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

Accelerate Change

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do it. We hate to get into the shower and then we hate to
get out.
But if I am a very good leader, I’ll want to thoroughly
understand the change cycle so that I can get my people to
stage 4—the “Buy-in”—as soon as humanly possible. I want
their total and deep buy-in to make this change work for
them, for me, and for the company.
So how do I help move them through stages 1, 2, and 3?
First of all, I prepare myself to communicate about
this change in the most enthusiastic and positive way pos-
sible. And I mean prepare. As many great coaches have
said, “It isn’t the will to win that wins the game, it’s 
the will
to prepare
to win.”
So I want to prepare myself. I want to educate and
inform myself about the change so I can be an enthused
spokesperson in favor of the change.
Most managers don’t do this. They realize that their
people are resisting the change, so they identify with the
loyal resistance. They sympathize with the outcry. They
give voice to what a hassle the change is. They even apolo-
gize for it. They say it shouldn’t have happened.
“This never should have happened. I’m sorry. With all
you go through already, it’s a shame there’s this now, too.”
A remark that cultivates victims!
Every internal change is made to improve the viability
or effectiveness of the company. That truth is the one I
want to sell. I want my people to see what’s in this for
them
. I want them to really see for themselves that a more
viable company is a more secure place to work.
What about change from the outside? Regulators,
market shifts, vendor problems? In those cases I want to

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stress to my team that the competition faces the same
changes. When it rains on the field, it rains on both teams.
Then I want to stress the superiority of our team’s rain
strategy so that this rain becomes our advantage.
I also want to keep change alive on my team as a posi-
tive habit. Yes, we change all the time. We look forward
to change. We even have fun changing before we have to.
10. Know Your Owners
and Victims
Those who follow the part of themselves that is great will become
great. Those that follow the part that is small will become small.
—Mencius
The people you motivate will tend to divide themselves
into two categories: owners and victims.
This distinction comes from Steve’s 
Reinventing Yourself,
Revised Edition
(Career Press, 2005), which reveals in de-
tail how 
owners
are people who take full responsibility for
their happiness, and 
victims
are always lost in their unfor-
tunate stories. Victims blame others, victims blame cir-
cumstance, and victims are hard to deal with.
Owners own their own morale. They own their response
to any situation. (Victims blame the situation.)
At a recent seminar, a company CEO named Marcus
approached Steve at the break:
“I have a lot of victims working for me,” Marcus said.
“It’s a part of our American culture today,” Steve answered.
Know Your Owners and Victims

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/ 100 Ways to Motivate Others
“Yeah, I know, but how can I get them to recognize
their victim tendencies?”
“Try something else instead,” Steve said. “Try getting
excited when they are 
not
victims. Try pointing out their
ownership actions; try acknowledging them when they are
proactive and self-responsible.”
“Okay. What are the best techniques to use with each
type of person?” Marcus asked. “I mean, I have both. I
have owners, too. Do you treat them differently?”
“With the owners in your life, you don’t need tech-
niques. Just appreciate them,” Steve said. “And you will.
With the victims, be patient. Hear their feelings out
empathetically. You can empathize with their feelings with-
out buying in to their victim’s viewpoint. Show them the
other view. Live it for them. They will see with their own
eyes that it gets better results.”
“Can’t I just have you come in to give them a seminar
in ownership?” Marcus asked.
“In the end, even if we were to train your staff in own-
ership thinking, you would still have to lead them there
every day, or it would be easy to lose. Figure your own
ways to lead them there. Design ways that incorporate your
own personality and style into it. There is no magic pre-
scription. There is only commitment. People who are com-
mitted to having a team of self-responsible, creative, upbeat
people will get exactly that. Leaders whose commitment
isn’t there won’t get it. The three basic things you can do
are: (1) Reward ownership wherever you see it. (2) Be an
owner yourself. (3) Take full responsibility for your staff’s
morale and performance.”
Marcus looked concerned. We could tell he still wasn’t
buying everything.

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“What’s troubling you?” Steve asked.
“Don’t be offended.”
“Of course not.”
“How do I turn around a victim without me appearing
to be that annoying ‘positive thinker’?”
“You don’t have to come off as an annoying positive
thinker to be a true leader. Just be realistic, honest, and
upbeat. Focus on opportunities and possibilities. Focus
on the true and realistic upside. Don’t gossip or run down
other people. There is no reliable trick that always works,
but in our experience, when you are a really strong ex-
ample of ownership, and you clearly acknowledge it and
reward it and notice it in other people (especially in meet-
ings, where victims can hear you doing it), it gets harder
and harder for people to play victim in that setting. Re-
member that being a victim is essentially a racket. It is a
manipulation. You don’t have to pretend that it’s a valid
point of view intellectually, because it is not.”
“Okay, I see. That sounds doable,” Marcus said. “But
there’s one new employee I’m thinking about. He started
out great for a few months, but now he seems so lost and
feels betrayed. That’s his demeanor, anyway. How do I
instill a sense of ownership in him?”
“You really can’t ‘instill’ it,” said Steve. “Not directly.
Ownership, by its nature, is grown by the owner of the
ownership. But you can encourage it, and nourish it when
you see it. You can nurture it and reward it. You can even
celebrate it. If you do all those things, it will appear. Like
a flower in your garden. You don’t make the flower grow,
but if you do certain things, it will appear.”