Educational articles

Dainius Baltrušaitis / Stop-frame

Dainius Baltrušaitis
Business psychologist, organiser of leadership conferences
Excerpt from the HR Hint Online Conference "The New Era of HR is dawning, are you joining?", 2023

A common manager today says: people have changed, how to motivate them?
It seems to me that nothing has fundamentally changed - the way we were is the way we are: we have always needed love and respect, we have always wanted to feel competent, we have always needed other people, we have always wanted fulfilling relationships...

But maybe something has changed?

And I started to think what it could be. And, you know, what answer did I find for myself? It seems to me that people have started to express their will more now. In other words, they have decided that they have had enough of compromising: 'if I don't get love here, I'll go where I will get it; if I don't get my need met here, I'll choose a place where I will get it'. And they do it bravely. We know cases where people quit well-paid jobs, leave high positions, and when asked, "What have you come up with now?", they answer like the piglet with the balloon: "I'm not happy".  And they leave.

Why is this happening?

It seems to me that today the measure of people's security has changed. It used to be money. (...) It used to be: 'maybe I'm not respected in this organisation, maybe I'm being shouted at, maybe I'm being scolded, maybe I'm being told off, maybe it's something else... Well, but the salary is good, so you have to put up with it." It seems to me that this is no longer the case. Nowadays, people decide to do what is 'closer to their soul'. Of course, this is also linked to the improving economy, but one thing that I think has become a measure of security today is recognition. People have started to want more and more to be recognised, to be given 'time'. The more 'time', the better. And they are looking for that recognition.
This factor is driving fundamental change in organisations. Whereas before the big organisations had a monopoly on talent (credibility, stability, lots of money - the best talent went there), now people are leaving for start-ups that have no money. The future is uncertain, but those start-ups have what is today the measure of people's security - recognition.
It seems to me that the only challenge leaders have is motivating people. Everything else is solvable: not able to – we will teach, burned out – we will refer to a psychotherapist, etc. Motivation is the only thing a leader should do.

But what is motivation, really?

(...) And I wondered, what could be the equivalent of the word "motivation" so that we all understand it in the same way?

Let me tell you a story. In our family, one of the children was diagnosed with a disease. And the diagnosis was one that many people are reasonably worried about. The doctors saw that worry in our eyes and said: "Don't worry, sometimes the cause of this disease is genetic, and then all you have to do is to take some medication and it's like a cure" (... ) In the month that we waited for the test to come back, my wife read so many books and articles, watched so many videos, that perhaps no expert on this disease has read and watched so much. What is it? There is one word that we know very well: care. I think that is the motivation. If you care about your children, you will do anything for them (...) If you care about your organisation, you will do anything for it. If you care about your customers, you will do anything for them.
You either care or you don't. And that, it seems to me, is the only leadership challenge. It was, it is and it will be.