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

Know Your People’s Strengths

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102
/ 100 Ways to Motivate Others
Do you know how 
little
an effect it has on someone’s
productivity if they take their weaknesses and work hard
and finally bring them from “subnormal” to “normal”?
All throughout life we’ve been taught that when we’re
good at something, it just means it’s innate. Our parents
say, “Oh, he’s really good at the piano. He must have got-
ten that from his grandfather, he must have inherited that,
he’s got a natural talent at that.” So we’re taught not to
focus on it. We’re taught that that will be okay by itself.
People tell us, “You 
really
need to put your attention on
all the things you’re 
bad
at!”
Jennifer was on a sales staff we were coaching, and
she was kind of intimidated because the sales staff had a
lot of flashy, good-looking, well-dressed fraternity-type
guys and sorority-type girls on it. Jennifer was more of a
shy person. She was very bright and very compassionate,
but she just couldn’t make herself do things the way the
other salespeople did. And so she was frustrated, and all
she tried to do was work on her weaknesses, and when-
ever we met her, she would bring in this long list of things
she wasn’t any good at.
“These are the things I want to talk about,” Jennifer
said. “These are the top seven things I’m terrible at.”
“Throw that list out.”
“What?”
“We don’t care about that list. We really don’t. You
wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have the basic skills to be
here. So stop it. Here’s what we’d like you to do. Think
back for a little while. Think about your life. When were
you really happy? If you can look back and get in touch
with moments in your life when you were really happy, it’s
going to give us some clues about where to go from here.”

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103
“Well, I was a waitress not too long ago, before I came
here,” Jennifer said. “There was a restaurant that I worked
in that, originally, I didn’t like, but finally just loved. I
really enjoyed it. It was like I was in heaven, I just got so
good at it. I was serving customers and I was taking their
orders and I got the biggest tips of anybody there. It was
just wonderful. It felt like a dance, it felt like a musical.
And also, the money coming in to me was greater than
anyone else there.”
“We’ve hit on something here!”
“Well, I can’t do that,” Jennifer said. “I’ve got bills to
pay, I’ve got kids. I can’t go back to that. There’s not
enough money there, no matter how good you are. I’ve
got to do this. I’ve got to get the big accounts. I’ve got to
get the big commissions I know I can make.”
“So we’re going to do that. But we’re not going to do it
from being a back-slapping, flashy salesperson. We’re go-
ing to go with your strength.”
“Well, my strength is waiting on tables and serving
people.”
“Yes! So that’s what you’re going to do. That’s who
you’re going to be. You’re going to serve. You’re going
to take orders. You’re going to present menus. You’re
going to explain what the dishes are like. You’re going
to ask clients what they like. You’re going to give them
options, and that same person you were in the restau-
rant, you’re going to be in this selling situation. You’re
going to tap into that same love of serving and present-
ing options, and fulfilling orders. That’s going to be who
you are, but you’re going to do it in this context, selling
this product. And when you get on the phone, you’re
going to be that way, you’re going to be the person who