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

Everyone thinks of changing the world,
but no one thinks of changing himself.
—Leo Tolstoy
There’s a reason why advertisers always look for ways
to use real people in “before and after” pictures. Nothing
motivates a buyer more! You as a leader can keep tapping
into that ultimate motivational tool—your own growth.
Your people will always remember what you used to be
like, and see what you’re like now.
Nothing inspires and motivates people as much as
watching someone else change for the better. When you
are willing to offer yourself up as a role model for per-
sonal change, you’ll motivate your people faster than any-
thing else you can do. Watch what happens when your
team sees you evolve, change, and grow. It’s inspiring for
them to see that you yourself are not cast in stone, locked
in to your own hardened habits of leadership.
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It’s exciting for people to witness your courageous
evolution. When your employee fills out a form that evalu-
ates you as a leader, you want their most telling comment
about you to be how they admire your own “willingness to
grow.”
And this growth can take place in absolutely any cat-
egory. So you never have to stop looking for areas that
have potential for you to demonstrate your own willing-
ness to challenge yourself.
For example, let’s look at your physical condition. Why
not? Everyone else is. Does that make you uncomfort-
able? That they would even notice something like that?
They shouldn’t! How judgmental! How irrelevant!
Well, let’s just face up to it. Your physical condition
will always be observed by everyone who works for you.
Just as you always observe everyone else’s. Perhaps it
shouldn’t be so. Maybe it shouldn’t be a factor, but it is. If
you are in poor condition, or overweight, or easily out of
breath, you are less likely to be someone’s inspiration. But
that’s good! Because you now have an opportunity. By
taking up a new health program you can transform, physi-
cally, right before the eyes of your people. This is one of
the most dramatic ways to be a role model for discipline
and self-control ever.
Steve recalls: I once lost 16 pounds by doing an exten-
sive outdoor walking program and using the diet we intro-
duced in 
Two Guys Read Moby Dick
(Robert D. Reed
Publishers, 2006). When I went back to do a workshop
with a large team I’d worked with six months before, I was
amazed at how many people came up and talked to me about
the change in my appearance. I didn’t think it mattered that
much. But when I realized how pale and overweight I had
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/ 100 Ways to Motivate Others
been when they saw me six months ago compared to now,
I got the picture. People care a lot whether you look healthy,
vibrant, and alive. They associate poor physical condition
with a kind of giving up inside…a depressed kind of cav-
ing in to last-ditch self-comforting.
Studies show that if you appear strong and fit, you’ll
be better able to motivate others. Their subconscious re-
sponse to you has more respect in it. On a subtle, psycho-
logical level, they admire your own commitment to
excellence and discipline. (It’s much harder to work hard
for someone who does not take care of herself or himself.)
Even changes in attire can be motivational (on a very
subtle level, but it’s true). As you take more care dressing
well, it sends a message that life is good! It sends the mes-
sage that this profession is important to you, so you want
to look your best. You’re a leader! So people notice when
you upgrade your appearance in 
any
way.
Learning another language is a very challenging project,
and we’re not suggesting you take it on just to make an
impression. But if it’s something you were considering for
professional or personal reasons, don’t put it off. Because
it’s very inspiring to other people and often motivates them
to expand their own skills in some category. Scott speaks
fluent Spanish and Chinese, and the people at his law firm
who get to see those skills demonstrated are inspired to
use their own brains in new and powerful ways.
Being a better speaker and meeting facilitator is open
to anyone. Steve taught a class to graduate students at
the University of Santa Monica in presentation skills for
leaders.
He said, “It’s astonishing to me that even though many
top level leaders in an organization speak to groups of

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people regularly, they very rarely enroll in a specific pro-
gram to improve their skills.”
We’ve seen CEOs laugh off their own speaking skills
and say, “I just try to be brief. Limit the damage! I’m
not going to fool anyone. I’m not a pro. I’ll just read my
notes and be as brief as I can be. Thank goodness for
PowerPoint.”
And what a missed opportunity that is. What if
Churchill had taken that approach? There would have been
no rallying of the British people to stand up to Hitler. Some-
times the very things leaders dismiss or try to get out of
are what could turn the morale of the whole organization
around.
All human beings have the potential to speak well be-
fore a group. If you never dip into yours, you’re not going
to be much of an inspiration to anyone.
We recommend that you, as a leader, take the Dale
Carnegie classes (or some equivalent) in public presenta-
tion, and then let your people see the difference in your
speaking skills. As you get better and better in front of a
room of people, those same people will see the growth as
it occurs.
If speaking is already something you do well, you might
choose