Has your team checked out? Dan and Alison answer your questions with the help of Richard Boyatzis, a management professor at Case Western Reserve University and coauthor of the book Helping People Change. They talk through what to do when a colleague wants the status of a prominent role but doesn’t want to do the work, employees are leaving the company at a high rate, or your subordinate resists doing any additional work.

 From Alison and Dan’s reading list:

HBR: How to Motivate Your Problem People by Nigel Nicholson — “Everyone knows that good managers motivate with the power of their vision, the passion of their delivery, and the compelling logic of their reasoning. Add in the proper incentives, and people will enthusiastically march off in the right direction.”

Book: Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth by Richard E. Boyatzis, Melvin Smith, and Ellen Van Oosten — “In our attempt to coach a person seeking help, most of us naturally take a problem-solving approach, focusing on the gaps between where they are and where we think they should or could be. We are trying to fix them. This does not work well, if at all, to motivate sustained learning, change, or adaptation.”

HBR: A Guide to Managing a Volunteer Workforce by Joe McCannon and Hahrie Han— “The belief that you need to convince, cajole, or manipulate people into joining your cause is wrong. People who volunteer generally don’t do it because you’ve worn them down with messaging. Once someone has expressed interest in volunteering, strive to learn what their dreams are in order to help make them come true.”

HBR: How to Tell an Employee They Didn’t Get a Promotion by Rebecca Knight — “It’s no fun to tell employees that they’ve been passed over for a promotion — especially if you value them and their work. What’s the best way to deliver the bad news? What can you say to make sure they don’t lose interest in their jobs or hold grudges against you or the decision makers?”