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

feel like
do-
ing. Feelers take their emotional temperature through-
out the day, checking in on themselves, figuring out what
they feel like doing right now. Their lives, their outcomes,
their financial security are all dictated by the fluctua-
tion of their feelings. Their feelings will change con-
stantly, of course, so it’s hard for a feeler to follow anything
through to a successful conclusion. Their feelings are
changed by many things: biorhythms, gastric upset, a strong
cup of coffee, an annoying call from home, a rude waitress
at lunch, a cold, a bit of a headache, a thought. Those are
the dictating forces, the commanders, of a feeler’s life.

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A doer already knows in advance how much time will
be spent on the phone, how much in the field, what em-
ployees will be cultivated that day, what relationships will
be strengthened, what communications need to be made.
Doers use a three-step system to guarantee success:
1. They figure out what they want to achieve.
2. They figure out what needs to be done to
achieve it.
3. They do it.
This is not a theory, this is the actual observed system
used by all super achievers without fail.
A feeler is adrift in a mysterious life of unexpected
consequences and depressing problems. A feeler asks, “Do
I feel like making my phone calls now?” “Do I feel like
writing that thank you note?” “Do I feel like dropping in
on that person right now?” If the answer is no, then the
feeler keeps going down the list, asking, “Do I feel like
doing something else?”
A feeler lives inside that line of inquiry all day long.
By contrast, a doer has high self-esteem. A doer en-
joys many satisfactions throughout the day, even though
some of them were preceded by discomfort.
A feeler is almost always trying to be comfortable, but
never really satisfied.
A doer knows the true, deep joy that only life’s super
achievers know.
A feeler believes that joy is for children, and that life
for an adult is an ongoing hassle.
A doer experiences more and more power every year
of life.
Motivate by Doing

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/ 100 Ways to Motivate Others
A feeler feels less and less powerful as the years go on.
Your ability to motivate others increases exponentially
as your reputation as a 
doer
increases. You also get more
and more clarity about who the doers and feelers are on
your own team. Then, as you model and reward the doing,
you also begin to inspire the feelers on your team to be-
come doers.
38. Know Your People’s Strengths
Those few who use their strengths to incorporate
their weaknesses, who don’t divide themselves,
those people are very rare. In any generation there
are a few and they lead their generation.
—Moshe Feldenkrais, Psychologist
Know your people’s strengths.
It’s the fundamental business insight that inspired the
book
Good to Great
by Jim Collins (HarperBusiness, 2001).
And this idea of going from good to great also applies to
the people you motivate. It’s far more effective to build
on their strengths than to worry too much about their
weaknesses. The first step is to really 
know
their strengths
so you can help them to express them even more.
Most managers spend way too much time, especially
in the world of sales, trying to fix what’s wrong.
Your people may identify negative things and say, “Oh,
I’m not good at this. I need to change that. And I’m not
very good on the phone. I need to fix that....” But listen to
their voice tones when they say these things! They’ll always
sound depressed and world-weary.

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Here’s the simple formula (and once we recognize this
formula, we can do some wonderful things): If people fo-
cus on what’s wrong with them,