(cajobportal Insights) The Motivational Speaker Demotivated Me

Let me share a hypothetical situation

Post demonetisation and GST, the company’s sales team was struggling with its targets. So there was tremendous pressure on HR to do something about it.

They set up a session with this super-famous Motivational Speaker.

Through the grapevine, the 20 odd participants came to know that the company was paying him INR 400,000 to motivate them.

This in itself made them feel so demotivatedJ. They quipped that the HR could have simply distributed that INR 400,000 into 20 parts to make them feel motivated.

And what did the speaker do to justify his payment?

He urged them:

“Close your eyes and imagine the sales graphs climbing northwards. You moving towards winning the Hyundai Accent for the top performer. If you believe it you can achieve it!\”

Someone from the group said “If I had so magical powers, I could have closed my eyes and imagined marrying Katrina Kaif itself. A rich cum beautiful wife and my life would be sorted”

Jokes apart; no disrespect but I really wanted to share my oscillatory views on the topic of whether the ROI on Motivational Speaker sessions.

\”If you work hard, all your dreams will come true!\”;

\”If I can do it, so can you!\”

Really ????

They are illusions that are being sold for astronomical sums of money.

Maybe because no one wants to pay for hearing the harsh truth because they already live in it.

Imagine if the Motivational Speaker wore torn clothes and shared his life experiences.

“Life is hard. It’s not fair. There is no magic bullet – no top 10 secrets to getting rich

Your seniors will take credit for your work

You need a Godfather to succeed in Corporate Life. Else you die an unsung hero. Period”

The “10 / 80 / 10 theory” states that normally in a given audience, 10% will be self-motivated by themselves, that will be successful with or without a speaker\’s message, 10% are least bothered and and 80% are somewhere in the middle looking for direction.

Motivational Speakers target the top 10% and claim credit for their success, just like the coaching centres do for toppers of CA, MBA, IIT and UPSC exams. Typical Survivor-ship Bias.

So when the company is paying external Motivational Speakers through the nose, shouldn’t we check if they are delivering more tangible outcomes that can be applied in our lives, rather than short lived pumps of adrenaline?

My limited submission is that we should not let Motivational Sessions become a facade selling falsehood unethically?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to make Internal People talk about their real struggles? Wouldn\’t it make more sense to have one-to-one counselling sessions with psychotherapists to understand that exactly is troubling the employees?

Maybe my views are on the other end of the conundrum.

So, what do you think?

Would love to hear your views on this