Distractions can destroy our productivity. But leading a startup means there’s a constant barrage of things that need to be handled. There are a lot of distractions: a call with a lawyer, a potential investor returning our call, responding to the latest Twitter post about our product, coding expenses so our team gets paid in a timely fashion, merging that last commit from the new developer we just hired who refuses to comment anything, figuring out how to run a refund in Stripe, and the list goes on and on. When are we supposed to be productive when we’re in that place that we’re too small to hire people to…

No matter what kind of organization, inspiration leads to higher retention and just a better place to work. There are plenty of ways we can inspire teams and there are entire books on doing so. The traditional approaches involve identifying motivators, giving accolades, providing training, communicating more, doing what you say we’re going to do, identifying a focus on the purpose, defining the mission, and dozens of other techniques. Inspiring our teams keep people engaged, inspired, active, and create a great sense of community that is infectious to our customers. There are also demotivators. These negatively impact the team and can be off-putting. There are obvious behaviors that just don’t…