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

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage.
—William Ellery Channing, Minister/Psychologist
Leaders don’t help anyone by worrying.
Worry is a misuse of their imagination.
Practice upgrading your worry to concern. Then, once
you state your concern, create your action plan to address it.
If we respond to our problems in life by worrying about
them, we will reduce our mood and energy, and lower our
self-esteem. Being a 
worrier
is hardly a powerful self-concept.
It also is not inspiring to others when they see their leader
worrying.
Instead of worrying, imagine some action you could
take now, something bold and beautiful inspired by the
current so-called “problem.” Getting into that habit raises
self-esteem and increases energy levels and concurrent love
of life.
People are more motivated by people in love with life
than by people who worry about life.
Translate Worry Into Concern

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73. Let Your Mind Rule
Your Heart
If you don’t think about the future, you won’t have one.
—Henry Ford
Managers who approach life as if they’re still children,
or as adults who are living out their unresolved childhood
issues, will not be able to focus on their employees, their
customers, or the hunt for great prosperity.
Leadership requires that your logical, problem-solving
left brain be in charge of your right brain. It requires a
fierce intellect willing to hang in there against all your
people’s complaints (real and imaginary). It requires a thrill
in finding a new route to solutions.
Leadership requires that the chess master in you be in
charge of the thinking and decision-making processes
throughout the day.
Leadership is about making clear, smart decisions about
where and how you spend your time. Leading people is
about getting 
smarter
with your time every day. The great
chess master Kasparov lived by his motto: “Think seven
moves ahead.”
Intellectually, motivating others is about reverse engi-
neering. You decide what you want, and then you think
backwards from that. You begin at the end and engineer
backwards to this fresh moment right now. Always have
the end in mind when you approach your team or when
you make that phone call.
Those people best at motivating others are the ones
who are the most conscious of what they’re doing. They

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Build a Culture of Acknowledgment
are the continuous thinkers, and their people appreciate
them for it.
As you drive around today, think things through. Think
about what you would appreciate most if you were a mem-
ber of your own team. Think about ways to connect and
gain trust. Think. Think about that nice extra touch, that
nice little piece of communication you want to make. Think
about the questions you want to ask.
Think like a brilliant detective. It’s a crime that your
employee is not performing at her full potential. It’s a crime
that she is considering leaving the company.
Solve that crime.
74. Build a Culture of
Acknowledgment
I have always said that if I were a rich man
I’d hire a professional praiser.
—Sir Osbert Sitwell, Poet
One way to motivate others better is to change the
question you ask yourself each day.
Instead of, “How do I get them to do less of what both-
ers me,” I might want to change that to, “What is the best
thing I can do to get my team to do 
more
of what I want
them to do?”
Most managers find out what’s wrong, and then criti-
cize that. They look for the problems, and then they say,
“We really can’t have this! You’ve got to fix this; this is
really not good enough.”

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But that approach causes resentment on the part of
the person who’s being criticized. What works better is
recognition, acknowledgment, and appreciation.
So, when I’m driving in to work, I might tell myself:
“I’m deliberately going to build a culture of acknowledg-
ment here—where people feel recognized for every little
thing they do. They will feel visible, and they will feel as if
they’re appreciated and acknowledged. I want them to
know that what they do is being seen, is being thought
about, and is being celebrated. That is the culture that I
will create to grow productivity.”
Whenever possible, recognize those people in front of
other people. And if possible, recognize them in front of
their families, somehow. You can always send an award or
a note from the company president to the person’s home.
You’ll want to let that person’s family see that he or she is
really appreciated.
75. Seize Responsibility