{"id":296,"date":"2026-09-05T11:43:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/?p=296"},"modified":"2026-09-05T11:46:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T10:46:36","slug":"dealing-with-demotivated-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/dealing-with-demotivated-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with demotivated people (What Nobody Tells You)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"I was wrong about demotivated people\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/25u18VCPYa0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Imagine you have a new idea for your work. You think about it all night. You map out everything, and it feels perfect.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The next day you walk into your team, full of energy. And the second you start explaining it, you see their faces. More than half of them look bored. They start telling you why it won&#8217;t work, why they can&#8217;t do it.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And you feel terrible.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Here&#8217;s the thing: you don&#8217;t need to imagine this person. Six in ten of the people around you are running on low right now. It&#8217;s not rare. It&#8217;s the default. It&#8217;s just part of working with people.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">It&#8217;s not you imagining it\u00a0 it&#8217;s real<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gallup.com\/workplace\/393497\/world-trillion-workplace-problem.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">59% of employees worldwide are &#8220;quiet quitting&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0 present, but coasting. That&#8217;s from Gallup. But the number isn&#8217;t the point. The point is that you face this almost every day, and it&#8217;s hard.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I hated this part. After that meeting, I felt awful. Why aren&#8217;t they as excited as me? Why don&#8217;t they see the value? Why this, why that.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Until I understood one thing that changed how I work. It&#8217;s not about the <em>why<\/em>. The why is just a fact. It&#8217;s about what I <em>do<\/em> about it. That shift helped me a lot. I still have bad days\u00a0 I&#8217;m human, I love working, I get excited. But now, most of the time, I&#8217;m focused on one question: what can I do to make this better?<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">The uncomfortable truth<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Right after that shift, I hit something uncomfortable. The single biggest reason a person is demotivated is not their character. It&#8217;s their manager. Gallup found the manager accounts for about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gallup.com\/workplace\/232955\/no-employee-benefit-no-one-talking.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">70% of the difference<\/a> in a team&#8217;s engagement.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So, most probably, it was me. That&#8217;s hard to hear. But once you accept it, you get to a better question: what can I actually do about it?<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">I do care but not the way they felt it<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So I started reading, and it was overwhelming. Everyone has &#8220;the fix.&#8221; <em>Care about your people. Motivate them.<\/em> At the start I&#8217;d try one thing and break something else.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">What I finally learned: I <em>do<\/em> care about people. The problem was that how I cared was different from how they felt cared for.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">They don&#8217;t need a solution. They need to be heard.<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Here&#8217;s a clear example. Someone would come to me with a worry, and I&#8217;d give them a solution. Of course I cared\u00a0 I gave them a solution, right?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Then I learned something. Most people don&#8217;t need a solution. They need to be heard. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inc.com\/melanie-curtin\/employees-who-feel-heard-are-46x-more-likely-to-feel-empowered-to-do-their-best-work.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Salesforce found that people who feel heard are 4.6\u00d7 more likely<\/a> to feel free to do their best work.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So I started just listening. And it&#8217;s hard \u2014 sometimes you hear things that go nowhere, and I feel the urge to fix it, because I&#8217;m a problem solver. But I remind myself: my job is to make this person feel motivated, not to be the one with the answer. Finding the answer is their job. Making them feel heard is mine.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">People are afraid of change\u00a0 and I finally understood why<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Another thing I saw: people are afraid of change. This was strange to me, because I love change. But most people don&#8217;t, and there&#8217;s a reason.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I was born when the communist system fell in Albania. Recently, when Bashar al-Assad&#8217;s system fell in Syria, I saw the faces of the people hope, relief. And it took me back. Of course I love change \u2014 it&#8217;s in my childhood. But not everyone had that childhood. Maybe someone was part of the old system, and for them the change meant they lost everything. Same event, opposite feeling.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">There&#8217;s biology under it too. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aimbusinessschool.edu.au\/why-abs\/blog\/why-70-of-change-management-initiatives-fail\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">About 70% of change efforts fail<\/a>, mostly because people resist\u00a0 our brains want safety, not surprise.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So now I don&#8217;t walk in and announce my idea. I watch people, I see how they feel about it, and I adapt. I start with the journey why we need a change at all\u00a0 and I only bring a specific idea once I see they understand. And I bring it as a possibility, even when I&#8217;m already convinced, because they need to speak, to say their worry and feel that it matters. It works most of the time. Not always. We&#8217;re human. Nothing is fixed.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">When people only see what can go wrong<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Another part that&#8217;s hard for me: when people mostly think about what can go wrong. I&#8217;m a positive person I believe things will go right, and if they go wrong, I&#8217;ll learn.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But here&#8217;s another unfair fact: the brain is wired to see the danger. <a href=\"https:\/\/thedecisionlab.com\/biases\/loss-aversion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A loss feels about twice as strong as an equal win<\/a> that&#8217;s Kahneman and Tversky.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">This is still a challenge for me. But my strength\u00a0 believing it&#8217;ll work\u00a0 is also my weakness. So now, more and more, I see these people as a blessing. They help me fix my blind spot. I ask: if this goes wrong, what&#8217;s the worst case? Sometimes the worst case isn&#8217;t just a lesson \u2014 it can sink the whole thing, and these people save me. And when it&#8217;s too big, we lower the risk together. I fix my weakness, and they feel heard. Both.<\/p>\n<h3 dir=\"ltr\">The honest limit and what I&#8217;m building<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">These are just some of the situations. There are so many, and they&#8217;re mine\u00a0 I&#8217;d love to hear yours.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But here&#8217;s one more true thing: we don&#8217;t have time to hear everything our team carries. We can&#8217;t understand everyone as deeply as we need to. That&#8217;s why I&#8217;m building <strong>Teracrowd<\/strong> \u2014 a chief of staff for your team. Tera can talk with each person as much as they need, and understand them, so I get time back: time to focus on what matters, and the freedom to just listen. Because Tera saves me so much time, I can be more present with people.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Honestly? I&#8217;m becoming a better leader\u00a0 and a better human\u00a0 because I have her.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>If that sounds like something you need, [join the waitlist <a href=\"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/\">here<\/a>].<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2 dir=\"ltr\">FAQ<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Why is my team so demotivated?<\/strong> Often it isn&#8217;t about their character. Gallup found the manager accounts for about 70% of the difference in a team&#8217;s engagement, and that 59% of employees are &#8220;quiet quitting.&#8221; So a demotivated team is usually a signal about the environment and leadership\u00a0 not a group of lazy people.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>What do demotivated employees actually need?<\/strong> Usually to be heard before anything else. Salesforce found people who feel heard are 4.6\u00d7 more likely to feel free to do their best work. Many managers respond with solutions when the person first needs to feel understood\u00a0 and often they can find the solution themselves once they do.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Why do people resist change even when it&#8217;s good?<\/strong> Because the brain prefers safety over uncertainty, and past experiences shape how people feel about change. About 70% of change efforts fail, mostly due to resistance. Explaining the &#8220;why&#8221; first, and letting people voice their worries before you present a specific change, dramatically lowers that resistance.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>How do I deal with people who only see what could go wrong?<\/strong> Treat them as a safeguard, not a problem. The brain is wired toward loss\u00a0 a loss feels about twice as strong as a win. People who spot risks can save a project. Ask &#8220;what&#8217;s the worst case?&#8221; together, then decide how to lower that risk. They feel heard, and you cover your blind spot.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine you have a new idea for your work. You think about it all night. You map out everything, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[92,91],"class_list":["post-296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-dealing-with-demotivated","tag-demotivated-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teracrowd.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}