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

Focus Like a Camera

---

148
/ 100 Ways to Motivate Others
60. Think of Management
as Easy
Always think of what you have to do as easy and it will be.
—Émile Coué, Psychologist
A thought is more than a thought, it creates your reality.
The role of thought in managing people and results
cannot be overestimated. What you 
think
about how hard
your work is more important than any so-called inter-
preted “reality” about your work.
If you think motivating people is hard, it is hard.
There’s no difference. As Shakespeare said, “There is noth-
ing bad nor good, but thinking makes it so.”
If you think it’s hard and uncomfortable to get on the
telephone, then it is. If you think you’re happy and re-
laxed picking up the phone, then you are.
It’s important to see the power that thought has in the
world of leadership. If you’re thinking thoughts that bring
you down, you’re not going to have a very good “people”
day. Leadership requires high levels of humanity. To be
great leaders, we need to share our humanity and receive
our people’s humanity all day.
You can be a leader who is successful at motivating
others. Thought is the key.
When Napoleon Hill wrote 
Think and Grow Rich
(Ballantine Books, Reissue Ed., 1990) his point was that
you can think yourself into a perfect position to become
successful. Many people have followed his instructions and
done it. We can also do it. Is it easy? Actually it can be.
For as the great and celebrated psychologist Coué said,

---

/
149
“Always think of what you have to do as easy and it will be.”
One thing’s for sure: It can’t be harder than you think it is.
61. Cultivate the Power of
Reassurance
In organizations, real power and energy is generated
through relationships. The patterns of relationships
and the capacities to form them are more important than
tasks, functions, roles, and positions.
—Margaret Wheatly, Management Consultant
One of the most valuable additions to a person’s life
that a leader can provide is reassurance.
You won’t hear about it in any management seminars,
and that’s a shame, because there’s nothing more motivat-
ing than a healthy dose of reassurance.
How many leadership books focus on it? None. How
important is it as a management tool? It’s the 
most
impor-
tant tool.
How many times during the day do you ask yourself,
“How reassuring was I in that conversation?” How many
times before a conversation do you ask yourself, “Now,
how can I be really reassuring to this person, so that they
leave reassured that everything’s going to be all right, and
that they’ve got the skills to do this job?”
If you integrate 
reassurance
into your personal system
and managerial approach, things will change on your team.
The state of mind of your people will be altered for the
better.
Cultivate the Power of Reassurance

---

150
/ 100 Ways to Motivate Others
People look to their leaders for reassurance. Period.
Truth is, they don’t get that reassurance most of the time.
They get the opposite. They get the impression that the
team is racing and behind the gun. Their manager’s de-
meanor and language cries out, “We’ve got to go, go, go.
I’m late, I’m sorry I’m late for my meeting with you.” “I’m
on the phone and it’s rush, rush, and we’re behind the
eight ball, and it’s crazy around here.”
The problem with that message is that it’s not reassur-
ing. When you do the chaos act and convey a crisis men-
tality, it undermines productivity. The last thing you
wanted.
The concept that counters all of that and cures it for-
ever is the concept of reassurance. Once you’got the con-
cept, make it a practice. Watch the results.
62. Phase Out Disagreement