6 Leadership Principles From The Old TestamentMuestra

Motivate your people less.

Many leaders who rely on motivation to get their people to produce are like medicine that loses its efficacy over time. Higher dosages, including more valuable rewards and incentives, are required to get the same effect. 

One leader spent years pushing his employees with high-energy meetings, grand incentives, and impassioned persuasion. But the staff turnover and personal burnout left his people and him longing for a less tiresome method.

The alternative to intentional motivation programs is long-term, self-generated motivation. We don’t have to abandon positive feedback or awards programs outright, but there is an underlying force behind motivation that many leaders don’t understand: love.

New York Giants’ coach Tom Coughlin was almost fired for his lack of love before the 2008 NFL season. Though he had delivered plenty of wins over his twelve years coaching both college and professional teams, critics labeled him a distant dictator unable to unite his team. 

To keep his job with the Giants, Coughlin changed his leadership tactics—and promptly went on to lead his team to a Super Bowl victory. Among his adjustments were less shouting, sharing decision-making with an eleven-player leadership council, and more effort learning about players’ personal lives.

The book of Hosea tells how an ancient leader employed the same kind of game-changing love to reach his people. God commanded the prophet Hosea to marry an adulterous woman named Gomer to signify Israel’s spiritual adultery. Hosea grudgingly obeyed. One time he tracked her down at her lover’s home just to make sure she was being well-cared for.

Loving Gomer against his will served a greater purpose. God wanted His people to see how He felt as the “husband” while they sought after other gods. Ultimately Hosea purchased Gomer back from the slave auction block after her last lover had had enough of her. Broken and ashamed, she followed Hosea back home.

This story illustrates the lengths we must sometimes go to reach the hearts of people. Love is the most potent motivator on the market—everything else is like artificial sweetener. 

People will perform better for a leader that loves them well.