Intimidation
Intimidation can be effective over the short run. If someone says to you, “Get this report shaped up by Tuesday morning or ship out,” you’re likely to get it shaped up.
But if you’re a manager who uses intimidation as a weapon to motivate your people, you may find sooner or later that your people don’t like this tactic. They decide that they can do better elsewhere. Replacing them takes time, training, and money. On these grounds alone, it has been proven again and again that intimidation is a poor long-term motivator.
The Center for Creative Leadership in North Carolina once studied a group of fast-rising executives. Half of them peaked early in their careers and were fired or forced to take early retirement. The reason? In almost every case, it was a bullying, intimidating style. It worked for a while, but it eventually did them in.
Intimidation causes people to forget about teamwork and starts them thinking about their own survival. They begin talking about my future, my safety, me. They forget about working together. Things go from bad to worse after that.
