Advice for the Unmotivated

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Personal Development, Leading & Managing Section | 1

Advice for the Unmotivated

By Robin Abrahams and Boris Groysberg | Harvard Business Review Magazine | May–June 2024

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In virtually everyone’s career, there comes a time when motivation and interest vanish. The usual tasks feel tedious. It’s hard to muster the energy for new projects. Though we go through the motions of being good employees or managers, we’re not really “there.” We become ghosts or zombies: the working dead.

Boston University’s William Kahn first diagnosed this problem as disengagement in the 1990s, and three decades later it’s still rampant. According to the most recent Gallup polling, only 23% of people around the world are engaged at work.

Most advice on how to address this problem is aimed at managers and organizational leaders who have the power to influence the factors that promote engagement. However, it is possible for individuals to take steps to sustain their motivation or recover it, even after a period of deep disengagement and even in the most stultifying of jobs. 

Based on their research the authors have developed a four-step process for reenergizing yourself.

1. Detachment.  Though this may sound like a counterintuitive first step for overcoming disengagement, it’s important to take time to step back and objectively analyze your situation and feelings. When people are unhappy—at work or in general—they interpret events and information negatively. Bad things appear worse than they are, as if they’ll last forever. And they seem to always be happening to you no matter what you do.  You need distance and perspective to make wise choices; otherwise you’re merely reacting, in a fight-or-flight kind of way.  The following detachment practices can help free you from the cognitive distortions that cloud your decision-making:  reflect and then break away, mediate, move your body, and think in the third person.
2. Empathy.  When you’re feeling unmotivated at work, you might beat yourself up for your lack of interest and ambition. But compassion toward yourself is crucial for reengagement. It’s also important to resist the impulse to withdraw from your manager and colleagues. We all have psychological needs—for social interaction, intellectual satisfaction, positive regard from others, feelings of accomplishment. And one of the most effective ways to meet those needs is to help others meet theirs.  Try the followings: practice self-care, treat people as people, ask questions, look for friends, and help others.
3. Action.  Research shows that disengaged employees act out: They seek escape through drinking or drugs; spend excessive amounts of time surfing the internet or taking care of personal business at work; and often behave unprofessionally. But that rebellious energy can be channeled in more-productive ways, both small and big.  Go for the followings:  tackle the little stuff, Invest in outside activities, Job craft, gamify, pretend, and pay attention to your dress.
4. Reframing.  You can reframe your thinking about work in two ways. First, by asking yourself who you are in your job, and second, by considering what role your job plays in your life.  Consider the following ideas: examine your work identity, look at the big picture, and consider how others benefit from your work. 

3 key takeaways from the article

1. In virtually everyone’s career, there comes a time when motivation and interest vanish. The usual tasks feel tedious. It’s hard to muster the energy for new projects.
2. Most advice on how to address this problem is aimed at managers and organizational leaders who have the power to influence the factors that promote engagement. However, it is possible for individuals to take steps to sustain their motivation or recover it.
3. To interrupt the cycle of numbness and paralysis and restore your sense of agency so that you’re able to effectively address such challenges consider DEAR process:  detachment (reflect and then break away, mediate, move your body, and think in the third person), empathy (practice self-care, treat people as people, ask questions, look for friends, and help others), action (tackle the little stuff, Invest in outside activities, job craft, gamify, pretend, and pay attention to your dress); and reframing (examine your work identity, look at the big picture, and consider how others benefit from your work.)

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Topics:  Personal Development, Personal Management, Teams, Disengagement, Empathy