Your Team Called. They Want Tough Love.

Regardless of where you are as a business owner or investor, you want the best out of the team of people around you. Just like we want the best out of you. So, let’s pull back the curtain. There’s no “right” way to manage a team, but there are a busload of wrong ways.

For example, fear is a common tactic used to motivate people into doing what you want; and you’re not immune to having that same tactic directed at you. 

How we get our team to maximum capacity matters, because bottom line: the result is less staff turnover. It’s cheaper to develop the team member you already have than it is to bring in a new one.

So, let’s talk about what’s actually going to motivate them.

PSYCH 101

In case you missed class that day, here are the two most broad categories of motivations:

• Intrinsic: Motivation from within. This is the personal drive to explore, grow, and learn without outside incentives of reward or punishment.
• Extrinsic: External motivation. Motivation is driven by outside factors and incentives—either to be rewarded or to avoid punishment.

Okay, who are we kidding, I missed that day in Psych too. But I swear this is important. Motivation is like the controller of your staff talent model, because clicking A might make Charlie in HR jump, while clicking B does nothing at all. Meanwhile, A gets nothing from Tony the Tenant, and B gets him to flip in the air. See where I’m going with this?

Now, here are a few that are more specific types and how they work:

• Financial: Motivation that comes with the promise of financial compensation or reward; be it a salary, over time, a bonus, or otherwise. Financial incentives must be combined with intrinsic motivators to be effective. 
• Creative: Motivation born out of the desire to express oneself. It is hampered by censorship, planning, and inhibitions. 
• Curiosity: A powerful intrinsic motivator that drives us to learn and explore. Dopamine plays a significant role here and we are driven by a desire to understand things that run counter to our experience and to close gaps in existing knowledge.
• Fear: Extrinsic motivation to avoid negative consequences. Because the brain switches into survival mode, the quality of work produced cannot be guaranteed.

As you probably guessed, fear is a dead end, any other motivation alone is no good. Here’s what to do instead.

Tough Love Tactics & Traps

“Tough love” is a fairly simple concept, but far more difficult to execute. The idea is that one person — any person — can promote positive change and increased performance of the people around them, through the enforcement of shared standards, boundaries, and personal responsibility. 

TACTIC - Tough love is about enforcing your expectations through a balance of constructive criticism and encouragement. When your team knows that you only want the best for them, personally and professionally, that trust and unity are reflected in the work.

TRAP: MarketWatch points out  that tough love tactics can backfire, because too often “tough love” is code for simply “tough.” Tough love is not being verbally abusive to your team. It’s not humiliating them by dragging their mistakes and failures in front of everyone.

TRAP: On the other end of the spectrum, walking on eggshells around your team will slow down productivity to a standstill.

TRAP: Tough love leaders never assume that they always have the answers. Tough love is not something for others, but for the leader, too.

TACTIC: Tough love leaders are always vigilant and critical of their own reasoning, actions, and performance, and they look for explicit and implicit feedback along the way. By valuing personal accountability and responsibility, it encourages others to do the same.

You don’t want cave people, and you don’t want the latest psychological thriller. You want lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with your team. It takes centering around trust, respect, and common goals. And it doesn’t look like a New Year’s resolution. It just takes getting started.

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