Unpacking the Unconscious: A Leader’s Guide to Motivation
During a one-on-one session, a direct report asked me, “How do you motivate others to follow through and do their part?”.
It was a challenging question because many variables and contextual situations likely make it nearly impossible to provide a one-size-fits-all solution. Nevertheless, I do a few unconscious things that help me get along with it.
In this document, I will delve deeper into my thought processes and reflect on what I do automatically, without much thought.
My motivations are simple: By doing this writing exercise, I expect to uncover the unconscious mechanisms of my brain, offering some answers to me and likely some insight to you, the reader.
To make others take action on my plans and solutions, I start by…👇🏻
Design Solutions for the Right Problems
Do you truly understand the problem at hand?
Are you actively listening to and comprehending the non-obvious aspects?
If not, any solution, strategy, or option you present will be flawed from the outset and will not address your audience’s primary problem.
This is a delicate matter. I have been in situations where I thought I was delivering the right solution, and the customer also believed so because I addressed surface-level problems.
However, I neglected the underlying issues by choosing easy and short-term resolutions instead of delving deep to understand the root causes and implementing hard and long-term solutions. I drove the customer to take action and trust my solution, but it backfired later.
Convey Your Experience Clearly
You have to know your stuff. If you don’t explain your reasoning clearly with examples and some numbers, people will say, “Hey, great presentation, but this doesn’t compute.”
So, you must next research and gather data on the strategy you want to drive.
Sometimes it could be as simple as saying, “I’ve been there and done that, and I know this works because I tried a bunch of other stuff that didn’t work.”
Just a heads up, though, just because something worked before doesn’t mean it will work again. You must always assess your current environment to ensure that trying it again is the best option.
Ready, Able, and Willing
I once learned from Gonçalo Fortes that simply having the right solution for a problem and getting agreement on that solution from your audience may not guarantee the desired outcome (them taking action).
To ensure success, three factors must be present: readiness, ability, and willingness.
Readiness: Is your customer ready to tackle the problem now or later?
Ability: Does your customer have what’s needed to tackle the problem (ideally with the lowest friction possible, financial or operational resources)?
Willingness: Have they acknowledged that there’s a problem that needs to be addressed?
Your job is to ensure your action plan is tailored to ensure your stakeholders are ready, able, and willing to follow through.
Be Open to Compromises
Avoid being a dictator and make others feel comfortable sharing their views. Be open to proposing adjustments to your plan. Listen to others’ inputs and negotiate final plans with them. If you choose not to incorporate their suggestions into your final plan, explaining your reasoning for not doing so is still important. This is fair and respectful to everyone involved.
Passion Moves Hearts and Minds
Finally, something that I believe will come more naturally to some than others.
When you are genuinely passionate about something, it is easy to get others excited because they can see the energy in your eyes and hear it in your voice. I trust that this is how you can open people’s hearts and minds to listen to your proposal.
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Wow, dissecting my unconscious processes was enlightening. Now that they are not so unconscious, I understand better how I operate. The next time someone asks me about this, I’ll have a better answer. 💪🏻
Summing up, always listen attentively, tackle the underlying issues, provide your proposed solution supported by your knowledge and data, ensure that it’s easy to implement, and consider the viewpoints of others in the final strategy. And above all, enjoy leading others!
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