With all the chatter about employee engagement and its impact on productivity and retention, we know that employee motivation is a key issue at all levels of leadership.
But people who lead continue to make a fundamental mistake in this area: They believe and behave as if they are responsible for an employee's motivation.
Here’s a news flash: Motivation of an employee doesn’t come from the manager; it comes from within the employee.
Why is this so hard to grasp? One possible reason is we’ve established a cadre of leaders who think that visible action on their part is the primary way to lead—that you must do something or you won’t be viewed as a leader by those who are led.