what you are aiming for, but you also need to be clear on what behaviors are acceptable. It's important to display behaviors that are motivating and generating enthusiasm.
Categorizing what behaviors will not be accepted is another great step. - Backstabbing, underhanded comments, cynicism, sarcasm, constant undermining of efforts, and patronizing comments, are some behaviors that may need to be called out so that people recognize them.
Clear accountability of actions and results - A merit-based approach is important for people with a good work ethic to be motivated. That’s why effective people always keep track of scores. Healthy competition is great for any organization. It gets bad if one wants to do better by putting another person down or intentionally impacting the overall organizational performance. There must be clear accountability for actions and the results individuals deliver. This can be done through regular reviews and progress reviews.
Clear criteria for success measurement - Having a clear north star, and regular checks is important to ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction. If you don’t have a clear target, you are free-floating. In any organization, if everyone has a different version of what success looks like, then more than likely you are hurtling toward a disaster in the worst-case scenario. In the best case, you are going nowhere and just bouncing about aimlessly.
Reward - Rewarding the right behaviors, achievements, and performance is essential. People will aim higher only when they know that good work ethic and performance will be rewarded.
Leaders have to display the behaviors they expect from the team. Walking the talk is very important. Authenticity and genuineness only come from displaying behaviors expected of others. You can’t be patronizing to people, and then expect them not to behave similarly when it suits them.
Anyone can use the tips that are shared here. Whether you are an individual who is trying to make a mark or a leader who is trying to find the best approach to setting your team up for success.
Suppose you are someone in the team and experiencing behaviors where bad work ethic is leading you to lose motivation. In that case, I highly encourage you to call these out in your individual conversations with your leaders. Check if this is a blind spot for your leader, and if so, they would probably be grateful that you called it out.
Now at the beginning of this post, I raised a few questions after the statements. Here are the answers:
While listening to the individuals presenting the case, some of the statements they made did not sound like a case was being presented. It was more like they made a decision, and shared it for our knowledge. There were times when it felt very condescending.
One of the statements was made by a woman, and the other by a man.
The woman was Western European, and the man was East Asian
And finally, no, who said it or where they come from doesn’t give them a free pass. It is important to share that either side can be guilty of making statements that sound like they “mansplaining” or, in this case, “Womansplaining”.
Hope you enjoyed the article for this week. Have you been in these situations where sometimes you feel demotivated due to the wrong behaviors being rewarded? What did you do? Please share your thoughts below.
Do you have examples of how you tackled these challenges, and saw a way forward? If so, it would be encouraging to share those with the readers as well.
Hope you all have a fantastic week ahead.
See you in the next one.
Jithin