Rafael Benítez's hilarious scripted outburst against Sir Alex Ferguson at the weekend provided something of a masterclass in how to make oneself look like a loon while simultaneously spurring your major rival to even greater heights.
It got me thinking about motivation, and what an important management skill it is, especially right now. Endless books and reports have been written on the topic and no doubt a fresh chapter in the Ferguson opus on the subject will be written following the Benitez rant.
There's no doubt motivation is a complex area, and what pushes one individual's buttons will be completely different to another's. An acquaintance began each year by marking off, prison style, the number of days until his next holiday, as that was all he worked for. And I recall the tale of a famously driven print boss whose determination was fuelled by placing a picture of the grinning management team at his main rival on his office wall. Common motivating factors include money, self-respect, status and job satisfaction but right now another motivator - fear - will be right up there too. When company managers are in all likelihood in a state of high anxiety and stress themselves it's difficult to avoid transmitting those jittery vibes to the troops. And with job cuts a necessity at so many businesses, ensuring those employees who remain on board are all marching in the same direction is going to be of paramount importance.
Listening to a human resources expert talk on this topic a while back, he said that communicating properly to everybody in the business - whether they were staying or going - in a clear, honest, and credible way was absolutely imperative in any restructure. He described a redundancy exercise as being "an investment in the survivors", so it's crucial that those who remain understand what the future holds, what the plan is, and how it will be achieved. A round of redundancies that is poorly planned and executed can leave a company with a workforce that is de-motivated and depressed. As we embark upon what is certain to be an extraordinarily challenging year, that's the last thing any business needs.
