My motivation and potential is not utilized! Why? What should I do?

Managers are supposed to get the best out of employees, but they are oftentimes demotivating their co-workers instead. There are different reasons why this is happening, for example:

The management style is more of managing co-workers as ‘things’ than leading people. Most people are not born to be leaders (they have some qualities, but they still need training).
Your manager focusses on co-workers’ weaknesses, not strengths.
Your company and/or manager might not be aware what it is that really motivates people.
He/she may try to motivate you with what motivates him/her.

Help your management to understand the following:

Leadership takes place only when you as an employee feel that a leader:

• acts as a role model with a conscience
• is making real effort to find ways to utilize your motivations and talents
• is keen on empowering you

Build teams, where different people complement each other’s strengths. Then you don’t need to focus on weaknesses.

Different people are motivated in different ways. Taking this into consideration is one of the important aspects of leading people.

One cannot directly motivate others, as motivation comes from within, but you can build a work environment that is motivating for the team.

Learn from a scientifically validated method: Reiss Motivation Profile. If you are interested in a course: Informator is conducting one day trainings in Reiss Motivation Profile These trainings can also be tailored for teams (in English, Swedish and Finnish).

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Reiss Motivationsprofiler för individ och grupp