One of my clients is trying out for his college golf team. After the first two rounds he played respectable and emailed me his scores. Along with his scores he sent me the emails the coach sent to the team. I was surprised by the comments of the coach to his team. He was pushing them to play better and that college golf is different and change is necessary to improve. I agreed with the basic message, however it come across very negative and basically “listen to me or you can find another college”. It was a speech you might hear from a football coach whose team is losing at halftime. This coach works from the motivation strategy of the ‘stick’. Scare your players into making change or experience the consequences.  I told my client that this may just be a temporary way for the coach to lay the foundation of authority and to earn respect through making the rules.

What I have found working with the younger generation is that the stick approach doesn’t work for long periods of time. People want to know the positive things that can happen with hard work (carrot approach), not just the negative things if they don’t work hard. Are you motivating yourself and your team with the stick or with a carrot?