Ola Barnabas

MOTIVATION: THE CARROT AND STICK MODEL This model is an adaptation of the donkey story. Two things make the donkey move: either the Carrot or the Stick. If you put a carrot in the front of donkey, it moves, whip it with a stick at the back, it moves. The carrot is a bait which can be likened to rewards which await subordinates on the accomplishment of their tasks. The stick can be seen as penalties which awaits them on the non-performance of their tasks. Both of them (Carrot and Stick) cause or instigate performance. It is quite interesting to induce behavior in workers by “dangling rewards in their face,” Most workers put in efforts because of what they expect in return. This may not be the best way to motivate. Carrot is most times Money or Bonuses. Managers need to get subordinates to work and produce maximally without having an eye on the carrot. More so, carrot is made available to people at times regardless of performance. People get promoted, salaries are reviewed upw...

THE NEED FOR MOTIVATION IN LEADING PEOPLE I will be sharing with you in my post for the next few days on leadership. Actually I am feeling lazy to write, and since I have a book (Fundamentals of Management and Administration) that deals somewhat with leadership – a topic I should be writing on, I feel I should just copy some of my thoughts in the book out for you. I know you will enjoy reading them. It is one thing for individuals to be assigned duties and tasks, the performance of those duties is a totally different ball game. Job performance most times is a direct off-shoot of motivation. There must be some prodding, some ‘push’ to achieve the required results of jobs. This ‘push’ aimed at improving performance, is motivation. Motivation can be seen as a set of factors which ensure that people make the choices and carry out the roles, tasks and functions assigned to them and inducing desired behavior and actions in them. Motivation can also be seen as a general ter...

SEVEN WAYS TO DEAL WITH BETRAYAL This is sequel to an earlier post on the theme of betrayal. The reactions I got long after that post indicate quite well that there are many people going through betrayal than they would like to admit; there are many instances that are not quite explicitly so defined but have the appearance of betrayal. And to add, only a handful of writers have written on the theme of betrayal. Like I did promise, this is the concluding part of my post on the subject of betrayal, and in this post, I will dwell on what you must do, should you feel betrayed. The first two are preventive while the remaining are curative. First, like it is with every ailment, it is far better to prevent than to cure. Betrayal also has its own symptoms some of which I have already enunciated in the first post (please read the post if you missed it), when you start noticing the symptoms, subject them to test. Put the perceived betrayal on a kind of trial, let him prove his lo...

DEALING WITH BETRAYAL I can’t believe that I am writing on this topic just yet. Although I believe that the wave of politics that swept past my country Nigeria recently holds the trigger to my writing on this theme. The ruling party – PDP, had done what most political parties in Nigeria do, share money (campaign funds) among their leaders for onward sharing to electorates who would be wooed. Unbeknownst to them, most of the people who had positioned as party faithfuls were actually fooling them. They never did share the funds, whatever they did with them. I got to understand that one of the governors had a shouting match with a politician who had been given some millions to disburse but didn’t do that. Most of those politicians have since left the ruling party to join the party of the moment – APC. Among other factors, this was key to PDP losing so fatally in the just-concluded general elections in Nigeria. There is nobody you should be more afraid of than someone who ...