Overcoming Barriers to Motivation

The interesting challenge we face when we talk of motivation is not what we can add to the mix to get people motivated. It is really about subtracting things: removing obstacles and barriers to allow the free expression of motivational drivers, those that are already present but either blunted or repressed.

What gets in the way of motivational energy? What are the barriers or blocks to full engagement? Below are ten major barriers to liberating motivation and maximizing engagement:

1. Not listening — leading to indifference, hostility, miscommunication, misunderstanding and repetitive errors.
2. Fostering confusion through lack of vision or clear purpose — leading to poor focus, lack of coordination and haphazard planning.
3. Not trusting or believing in others — leading to resentment, weakening selfconfidence in others and lack of delegation.
4. Playing politics versus having a substantive focus — leading to poor cooperation, suspicion, C.Y.A. (cover your “assets”), turf battles, cynicism and inefficiency.
5. Not making time for dialogue and for sharing information  — leading to poor information transfer, lack of synergy and learning-disabled teams.
6. Not recognizing or valuing diversity — leading to sloppy or imprecise coaching and supervision, misunderstandings, uneven communication effectiveness, missed opportunities, anger, resentment and poor synergy.
7. Stealing credit versus giving credit to others — leading to anger, resentment, demotivating others and weakening trust.
8. Lack of recognition, appreciation, showing others that they matter — leading to apathy, low confidence, resentment and a sense of powerlessness.
9. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality or lack of focusing on continuous improvement — leading to lack of passion, low aspiration, missed opportunities and poor quality focus.
10. Perseverance poverty – leading to poor follow-through, lack of commitment, indifference and cynicism.

Liberating the motivation of others means making the effort to understand and decipher what others feel, think, want, and how they have put the world together. It requires working to remove any blocks especially the 10 above that can serve as impediments to liberating the motivational energy inside those around you.