"Motivating leads to de-motivation." [Reinhard K. Sprenger]
Reinhard K. Sprenger wrote a very good book on how to motivate people. His message is: Don't! Everybody has an intrinsic motivation and everybody has to develop his individual responsibility to contribute to his company's success. All external motivation will fail.
His book: Mythos Motivation, Wege aus einer Sackgasse [German]. His home page: www.sprenger.com​
Central topics of Sprenger's book on motivation:
The system of motivating people is organized suspicion
Staff gets entrapped by threats, punishments, briberies, gratifications and awards
Motivating destroys motivation. "How did you finish him off? - With praise." [Ephraim Kishon]
A company's bonus system is the disease whose cure it purports to be
Motivating is like doping [in sports]: You will no longer feel the pain
Falling back to self-regulating incentive systems is an oath of disclosure for each boss
You can only obstruct motivation
Leadership's foremost duty is to avoid de-motivation
Self-fulfilling prophecy: If you think your staff is not acting independently, they will not
Over time each boss has the staff he deserves
When we could no longer see the meaning of our work, we started to talk about motivation
People want the freedom to choose
Motivation is everybody's individual thing. Bosses have to grant freedom for this
The most frequent misdeed in management is the fundamental disrespect of human dignity