100 Ways to Motivate Others : How Great Leaders Can Produce Insane Results Without Driving People Crazy
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(Mercado’s fa- vorite word) into the performance was what produced the result that would move people who heard it. As leaders, our own energy and intensity are moni- tored by our people. They take many of their own subtle psychological cues from how we look—our movements and expressions (or lack of them). This is why we must learn to breathe deeply and lead. To really get out there and lead with enthusiasm. To gener- ate excitement, and then breathe again, even more deeply. The word inspire literally means “to breathe in.” Don’t Forget to Breathe 162 / 100 Ways to Motivate Others We don’t want to stagnate all day breathing shallowly behind our desk or in front of our computer. That won’t inspire anyone. 70. Know You’ve Got the Time Start by doing what’s necessary, then what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. —St. Francis Most managers do small things all day long. They start the day by doing all the easy things. They go through their e-mail over and over again. They ask themselves subconsciously: What are some little tasks that I can do that aren’t difficult? What are things to do that will make it look like I’m being a manager while I figure out what really needs to be done? If anybody were watching me, would they say I am just doing what a manager needs to do? I’m doing what I need to do; these things need to be done sooner or later. But a motivational leader has the ability and the op- portunity to live life differently, to take the time to live by rational choice of priority instead of feelings, to leave the infantile behind. The key is taking the time. And what works against this is the sense that time is getting away, there’s really not enough time in the day. But you can learn to stay grounded in this fact: we all have 24 hours. It doesn’t matter how rich or powerful you are, you still only have 24 hours—not a minute more. / 163 The sun rises and sets for everyone the same way. And so there’s no sense in saying, “I don’t have as much time as other people. I’d love to do that but I don’t have the time.” That’s just not true. Only you can slow your own sense of time down to the speed of life by choosing what you choose to do. And once you do, it becomes that much easier to motivate and teach others to do the same. 71. Use the Power of Deadlines The best way to predict the future is to create it. —Peter F. Drucker Put your requests into a time frame. If there is no real time frame, make one up. If you want a report from someone, finish your re- quest by asking, “And may I have this by the end of our business day Thursday?” Various dictionaries describe a deadline as a time by which something must be done; originally meaning “a line that does not move,” and “a line around a mili- tary prison beyond which an escaping prisoner could be shot .” Literally, it is a line over which the person or project becomes dead! Deadlines propel action. So when you want to get people into action, give them a deadline. If you make a request without including a date or time, then you don’t have anything specific that you can check in on. You have a “wished for” and “hoped for” Use the Power of Deadlines 164 / 100 Ways to Motivate Others action hanging out there in space with no time involved. People are only motivated when we use both space and time. The space-time continuum is a motivator’s best friend. Once, we were leisurely writing a book when the pub- lisher called back to impose a month-away deadline to make the fall catalog for the big Christmas sales season. Then, all of a sudden, we swung into gear, writing and editing 10 hours a day, until we delivered the finished manuscript to our publisher. It turned out to be the best- written book we’d ever done. Without a deadline, there is no goal, just a nebulous request that adds to the general confusion at work. You will be doing a person a favor by putting your request into a time frame. And if the time is too short, he or she can negotiate it. Let your people participate. It isn’t a matter of who gets to set the deadline, it’s a matter of having one. Either way, it is settled, clear, and complete. Most managers don’t do this. They have hundreds of unfulfilled requests floating around the workplace, be- cause they aren’t prioritized. Those requests keep get- ting put off. Don’t they? Deadlines will fix all of that. |