# Can't, won't, or doesn't believe it pays off > Before you push, praise or pay, find out why the work isn't happening. - Course: [From Specialist to Manager: Your First Year Leading a Team](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager.md) - Module: Motivation and fairness - Lesson 13/32, ~23 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/diagnose-motivation ## Where we are **Alex Tutor:** April, your fourth month leading Support. The exam peak is at full height: six coordinators, Dmytro and Sofiia among them, and the AI draft assistant suggesting replies in every ticket. **Sofia:** And three things don't happen. Dmytro leaves refund disputes in his queue, Bohdan ignores the AI drafts, Taras skips the hand-up note. A word with each? A small prize? **Alex Tutor:** Not yet. Pushing, praising and paying are treatments. First the **motivation diagnosis**: why isn't it happening? Three possible causes, three different fixes. **Alex Tutor:** Before any of that: three people, three things not done. What's your first move? > **Exercise:** Dmytro leaves refund disputes in his queue, Bohdan ignores the AI drafts and Taras skips the hand-up note. What should the lead do **first**? ## Three questions **Alex Tutor:** **Can they?** Skill, tools, time, a clear picture of good work. **Do they want to?** Whether the work, as it's set up, feels worth doing and fair. **Alex Tutor:** **Do they believe it pays off?** Three links: if I try, will it work? Will anyone notice? Is what follows worth it to me? One broken link stops the effort. **Sofia:** What about the classic pyramid of needs? Isn't that how you read people? **Alex Tutor:** A fixed ladder of needs predicts little about one person. You learn what drives Dmytro by asking him, then watching what changes when an obstacle goes. **Olha:** About Dmytro: he messaged me twice last week asking where the refund policy ends. Nobody walked him through the exceptions. He's careful, not lazy. > **Exercise:** Dmytro leaves refund disputes in his queue and has asked Olha twice where the refund policy ends. What is the most likely cause? ## Bohdan and the drafts **Alex Tutor:** Bohdan knows the tool and has time for it. In your one-to-one, ask before you explain: what happens when he opens a draft? **Sofia:** He said the drafts sound like a call centre. Families write to him by name, and he rewrites every draft anyway, so it's quicker to start from scratch. **Alex Tutor:** That's a "won't" cause, and a respectable one: he values the craft of a careful personal reply. That's **intrinsic motivation**: the work matters to him for itself. **Alex Tutor:** An order would cost you that. Ask where a draft could help without the call-centre tone, and let him rewrite the wording the assistant starts from. > **Exercise:** Which questions help you **diagnose** why Bohdan doesn't use the AI drafts? Select all that apply. ## Taras and the note **Alex Tutor:** Now Taras. He can write three lines and isn't against notes. So check the chain: does a note change anything he sees? **Sofia:** Ah. In the March rush his noted hand-ups often waited hours, same as the ones without a note. He told me: "Nobody reads them anyway." **Alex Tutor:** There's the broken link: effort, no visible result. Repair the chain, not the person: answer noted hand-ups first, within two hours, and show they get solved faster. **Olha:** And thank him when a note is good. Not for writing it, for what it saved. **Alex Tutor:** Before you fix Taras's case, put the links of that chain in order. > **Exercise:** Put the links of the **“does it pay off?”** chain in order, from the person's effort to what it means to them. > **Exercise:** Taras skips the hand-up note because "nobody reads them anyway". Which first move repairs the right link? ## Before you pay for it **Iryna:** This is why I'm adding a bonus for April: UAH 20 for every ticket above 60 a week. Money solves motivation fast. **Sofia:** It might lift the count. But it fixes none of our three: Dmytro still can't, Bohdan still won't, and Taras's note still changes nothing. **Alex Tutor:** Exactly. A bonus is **extrinsic motivation**: it works for simple, countable work and pulls attention towards whatever it counts. We'll see what it does to quality next time. **Olha:** Fine by me. But at her pace Maryna will barely clear 60 a week, and nobody's replies are more careful than hers. **Alex Tutor:** Two kinds of motivation have come up today. Can you tell them apart? > **Exercise:** Which of these is an example of **intrinsic motivation**? > **Exercise:** **True or false:** a well-designed bonus fixes all three causes at once, because everyone wants more money. ## Reading the signals **Sofia:** How do I tell the three apart quickly, without a long interview? **Alex Tutor:** Listen to how people describe it. "I'm not sure where the line is" sounds like can't. "This makes the work worse" sounds like won't. "Nothing changes anyway" is a broken link. **Alex Tutor:** Fairness sits inside "won't" too. When someone's effort goes unseen or the credit goes to someone else, people quietly hold effort back. **Alex Tutor:** Remotely, diagnose in conversation, not from dashboards or online status. And if low drive comes with exhaustion, poor sleep or trouble at home, suggest professional support instead. > **Exercise:** Match each signal with the cause it points to first. ## Your turn: one diagnosis, one move **Alex Tutor:** Pick one of the three: the cause you see and why, the first thing you change, and how you'll know it worked. **Sofia:** And if my first guess is wrong? **Alex Tutor:** Then the check tells you. A diagnosis is a hypothesis you test, not a label you pin on someone. **Olha:** One request: don't fix it by adding a meeting. We're in the peak. > **Exercise:** Choose **Dmytro, Bohdan or Taras**: Dmytro leaves refund disputes in his queue and has asked twice where the refund policy ends; Bohdan ignores the AI drafts because they sound like a call centre; Taras skips the hand-up note because in March noted hand-ups waited as long as the rest. In 3–5 sentences write your plan: the cause you see (can't, won't or doesn't believe it pays off) and the evidence for it, the first thing you change, and how you'll check within two weeks whether it worked. > **Key ideas** > > - **Motivation diagnosis** comes before any push, praise or pay: can they, do they want to, do they believe it pays off? > - **Can't** is skill, tools, time or clarity: Dmytro needs the refund exceptions walked through, not a pep talk. > - **Won't** is about value and fairness: Bohdan's **intrinsic motivation** is careful personal replies; involve him instead of ordering. > - **Doesn't believe it pays off** is a broken link in effort → result → reward: make the result of Taras's notes visible. > - A bonus is **extrinsic motivation**: it lifts what it counts and fixes none of the three causes on its own. > - Diagnose in conversation, not from dashboards; exhaustion or trouble at home calls for professional support. **Alex Tutor:** Next time: goals people accept, and what Iryna's one-number bonus is likely to do to the team. - Previous lesson: [Case: splitting the spring peak](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/spring-peak-split-case.md) - Next lesson: [Goals people accept](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/goals-people-accept.md) --- Productovi Learning. 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