What a Good Leader Must Know About Carrots & Sticks

If your main role as a leader is convincing people to improve, do you need a 2X4? Do you have to wave carrots in front of them and prod from behind with proverbial sticks?

It’s exhausting managing a team when you feel like you are the only one pushing, pulling, and providing the energy to get things moving.

But it doesn’t need to be this way.

In workplace motivation, the age-old tactic of dangling rewards and brandishing consequences has long been the key to driving performance. However, beneath the surface lies a deeper truth: threat and reward systems may yield short-term compliance but seldom cultivate genuine engagement or sustained productivity.

The Fallacy of Carrots and Sticks

Carrots, in the form of bonuses, promotions, or other incentives, are often wielded as a means to coax desired behaviors from employees. Similarly, sticks, such as reprimands, demotions, or the fear of job loss, serve as deterrents to undesirable actions. While these tactics may elicit temporary compliance, they do little to inspire. The more powerful motivator—intrinsic motivation, such as instilling a strong sense of purpose—fosters greater meaning in our work life.

The Pitfalls of Threat and Reward Systems

Threat and reward systems, by their very nature, hinge on extrinsic motivators, which can lead to a host of detrimental outcomes. Employees may become fixated on the short-term gains of meeting targets or avoiding punishment, sacrificing long-term growth and innovation in the process. Reliance on external rewards erodes intrinsic motivation, diminishing individuals' passion and autonomy in their work.

A Shift Toward Intrinsic Motivation

Instead of perpetuating the cycle of carrots and sticks, prioritize cultivating intrinsic motivation—the drive to engage in tasks for their inherent value and personal satisfaction. This requires fostering a culture of autonomy, mastery, and purpose, where employees feel empowered to pursue meaningful work and are supported in their professional growth.

Companies like Google and Atlassian have embraced practices such as dedicated "20% time" for employees to pursue passion projects and outcome-focused goal setting, which empower individuals to take ownership of their work and unleash their creative potential.

We can’t all do the same, but we can encourage meaning and intrinsic motivation by:

1. Building social bonds – people work better for people, not for ideas, organizations, or a pay packet.
2. Encouraging your teams to clarify their personal values and see where these align with the jobs they do.
3. Tie new ideas into a sense of meaning – explain why things are important to you and ask your team what value they see in the required tasks.
4. Tell stories, give examples, paint the vision of where you would like to go, and get their input. Open it all up for questions and creative thought.
5. Allow individuals space to learn, grow, create, and shine. Once you have agreed to the required outcomes, let them decide how.

As long as you believe you need to use carrots and sticks to get things done, you will create more demands on yourself as a leader because of the time spent overseeing the process. Once you start working with builtin intrinsic motivation, you will find it takes less effort and is more rewarding for everyone involved.

What carrots and sticks have past bosses tried on you? Message me with your answers by hitting reply to this. I'd love to know.

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Until next time.

Mike