How to demotivate me in three simple steps
1 min readMar 10, 2019
- Make it a duty what I wanted to do anyway. Do not rely on my own responsibility! From then on, I do not work proactively anymore, I just follow a goal set by someone else. Nothing kills motivation more than “running behind” compared to “stepping forward”, even if it is the same action at the same pace! This creates the illusion of non-autonomy, even if I have to organize and do most of the things myself.
- Determine in which order I have to do my tasks if there are several duties. Don’t leave me a choice. Nothing says “I do not trust you!” as clearly as micromanagement!
- Set tight deadlines so that any small delay will be visible as a big miss. Shoot the messenger for reporting any problems — after all, good employees fix everything by themselves, right? Criticize me for the details but ignore the bigger picture! This will do the magic trick of turning any success for the company into a personal failure for me.
