You may think that you're doing an awesome job motivating your employees. But you could easily be doing a lot more harm than good.

Let’s be honest, leadership and management is a tricky business. As a manager, your co-workers are in a lower position than you. And as their superior, you're entrusted with a lot of authority and responsibility.

Even though you are at the top of your department's food chain, really great managers realise that no one likes feeling inferior. But even more than that, no one likes being made to feel inferior.  And that’s what sets leaders apart from bad managers: the realisation that through a common goal, no employee is more important than another.

A bad manager thinks that he knows better than anyone else, and tries to get his staff to follow him by using horrible motivational techniques. For example:

1. Talking down to employees like they're children thinking they’ll listen to you

Even though your staff may sometimes act incompetent, you should by no means treat them as such. You are working with adults, and yes, that includes the fresh out of school interns.  They run their own adult lives separate from their work, with bills and grown-up responsibilities – just like you.

You think they’re motivated when you babysit their every move? No, they’re just annoyed that you don’t trust them. Do you think your tone demands respect? No, it'll just make them dismiss you. There is no need to force your authority and powerful presence onto anyone. Co-operation is what you need. The 'I'm big, you're little' speech doesn't fare well with grown people.

2. Zoning in on every mistake, thinking employees will be motivated to stop making them

Since we’ve already established that your employees are adults, they do feel guilt and shame when they accidentally do something wrong. Making an employee feel worse than they already do may make them even more nervous and accident-prone. Dwelling on every little mistake kills their confidence and self-esteem. Be careful you don't become the office bully.

You may think that fear motivates, but it has a greater potential to freeze someone’s potential. Constructive criticism is important and leads to better results than random nit-picking. The fear of making mistakes could reach a point that negatively impacts the employee’s ability.

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3. Implementing even more rules thinking employees will follow them religiously

Again, your employee is not a child. By forcing David (for example) to sit at his desk doesn’t mean he’ll be working - or working hard - instead. Sitting at a desk doesn’t mean you’re doing anything related to your tasks. If you allowed him to work when his productivity is at an optimal level, not only will more work be done, but it’ll be better quality work too.

If you cannot trust David and his colleagues to do their work well without taking away privileges, then you shouldn't have hired any one of them in the first place. The more rules you impose, the more frustrated your employees might feel. In case you didn't know, the benefits of a great corporate culture are amazing.

4. Favouring one thinking that the others will strive to be more like them

If you’re hoping to inspire the rest of your staff by favouring one individual who is doing well, it won't work.

Instead of acting like the favoured person (Peter) they’ll ostracise him. Remember, your employees spend more time in the same space as Peter:  they’re not only more exposed to his flaws than you, but they’ll actively start looking for his flaws. - just to undermine your judgement. In a blink of an eye, cliques are formed amongst those for and against Peter, and in-house conflict erupts.

Rather try implementing a transparent and fair goal and reward system that everyone can participate in. Or you could simply consistently recognise everyone’s achievements with a 'good job!' every once in a while. Positive reinforcement motivates employees to want to do better, whereas rewarding a winner just means everyone else are losers.

Remember: More people love compliments than people love competition; people will rather not run the race than put in the effort to maybe win (unless running is within their comfort zone).

5. Making empty promises

You may think that promising them the moon, sun and stars is a good idea. In fact, your intentions probably were to give them the moon, sun and star at one point. But things (like your mood, company goals and resources) do change.

So maybe you’ve motivated your employees by asking them to come up with ideas to help the business or that their opinion matters... but then you shoot their ideas down with 100 excuses about why it'll never work. Honestly, it would have been better if you never mentioned that you'd appreciate their thoughts when you don’t. You've just managed to create an opportunity for them to get insulted by you, because those nos you dish out - they hurt every time.

No, not every idea is great. But investing in time to brainstorm their ideas, you can get them to feel like they bring value, are appreciated. Recognising their effort and working with them to develop a more mature vision, will inspire your employees to do more.

6. Talking Motivationally and Inspirationally

This one is a no brainer. You need to do more walking and less talking.

Talks work, but if you don’t walk the walk too, employees will never believe that you truly understand them and that you’re on their side. Go forth and lead by example.

7. Setting unrealistic goals thinking they’ll aim higher

Depending on the type of employee you’re working with, one of three things could happen:

(a) An ambitious employee will work to the point of burn out trying to reach the goal. If he does reach the goal, he’ll be sick, tired and miserable. If he doesn’t reach the goal, he’ll feel like a failure.

(b) A lazy employee will not even try to reach the goal. Congrats, you’ve just made your worse employee even worse. Did you know that certain human behaviours are contagious? Ever heard someone say, “If John can do that and get away with it, then surely I can too.” And bam! Now you have two lazy employees.

(c) Someone that fluctuates between the two. One day he’s motivated and ready to meet the target. As the deadline approaches, it becomes apparent that the target is unreachable. And he just gives up.

No one is happy.

It is true that the responsibility of work decisions lies with the employee, but the environment in which they find themselves influences this decision making process greatly. To get the best out of each of your team members, be their leader and not their boss.

For more tips on how to be a great leader, read Careers24's Management Advice articles and be the best manager you can be.