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

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging
on of an uncompleted task.
—William James, Psychologist/Philosopher
If your people become more and more burned out and
fatigued, it’s up to you to help them redirect a course of ac-
tion that leads them to the completion of previous projects.
Once, long ago, we went to hear Cheryl Richardson
give a presentation to “Coach U” over in Phoenix, and it
was the first time we went to one of her meetings. We
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didn’t know her or anything about Coach U, but we settled
in for the talk.
Richardson stood up and said to all of us, “Can you
come up with a list of the top 10 things that are incom-
plete, that need to get done in your life? Can you come up
with that list?”
Of course, everyone could. So we did. We all wrote 10
things down! And then she told us a story to illustrate how
she coaches her clients. She said she had a massage thera-
pist who came in to see her, and she said to him, “What’s
the issue?”
And the client said, “I need more business.”
She said, “Okay, I want you to write down the top 10
unfinished things that you need to complete in your life.”
And the client wrote them down.
Then she said, “Now, I want you to make a commit-
ment that you will get those complete.”
And the massage therapist said, “Okay, but that’s not
why I’m here to see you. I’m here because I need more
business.”
Cheryl Richardson said, “I know that. Get this done,
and you’ll get more business.”
And her coaching client said, “What? This doesn’t have
anything to do with getting more business.”
Cheryl explained, “Actually, everything that is incom-
plete in your life is what I call an 
energy drain.
And that is
stopping you from creating more business.”
“Well, that doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Cheryl said, “I only do this for a 
living
! I counsel lots
of clients, who all have this same thing. Are you willing to
try it? If not, let’s forget this relationship.”

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“Well, okay, I guess, yeah. I need to get those things
done anyway.” So he made a commitment to get three of
the 10 done by the next meeting.
The following week, he reported back in and said, “I
completed my assignment.”
And Cheryl asked, “What happened?”
“Amazing! Even before the first week was over, three
new people have called me out of the blue, and filled up
my calendar.”
And Cheryl says, “That’s how it works.”
We never forgot that lesson, and have re-taught it ever
since. It’s not just that your people have got all those
incompletes out there, but the underlying thought of it,
the subconscious knowledge 
is the energy drain.
It’s draining their productivity, imagination, and vital-
ity away. Help them clean up those incompletes and their
motivation will surprise you.
49. Do the Math on
Your Approach
We make a living by what we get,
but we make a life by what we give.
—Winston Churchill
You will really enjoy motivating others if you start
thinking of your life as a mathematical equation.
We first saw the fun and benefit of this when our good
friend and company CEO Duane Black solved the equation
on two flip charts in front of a grateful gathering of managers.
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Here it is: When you are positive (picturing the math
sign: +), you 
add
something to any conversation or meet-
ing you are part of. That’s what being positive does, it
adds.
When you are negative (–), you subtract something
from the conversation, the meeting, or the relationship
you are part of. If you are negative enough times, you sub-
tract so much from the relationship that there is no more
relationship left. It’s simple math. It’s the law of the uni-
verse up there on the flip chart of life: positive adds, nega-
tive subtracts.
As in math, when you add a negative, it diminishes the
total. Add a negative person to the team, and the morale
and spirit (and, therefore, productivity and profit) of the
team is diminished.
When you are a positive leader with positive thoughts
about the future and the people you lead, you 
add
some-
thing to every person you talk to. You bring something of
value to every communication. Even every e-mail and
voice mail (that’s positive) adds something to the life of
the person who receives it. Because positive (+) always
adds something.
It’s a definite plus.
It even runs deeper than that. If you think positive
thoughts throughout the day, you are adding to your own
deep inner experience of living. You are bringing a plus to
your own spirit and energy with each positive thought.
Your negative thoughts take away from the experience
of being alive. They rob you of your energy.
Say this to yourself: “I like this math. I like its simplic-
ity. I can now do this math throughout my day. When I
am experiencing negative thoughts about my team or my

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to-do list, I know it’s time to take a break and regroup and
refresh. It’s time to call a time-out, close my eyes, and
relax into my purpose and my mission. It’s time to slow
down and breathe into it. I take a lot of quick breaks like
that during the day, and this practice is changing my life
for the better. It is making me stronger and more ener-
getic than ever before.”
Your own strength and energy motivates others.
Or, as Carlos Castaneda said, “We either make our-
selves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount
of work is the same.”
50. Count Yourself In