The French are fundamentally motivated by the opportunity to use their minds. Work that engages their intelligence — that requires analysis, judgment, and understanding — energizes them. Work that is purely routine or mechanical drains them.
This pattern runs through everything: families cultivate reasoning from childhood, the school system rewards analytical rigor, professionals identify with intellectual contribution, and even social life values good conversation. If you want to motivate French colleagues, engage their intelligence. Give them problems worth thinking about. Explain the complexity.
Invite their analysis. The fastest way to demotivate them is to reduce their role to execution without understanding — to ask them to do without asking them to think. When their minds are engaged, their commitment follows.
Comments