Brendon's thoughts on motivation and inspiration in coaching (solo episode).

 Some thoughts from Brendon on motivation and inspiration in coaching. What are they? How are they different? How might you recognise an increase in motivation or inspiration and what might you do when you notice it. 

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Hello and welcome to the coach conversations podcast, the podcast where coaches have conversations about all things, coaching. I'm Brendon Le LIevre and today's my first solo episode. So it's a conversation with you rather than with someone else. And I just wanted to talk a little bit about motivation and inspiration. And how that might show up in our coaching. Based on some conversations I've been having recently in my coaching practice. what it is, what the difference is, how you might notice where there's been an increase. And what you might do when you notice that as well. So motivation is obviously a powerful force. Motivation is something that's going to drive your counterparts to achieve their goals and succeed. So it's often referred to as either intrinsic, things that happen within me or extrinsic things that happen outside of me in order to be more motivated. And it's coaches we're often working with the intrinsic motivation rather than the extrinsic, like status or money or rewards or recognition. We're often more working with the things that are internal to people. We're working with their interests, their passions and the satisfaction they get from accomplishing a task. And so we want to be able to identify those internal things and help our counterparts identify when they show up as well. What inspires them? What are their goals and how do they align to that? And that's going to help them have a deeper commitment to achieving those goals. So as coaches, when we're identifying client motivators, We're going to do that through active listening and asking powerful questions. We're going to listen at a level where we hear, maybe without it being expressed, the spoken about. What their aspirations, their values and their desires are. And in a coaching conversation that I had recently the person was came to the session and said they were looking to be promoted. And I asked them, well, what. What inspires you or why are you seeking that promotion? And what they were able to talk about was the intrinsic things that they would get access to. They admitted there was an extrinsic factor. Like the salary increase is a benefit. But they spoke about having more impact, being able to develop others. Being able to set a direction and lead people towards it. And so we were able to focus their actions. They came up with. In order to align with achieving those outcomes. And the time and space that are created to reflect and thinking coaching. I often allow people to identify these things. And some of the tips or techniques that you might use in order to help them do that. Is to help them get clear on their goals. Now that may not be the goal for the session. That might be a broader goal. And often I'm letting the counterpart come to that realization and that goal. Used to work really hard, to be very specific on achieving a goal. And as I've developed in my coaching career, now, I'm far more comfortable with being a bit more relaxed in that space. Uh, being able to just be present and to listen and to ask questions with curiosity. And the goal will appear, the help will arrive. But I don't need to go hunting it so to speak. Another thing we can do is celebrate and recognize when they have small wins. There's been a number of times recently where a counterparts shared something with me, that's been a success. If they're organizational level and I've been able to comment on, from what they've shared with me. What their role was in achieving that outcome, which helped them to recognize that. And be more motivated as a result to continue to take those action. And in coaching what happens is people find a way too do what they would like to do. Ultimately it creates autonomy. The freedom to make decisions and choices. And then take action towards achieving those things. So what might get in the way then? Of people being motivated cause all that sounds pretty good. That's what I'd like to do. I'd like to recognize my wins. I'd like to set goals and achieve them in line with what drives me. And I'd like to Have some autonomy in the approach that I'm taking. So some of the things that stop people are fear and doubt, setting goals or thinking about goals at to bigger level. There's too much for them to approach. Struggling with the accountability towards achieving those goals. And feeling like they've expended all of the strategies that are available for them. And so in coaching sessions, Helping people to work through that fear and doubt. To feel more courageous. To feel like they have a small, solid plan. To address some of those risks that might get in the way. We're going to try and encourage a growth mindset. Breaking down goals into smaller chunks. Can help them to just start to make some progress. And we might look at a performance goal, something that they're looking to achieve as a result of our coaching engagement. And just break that down into actions. So I'd like to. Get promoted. Brendan I'm here. For some coaching on promotion. And I haven't been successful yet. Well, what are the actions that you can take in order to pursue that promotion more successfully? One action might be to practice. One action might be to have a conversation with a mentor or a supervisor about the fact that they're looking for promotion. Uh, one action might be to investigate some training that might be suitable. One action might be to ask for and reflect on feedback from other recruitment processes. And that takes the. Promotion goal and helps them work out what it is they might be doing. Sometimes we are working with that motivation. And sometimes as coaches, we need to work. In an inspiring way. And this comes from a coaching session, this thought bubble, and I suppose this whole episode. Where. Counterpart shared that with me. He said, sometimes I need to motivate my people and sometimes I need to inspire them. And I had thought of those two words as being almost interchangeable. I now recognize maybe they're not. So inspiration is often external. We see role models or mentors or significant life events occur. That inspire us to take action. That he ignited a spark within us. They trigger a profound, emotional response often there's a feeling associated with those things. And that can captivate our imagination that can have us think differently about the future. And stir up our desire for growth in whatever form it takes. Whereas we spent more time speaking about motivation so far, our motivation is, is often more intrinsic it's internal to me, or to you, or to your counterpart. And people will have different things that drive them towards their goals. And as coaches, we can use a bit of both. So we might share inspirational stories or we might instill a sense of belief by recognizing achievements people have made that we're working with. Or we might share examples from other situations that we've got experience with to inspire our counterparts. But that often won't be sustained longterm. So we want to try and motivate and get people internally motivated towards their goals. We want them to align with their values. And so they often needs to be an element of our conversation around, well, what are the values? What is important to you? What, what are your non-negotiables and how do they motivate and inspire and inspire you towards what it is you need to be achieving. What do you look for in others in an inspiration since. So we want to get the balance right there, around those two things. Some tips now on how you might notice when there's been an increase in either inspiration or motivation for your counterparts. Often, there's a spike in energy. They might lean forward or start talking a bit quicker. Their body language becomes more animated. They might be greater clarity and focus and they go from being uncertain about. What they're trying to achieve into, well, now I know exactly. There may be some proactive behavior displayed or requested where they want to take action in the coaching session. And where it is appropriate to, I will offer that quite regularly. Do you want to send an email? Do you want to. Send a meeting invite. Do you want to send a text message? Get some action happening in that, in the coaching session itself. They might talk about how they're more committed. They might start to use more positive language instead of. Yeah, I might think about considering attempting to, you might start to hear them say I can, or I will, or I'm excited about, I'm going to. And they might be more confident they might display that confidence or they might even say, I feel really confident about that now. So those are some things that you could start to look out for in your coaching sessions. With regards to when your counterparts are showing more confidence. Or being more proactive in their language, which might be an increase in motivation or inspiration. So, what do you do when you notice those things? Well, I think the first thing you do is acknowledge and celebrate. Call it out say , you've seen it. You've noted that their body language is different or their energy seems higher. How does that land for them? Don't tell them that they're more motivated, but just call that out. Help them to reflect on the progress that they have made across the coaching engagement. How are they thinking differently as a result of your session or a number of sessions? At sort of a midpoint for the engagement, maybe. Continue to help them to set goals and help them to link the action that they are taking to those values or the things that motivate and inspire them. Pick up when you hear the, I think I might try to attempt to potentially. And say, let's just try and firm that up. Or what's, what's your reaction to hearing that that's how you're thinking about and talking about that goal that you've just set yourself. With regards to being a bit more targeted in their language. And encourage them to reflect on what's helped them to inspire. Now ask questions around. What, what made the difference there, or what helped you to achieve that outcome? What did you do that set you up for success there? In order to really help them. Big clear on what their inspiration and motivation factors were in that situation. So these a little bit about inspiration and motivation. There's a little bit about how it might show up. And there's a little bit about what you might do as a result. First solo episode. Really appreciate you listening. Uh, hope that you've taken something away that you can put into practice with your coaching and keen to hear what it is that stands out to you from today. I've been Brendan to leave. Thank you.