Before You Motivate, Remove What Demotivates

In the early 1990s I was a senior software engineer. Cum laude graduate. A shareholder in the business. By every measure, I should have been motivated. I was. And it was costing me twice as much energy as it should have.

I worked hard, delivered results, and nobody around me would have called me unmotivated. But I was heading toward burnout without understanding why. Then I took a holiday. When I came back, my role changed — I started meeting clients, leading projects. Something shifted. The work that had felt like a drain suddenly gave energy back. I had found my real strengths.

At the time I didn't have language for what had happened. Now I do: I had been succeeding at the wrong work. My hidden strengths were waiting for the right conditions.

We commonly address this problem by trying to boost motivation. A workshop, a bonus, a vision speech, a team-building event. Does it work? Sometimes yes. Often no. And when it doesn't, most organisations try harder at the same thing — more motivation, louder encouragement, bigger incentives.

What if the approach is backwards? What if instead of adding motivation, we focus on eliminating the factors that kill it?

Motivation Is Personal. Demotivation Is Too.

The mistake most leaders make is treating motivation as universal. The same conditions affect different people in completely different ways — and what energises one person actively drains the person next to them.

A person who thrives on challenge and fast decisions loses motivation in an environment where every action needs three approvals. A person who finds satisfaction in precision and quality loses motivation when deadlines make thoroughness impossible. A person who draws energy from people and new possibilities withers in isolation. A person who needs stability loses motivation when priorities change every week.

Same team. Same conditions. Different effects entirely. This is not a personality difference — it is a behavioural one, and it is measurable.

What Specifically Demotivates — An Example

Consider an Implementer — in Belbin terms, someone who turns ideas into actions, builds systems, and delivers results reliably. Practically indispensable. Not the loudest person in the room, but often the reason things actually happen.

What demotivates an Implementer? Constant changes in plans, priorities, or processes — they need stability to work well. Micromanagement that removes their control over execution. Ambiguous instructions when they need clarity. A lack of recognition for the reliability and efficiency they bring every single day.

Now consider: how many leaders would diagnose this as a motivation problem? How many would send the Implementer on a motivation programme?

None of those actions address what is actually draining the person. Every Belbin Team Role has its own version of this — a specific set of conditions that will demotivate that person faster than any inspirational speech can compensate for. The Implementer's demotivators are not the same as the Shaper's, or the Plant's, or the Teamworker's. Treating them as if they are is how organisations lose good people.

The Five Demotivators Nobody Talks About

Across different roles and different people, demotivation at work traces back to five sources. None of them are about attitude.

Wrong work. The person is doing tasks that don't match their behavioural strengths. The work gets done — but at a cost nobody measures until the person is already burning out. I know this one from the inside.

Wrong role. The person has been promoted into responsibility that doesn't suit them. A brilliant specialist made into a manager because there was no other career path. A natural facilitator placed in a position that requires confrontation and pushing for results. The title changed. The person did not.

Wrong people. The working environment doesn't complement the person's strengths. Too many similar profiles competing for the same contribution, or a key relationship where neither person understands how the other operates.

The colleague who irritates you most may carry exactly the strength your team is missing. Read Difficult People Don't Exist. Misunderstood Behaviour Does.

Wrong leadership approach. The platinum rule, not the golden rule: treat others as they need to be treated, not as you would want to be treated. A person who needs autonomy is demotivated by micromanagement. A person who needs clarity is demotivated by vague direction. Same leader, same intention — different impact.

Wrong or missing purpose. The person cannot see how their work connects to anything that means something to them. When purpose is absent, even well-matched work in a well-suited role feels empty.

Why Adding Motivation Fails

Motivation programmes fail not because they are bad ideas. They fail because the demotivators are still running when the programme ends.

You can run the best team-building workshop in the world. If the person returns to work that doesn't suit their strengths, the effect lasts until Monday morning. You can offer a generous bonus scheme. If the person feels micromanaged and untrusted, the money doesn't fix the frustration — it makes them better-paid and still frustrated.

The potential for improvement is enormous once you have a clear picture of your team members' strengths and allowable weaknesses. Without that picture, you are guessing.

Where to Start

Ask each person in your team — directly and honestly: what drains your energy at work? Not what you wish for. What specifically makes you less willing to contribute tomorrow than you were yesterday?

The answers will be different for each person. That is the point.

Then ask yourself: which of these can I change? Which require a conversation? Which require a decision about role, work design, or how I lead this particular person?

Belbin Team Roles make this visible at the team level — what each person needs to stay motivated, where the friction sits, where work is mismatched to strengths. But the first step doesn't require any tool. It requires one honest question and the willingness to hear the answer without defending the system that created the problem.

For the full framework, read Belbin Team Roles: The Practitioner's Guide to What Teams Actually Need. For the difference between behavioural assessment and personality tests, read Behavioural Assessment vs. Personality Tests: Which One Actually Helps Your Team?

I had ownership, status, and a financial stake. I was still doing the wrong work. The hidden strengths were already there — they just hadn't been named yet. Open the assessment → and look at your team the same way. The mismatch draining someone right now is probably visible. It just needs a name.

Photo by Mats Soomre · #MomentsBySoomre · moments.soomre.com