Introducing Today’s Expert

This week, we sat down with Anna Tilesch, psychologist and former employee experience expert, to discuss what truly drives motivation and engagement in the modern workplace.

Anna spent over a decade working inside corporate environments - even pioneering the role of "Mood Manager" in Hungary - before shifting her focus to private practice as a psychologist with a coaching-based approach. Drawing on this rare, dual-lens experience, she offers a powerful perspective on why no amount of perks or "fun culture" can replace real human connection at work.

Q: Your career path is particularly interesting - you started out as a Mood Manager and later became a psychologist. How did that transition happen? Tell us a bit about that journey.

A: I never actually set out to become a Mood Manager. I didn't even know such a role existed, partly because I was genuinely one of the first people to do it in Hungary.

A few lucky coincidences led me there. While I was still at university, I started working at a very innovative recruitment company. The plan was to train me as a recruiter too, but I wasn’t really drawn to that role. What I did love was working alongside the office manager, who was responsible for team-building and employee well-being.

When she resigned, I was offered her position. I loved the well-being aspect, but I wasn't interested in the operational duties. We came up with the idea of splitting the position in two: one person for operations, and me for employee well-being as the Mood Manager. Since the company’s leaders came from places like Google and Prezi, such an idea didn't seem unusual, and that’s how a career began.

Over time, my role gradually shifted closer to management and further away from direct employee contact. My work became more about organizational systems and less about what I truly loved: having one-on-one conversations, running retrospectives, and creating space for real human connection. Eventually, I realized that large-scale organizational operations weren't really my world. Now, with my own practice, I'm back to focusing on that essential connection.

Q: Looking back, what do you think companies most often misunderstand when they try to “make their employees happy?”

A: What companies most often get wrong is that they don’t actually aim to make the employees themselves happy.

From my experience, there’s a strong fear that if you 'spoil' employees, they won’t work hard or be productive. The more you ask for their opinions and actually take those responses seriously, the more they’ll speak up. After that, it becomes harder to push through decisions that aren't in the team's interest.

In a way, many companies prefer not to wake the sleeping lion. They're fine if employees are a little afraid of their leaders, if they stay quiet, or if their expectations are modest.

The key is who’s on your team. If you have people who are passionate and reliable, engaging them with the company’s mission creates an incredibly loyal and satisfied super-team - one that is also highly effective.

Q: We often associate motivation with perks, team-building, or “casual Fridays.” From your perspective, what actually keeps people motivated in the long run?

A: It’s like judging a good cake only by its chocolate coating. The coating needs to be high quality, but if the cake underneath isn’t tasty, you end up with people who stay just to eat the coating.

Sustaining motivation starts in recruitment. If you hire people who genuinely love their work, take pride in their growth, and are the right fit for the right role, you already have a strong foundation that's hard to ruin.

From there, you pay attention to them as a person as well as to their work, helping them grow naturally.

The most foundational step that almost no one takes is to avoid sabotaging motivation. If someone is impossible to work with, causes tension, or just isn’t a good human being, you have to let them go, no matter how skilled they are. These individuals poison the environment and drain the motivation of your best employees.

Ultimately, if you want to sustain motivation, give people a leader they can respect and trust. That leader must ensure they work in a positive, toxicity-free team and do meaningful work that helps them grow.

Q: How can a leader recognize when motivation is fading, and what's the healthiest way to address it?

A: Let’s start with the basics: ideally, a leader should have 5–7 direct reports. With a team of this size, it’s still feasible to hold weekly or biweekly one-on-one meetings, and that’s usually where these issues become apparent. Beyond that, I’m a strong believer in anonymous surveys. The trickiest situation is, of course, when the 'grain of sand' is the leader themselves - that's often the hardest thing to uncover.

Addressing these situations is always unique. Sometimes, people go through personal life challenges that prevent them from giving 100% for a few days, weeks, or even months. To some extent, I believe it’s a company’s responsibility to tolerate that - and, where possible, to help - because the organization itself isn’t giving 100% to the employee all the time either. If a company can stand by an employee during a difficult period, it strengthens the engagement of the entire team. After all, at the core, we’re all human.

Q: What can HR teams or company leaders do differently to build genuine connection and trust?

A: In my view, part of the answer lies in who you hire. If your team is full of people who would rather not talk to anyone all day, no amount of HR effort will fix that.

Building a team is exactly like building any other community you care about. It doesn’t require grand gestures - it’s about supporting positive, human connections wherever possible. That's why, in large organizations, people are often grouped by shared interests. Not everyone will connect with everyone, but each person will find someone they genuinely like, and from these connections, valuable networks form.

We can think of two types of networks in a company: personal and work-related.

For example, if a friend in your social circle happens to be a recognized paleontologist at a museum, and another friend starts working there as a museum attendant, an information channel naturally forms between them. If both are committed to their work and to effectiveness, the museum as a whole is likely to benefit. (And yes - that was a Friends reference.)

Shifting to formal relationships, I believe in fairness and transparency in all business decisions:

• Transparent salaries: If everyone could see each other’s fair salaries, any tension would at least be rational and explainable.
• Clear boundaries: Responsibilities and boundaries must be crystal clear for everyone.
• Proactive leadership: Let go of the people everyone dislikes who cause the most tension, even if they’re skilled. Recognize and take action on leaders whose teams are suffering because of them.

A company is not an army, and work is not a war. I strive to be fair, transparent, and proactive - answering even unasked "why" questions. I expect quality work, and in return, I consistently honor my commitments.

We are all human. If a company is fair and genuinely improves the world, its people will proudly work harder - simply because being good is good, and feeling pride is good. It becomes a positive, upward spiral.

Q: What’s one common misconception about “workplace happiness” that you’d most like to dispel?

A: That there isn't such a thing. I’ve heard it so many times: that the ‘perfect workplace’ hasn't been invented yet, or that every place is bad in its own way. That’s nonsense.

Any workplace can be good. It’s never only about money, but about original intent and the people who work there. Things flow from the top, of course, but a leader can be an umbrella for their team. The biggest misconception is that everything comes from outside or from above. Each employee is individually responsible for the environment they create and the value they produce.

Q: If a company wanted to “fix” low engagement, what would be the very first step you’d recommend?

A: First, assess what the real problem is. Once you have the raw, honest results, swallow hard, face them, and don’t try to explain them away.

Once you’ve faced it and identified what needs to change, start acting and communicate about it. If the problem is pay, you don’t need to immediately raise everyone's salary by 30%. But you can say: ‘Here’s what we found, we understand it, here’s what we’re going to do, and within X years, we’ll get to a point where you’ll never feel embarrassed telling your friends how much you earn.’

Honesty, fairness, and the intent to improve - always. That’s basically it.

Final Thoughts

Anna’s insights remind us that motivation is about trust, meaningful work, and real human connection. Teams thrive when people feel valued, supported, and empowered to grow, and that’s the kind of workplace we aim to enable every day.