100 Ways to Motivate Others : How Great Leaders Can Produce Insane Results Without Driving People Crazy

Manage Agreements, Not People

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“Yes, it will.”
“Well, here’s what you can count on: By Friday, I’ll have
a TV monitor in the store. What else can I do for you?”
Because a leader is always serving, too. Not just laying
down the law, but serving. And always asking, “How can I
assist you? How can I serve you and help you with this?”
Because the true leader wants an absolute promise and
absolute performance.
And now that we have agreed, I ask very sincerely, “Can
I count on you now to have this done, with 100-percent
compliance? Can I count on that from you?”
“Yes, of course you can.”
Great. We shake. Two professionals are leaving this
meeting with an agreement they both made out of mutual
respect, out of professional, grown-up conversation. No-
body had to be “managed.”
19. Focus on the Result,
Not the Excuse
A leader has to be able to change an organization that is dreamless,
soulless and visionless...someone’s got to make a wake-up call.
—Warren Bennis
If you are a sales manager, you probably run into the
same frustrations that Frank conveyed to us when we talked
last week.
“I believe I need advice on how to deliver the ‘Just Do
It’ message to my people,” Frank said. “I’ve said it every
way I can, and I think I’m starting to sound like a broken

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record. I don’t know why I called you. I thought maybe
you were advising your clients to pick up some new book
to read, or that you might have some general words of
wisdom.”
“What, specifically, is your problem?”
“Half of the people on the team I manage are total
non-producers!” he said. “And I keep telling them...it’s
not magical...it’s getting the leads...and getting it done....
I’ve said, ‘Just get off your butt, and go get referrals, make
60 to 75 phone calls, visit with eight to 10 potential buyers
each week and watch how successful you’ll be.’”
“What’s really missing here?” we asked him. “What’s
wrong with your picture? Why aren’t they out there doing
what would lead to sales?”
“That’s why I called you. If I 
knew what was missing,
I
wouldn’t have called you.”
“Because it isn’t ‘just doing it’ that is missing from the
non-producers’ equation. Although we always think it is.
What’s really missing runs deeper than that. What’s really
missing is the ‘just 
wanting
it.’”
“Oh, I know they all say they want it. They want the
commissions and they want the success.”
“They don’t want it, or they would have it.”
“Oh, so you think people get everything they want?”
“Actually, yes they do.”
“Really? I don’t see that.”
“That’s what we humans are all about. We know how
to get what we want. We are biological systems designed
to do that.”
We talked longer. There was something we wanted
Frank to see: Frank’s non-producers are under-producing
Focus on the Result, Not the Excuse

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because they do not 
want
to produce. Not deep down. If
you are a manager you must understand that. If you are a
non-producer, you must understand that.
Non-producers are simply not focusing all their atten-
tion on succeeding at selling. If they were, they would be
producers. Even if they say they are focused on results,
they’re not. They are in sales because of other reasons...they
believe they need the money, maybe, and therefore think
they “should be” there.
But they can’t get any intellectual or motivational le-
verage from “should.” “Should” sets them up for failure
because it implies that they are still a child, and that they
are trying to live up to other people’s expectations—the
expectation of the spouse, family, or society. But there’s
no power in that. No focus. No leverage.
Salespeople who do what they think they “should do”
all day convert their managers into parents. Then they age-
regress into childhood and whine and complain. Even when
you try to micromanage their activities, even when you are
eloquent in showing them that Activity A leads to Result B
(always) and Result B leads to Result C (always), they
still do it halfheartedly and search in vain for a new “how
to” from other mentors and peers.
Frank now begins to see this form of dysfunction quite
clearly, but he still doesn’t know what to do about it.
What Frank needs to manage is the