Susan Fowler > Quotes

“Brandon explained that initially his team was surprised to learn that when a sports or training coach is vocal, verbally encouraging a trainee—“do one more; come on, you can do it; keep up the energy”—performance is significantly lower than the results achieved with a quiet but attentive coach.6”
― Susan Fowler, Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging

“Listen for someone’s needs”
― Susan Fowler, Master Your Motivation: Three Scientific Truths for Achieving Your Goals

“There are significant implications for the organization when people experience high-quality motivation. They achieve above-standard results; demonstrate enhanced creativity, collaboration, and productivity; are more likely to repeat their peak performance; and enjoy greater physical and mental health.”
― Susan Fowler, Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging

“The role you play as a leader is helping people experience relatedness at work: caring about and feeling cared about, feeling connected without ulterior motives, and contributing to something greater than oneself.”
― Susan Fowler, Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging

“An individual with employee work passion demonstrates these five positive intentions:6 • Performs above standard expectations • Uses discretionary effort on behalf of the organization • Endorses the organization and its leadership to others outside the organization • Uses altruistic citizenship behaviors toward all stakeholders • Stays with the organization”
― Susan Fowler, Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging

“Лідерів складно вчити, бо вони переконані, що їхня робота - мотивувати інших, а не себе.”
― Susan Fowler, Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging

“Traditional motivation prompts the questions, Is this person motivated? How much motivation does this person have? These questions reduce your answers to simplistic black-and-white, yes-or-no responses that fail to provide much-needed insight into the nature of the motivation. But asking why a person is motivated leads to a spectrum of motivational possibilities.”
― Susan Fowler, Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging

“Empowerment may often be considered a cliché, but if people don’t have a sense of empowerment, their sense of autonomy suffers and so do their productivity and performance.3”
― Susan Fowler, Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging

“Motivating people doesn’t work because you cannot force someone to feel a sense of relatedness. But as a leader, you can encourage relatedness by challenging beliefs and practices that undermine people’s relatedness at work. That means paying attention to how your people feel. That means gaining the skill to deal with their emotions. That means getting personal.”
― Susan Fowler, Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging

“Listen for someone’s needs—not so you can act on them but as an act of kindness and compassion. Listen for the essence of what the person is saying—not the content, but the emotions.”
― Susan Fowler, Master Your Motivation: Three Scientific Truths for Achieving Your Goals

“One of the great opportunities you have as a leader is to help your people find meaning, contribute to a social purpose, and experience healthy interpersonal relationships at work. The challenge is that exploring healthy interpersonal relationships in the workplace has been discouraged or even forbidden. Regrettably, beliefs such as “It’s not personal; it’s just business” diminish an aspect of work that is essential to our healthy functioning as human beings—the quality of our relationships.”
― Susan Fowler, Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging

“Outdated terminology—such as driving for results or incentivizing behavior—leads you down the wrong path if you are looking for motivation that generates productivity without compromising positive and enduring energy, vitality, and well-being for the people you lead.”
― Susan Fowler, Why Motivating People Doesn't Work . . . and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging