They say there are two ways to motivate people: away from fear or toward desire. Fear could include losing a job, being embarrassed at the team meeting, or being passed over for a promotion. Desire could include getting a bonus or some other desirable incentive, receiving recognition, or earning a promotion.
Many of us hope to lead by creating desire rather than fear in our people, but many leaders tell me they feel unable to create desire in their employees. I contend that we must find ways to tie what we want from our employees with what they want for themselves.
Humans are essentially selfish beings, and I don’t necessarily mean that in a derogatory way. We are simply wired to scan a request of us for “what’s in it for me?” When someone asks us to do something different than what we are currently doing, they are asking us to change, and change isn’t easy. So, unless we can help the person of whom we are requesting the change to believe their compliance will result in helping them get something they want, they will likely resist it.
Do they want more money, more personal time, relief from something, more respect, recognition, or a reward? Do they want something to get easier, more efficient, or to go away completely once and for all? Maybe they want to get someone off their back? If we help them identify why this makes sense for them and us, they are more likely to do it. When we help them to connect the dots between what they want and what we want, we create personal buy-in, and compliance gets easier.
At LionSpeak, before we introduce any new initiative with a group, we always craft an exercise to pull out the current frustrations, roadblocks, dreams, and desires around whatever topic we’ll be presenting. This always shines a light first on what THEY want around the issue. Then, and only then, do we present what we’re proposing.
Your team members (and family members) are not robots but rather human beings who have their own interests, thoughts, desires, and passions. This week, if there is something you want someone else to do differently, ask some questions or brainstorm some ideas around why this might be beneficial for them as well as you and watch your compliance and cooperation go WAY up.
“To get what you want, help others get what they want.”
~ Zig Ziglar
Comments
So true. Short of a retreat, would love some creative ideas for eliciting that info!
Two things:
1) For general motivators, discuss at the team member’s growth conference. If one of your core values is ongoing professional growth, then always having a “growth goal” you can help the employee work toward will make sense.
2) For a one-off conversation, such as an immediate behavioral change, get creative about how doing things “your way” would be beneficial for the employee and introduce it that way. Toward the beginning of the conversation, explore where you and the employee could agree this change is necessary, important, or helpful.
I too would love soem creative ideas for eliciting that info. Great topic.
Uzma, please see my response to Deb’s question above.