Stop Blaming Employees For Low Motivation

Have you ever had an employee who just didn’t seem motivated? On today’s episode of The Champion Forum Podcast, we’re talking about why a lack of motivation isn’t a character flaw; it’s a leadership warning sign. People are motivated, but they’re not motivated by work that feels disconnected, unclear, or pointless. Accessing your team’s motivation is less about hiring motivated people and more about giving them a purpose they genuinely want to be part of.

Why do we feel like people are not motivated?

All people are motivated by slightly different things, and they respond to their motivation in different ways. It’s easy to compare yourself to your employees and accidentally convince yourself that they don’t care simply because their motivation looks different than yours.

Leaders often blame the individual because if motivation is their fault, it excuses the leader from responsibility. But when we assume someone lacks motivation, we may be overlooking a lack of clarity, connection, or purpose.

Q: Consider a time in your life when you were not motivated. What hurt your motivation? How did you access it again? How do you typically respond when a member of your team seems unmotivated?

Four Questions About Purpose You Must Answer

1.     Why does this work matter?

2.     Who does this help?

3.     What happens if I do it well?

4.     Why is success important to them?

Without purpose, work becomes transactional. Purpose makes work transformational. When people understand how their role contributes to something meaningful, their engagement changes.

What Happens When Your Team Has Purpose

1.     They become more resilient when facing challenges.

2.     They take ownership of their work instead of waiting to be told what to do.

3.     They stay engaged even when the work is difficult or requires extra effort.

Q: How have you seen your own work impacted by either high motivation or low motivation? Have you ever seen your team affected by a season where they were highly motivated or unmotivated? What caused the shift, and what was the impact on performance and culture?

Application Activities

1.     Think about the people on your team. What motivates them? Who relies on them? What do they care most about? Take time to develop a strong answer for each person on your team. Then consider how you can better connect their daily tasks to the things that matter most in their life, both personally and professionally.

2.     Think about a project your team handles that seems to challenge their motivation. The next time you approach that task, bring the group together. Paint the big picture and clearly communicate why it matters. Ask them to help you identify parts of the project that create bottlenecks or waste time and resources. Then, brainstorm ways to streamline the process and better connect the project to the team’s personal and professional goals.