Motivation Mastery Series Part 3: How to Motivate Others

What if you could transform your team's motivation and drive them to unprecedented success? Join us on Brewing Success as we unveil the secrets to becoming a truly inspirational leader. We'll explore why it's crucial not to take on the burden of others' actions and how to ensure your own motivation is rock solid before trying to inspire your team. Learn the power of leading by example and see how embodying your values and taking consistent action can naturally encourage others to follow suit. Discover how building genuine relationships and understanding individual drivers can create an environment where motivation thrives and progress is inevitable.

 Tune in to gain actionable insights and elevate your leadership game, creating a ripple effect of motivation and success throughout your organization. Join us, and let's spark a wave of inspiration together!

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:12

Hi, my friends, and welcome to Brewing Success, where growth is the mission, change is the reward and progress is the goal. I am your host, andrea Gephardt. I'm a former educator turned passionate entrepreneur, whose desire to create impact has never wavered. I've spent the last decade teaching, mentoring and coaching people on how to create success in their lives and businesses, with proven strategies and systems that not only bring about change but big results. When it comes down to it, teaching is my specialty, leadership is my jam, and inspiring you to live a bigger, fuller life is what I'm all about. This podcast will give you the knowledge and tools you need to brew success in almost any area of your life. You're going to walk away each week feeling inspired, motivated and ready to step outside your comfort zone and into the next level of who you're meant to be. Now let's get into today's episode to step outside your comfort zone and into the next level of who you're meant to be. Now let's get into today's episode.

Speaker 1 1:10

Welcome back to part three of the Motivation Mastery series. Today, we are going to talk about motivating others in four practical steps. So I'm excited that you're here, because this is probably the number one question I get asked. I have another motivation episode further back. That was one of our most downloaded. So motivation is obviously an area of interest, and it goes beyond motivating ourselves. People really want to know how to motivate others, and I bet it would be safe to say that it is the most motivated people who are the ones that want to understand how to motivate others. And this happens for two reasons. One we have a hard time Notice, I said we threw myself in there. We have a hard time understanding why people are not as motivated as we are. Two, we believe that motivation is just going to solve the problems. Well, people are more motivated than this would get done and that will get done. This is especially true if you're a leader and are leading a team. But if you've learned anything from the past two episodes in this series, then you have learned that motivation is both simple and complex. Of course, as a leader, you want your people to be motivated and take action toward the goal and the vision of the team. But do you know what it takes to motivate others and do you understand the key principles of action required? Probably not, which is why we're diving into this today. I'm telling you this is going to be such good information. Motivation is not as simple as hyping somebody up, and it's so much more than commanding someone to do something. So today we're going to talk about the keys to motivating others, and my goal is that you walk away from this episode with the knowledge and the skills to be more successful when it comes to motivating those that you work with.

Speaker 1 2:52

So, before we jump into this, I just want to make something very clear, two important things I want to say. Number one you are not responsible for what people do or don't do. I think we put too much pressure on ourselves when we're working with people to try and change them, and it and I've seen it over and over and I see it all the time where you just have this like strong desire to change every single person you work with, and when somebody doesn't change or somebody doesn't do what they need to do, when somebody is uninspired, unmotivated, not taking action, we take it personally. Human change is one of the hardest things to do, and the truth is that the person on the other end has to be willing to change or they never will, regardless of how good you are, how motivating, how inspiring and how amazing you are. So understand that some will, some won't, some might and most probably will never. So seek to find the willing, and, before you know it, everyone will be winning. The next thing that I also want to say to you so well, let me just go back. Number one take the pressure off of yourself. You can do your absolute best, but not all people are going to be willing to change, and we have to be okay with that. We have to accept it.

Speaker 1 3:56

Second thing the unmotivated cannot motivate. Yes, I'm talking to you. So if you're feeling unmotivated, it's impossible for you to motivate others, at least authentically. So we got to start with you, if that's the case, working on your personal level of motivation. So let's dive in. So, first up, if you want to motivate others, you have to be the example. People follow motivated people. People are more inclined to want to listen and learn from people who live their values. People follow people who know where they're going. People follow people who walk the walk.

Speaker 1 4:32

If you're all talk and no action, let me just tell you right now that is not motivating. So my question to you is are you living out your values? Are you motivated? Are you taking consistent action towards your goals? Is it apparent to those around you. Are you making progress? You see, the unmotivated cannot motivate, but the motivated can figure it out. Just like the age old adage goes be the change you want to see. So, if you want to see more motivation in others, fire up your own level of motivation. If you want to inspire change in others, create change in and for yourself. If you want to have a team full of people who take initiative and take action yep, you guessed it take more initiative and more action.

Speaker 1 5:23

The first step of motivating others is to be a leader worth following. Remember that leaders are made, not born. You are both a masterpiece and a work in progress. At the same time, give yourself the grace that is required to grow and the wherewithal to know that you were never created to live a mediocre life. If you do it well, you, showing up at your best each and every day, will be enough to motivate others. Next, if you want to motivate others, you have to connect and build the relationship with that individual Listen to understand who they are and ask the right questions to discover what matters most to them.

Speaker 1 6:08

The biggest mistake that we make when we're working with others is assuming that people want what we want and that all people are motivated by the same things. When it comes to motivation, people have to have buy-in. If they aren't bought into the work, they're never gonna do it. If they're not bought into the vision, they're never going to see it. People are more likely to be motivated by what they want than what you want, and as leaders, we have to be okay with that. In fact, if we stopped trying to want more for the people we lead than they want for themselves, we would prevent burnout and actually increase overall satisfaction.

Speaker 1 6:48

In order to find out what people want, we have to make sure we listen to the things they say with the intent to learn and understand them better. We must get great at asking questions that will enable us to learn about their hopes and their dreams and their desires. It is in that mode that they'll begin to speak up and create the kind of life they want to live, revealing what matters most to them, and therein lies the fertile ground for motivation to take root. They create what they want, and we use that information to help them flip that motivation switch. Most people will buy into what they really want, and that is how we motivate them to take action. This part is so important. It is so important, right? Because you get somebody started on a team or you're working with somebody and you assume that they want to accomplish what you accomplished in the way that you did it. You think that what motivates you is what's going to motivate them. We've got to stop and we have to learn about our people. You got to know your people to grow your people. As John Maxwell says, we got to stop and we got to get in there. We got to build relationships and we got to find out what is it that they want? Why does that matter? How is that going to change things? What that they want? Why does that matter? How is that going to change things? What are their dreams and their hopes and their desires? And as they start sharing that with you, asking tell me more about that, explain that a little bit more. What would that look like? How would that change things? How would you feel? Ask those questions, because it's going to reveal what they're the most excited about. And suddenly they've created this vision for their life and they're going to allow you to come in as a guide and help them work toward that. That, in and of itself, is motivating One reason why people lack motivation is because they also lack clarity and competency.

Speaker 1 8:28

When people are unclear about what they need to do, they do not take action. In fact, I can speak to this so much like when I was a teacher in the classroom, when the kids didn't know what to do when the worksheet came. They didn't know how to tackle that math problem. They just sat there, they froze, confused. People do nothing. When people lack clarity and lack competency, they're confused. They're not going to do anything. So when people lack the knowledge of how to do it, they're even less likely to be motivated.

Speaker 1 8:54

This is why the next part of motivating others has to do with setting clear goals and providing meaningful support. People need to know what to do and they need to know how to do it. Sometimes that requires us to step in and help set attainable goals, and also teach or mentor or introduce resources that can help the person gain knowledge in that specific area. We can often troubleshoot a lack of motivation by simply asking someone if they know what they need to do. When people feel confident about what they need to do and how to do it, their belief level increases and doubt begins to dissipate. What if we shifted our thoughts from oh they're not motivated to they might not know what to do or how to do it. The best thing about that is it can be taught and it can be learned Along with setting goals. We have to provide meaningful support, something that looks like check-ins and feedback, and other times it looks like encouragement and enlisting challenges.

Speaker 1 9:49

Lastly, the most needed action to motivate others is recognition, but not the typical type of recognition, meaning we have to move away from only recognizing results and get better at recognizing effort. Sadly and you probably agree with me here we've created a culture where we only recognize results and we put people into one of two categories producer or non-producer, winner or loser. And let me just say for the record here that if someone feels like they're a loser because they aren't producing massive results or climbing the ranks, they will definitely not be motivated. We have to recognize effort because it trumps all things. As we know, success is just a series of small efforts strung together. We have to celebrate effort, because people need and deserve to be acknowledged and celebrated when they show up, when they are consistent, even when they're stuck and even when they're in a slow season, even when they aren't producing results, because sometimes that's just what happens. Not every season is a winning season. If we only recognize the results, we naturally demotivate others. Recognition goes a long way. It makes people feel seen, heard and valued. It increases confidence and morale and it boosts belief, and sometimes it's the fuel that keeps motivation high when it has every reason to be low. So my question to you do you currently recognize effort or only outcomes? This is a great reflective question to ask yourself. My advice begin to look for ways to recognize effort and watch motivation naturally begin to elevate.

Speaker 1 11:34

In summary here today, guys, motivating others isn't a mystery and it's really not all that difficult to do. If you want to get better at motivating others, remember these four things. Number one lead by example. Be a leader worth following. Number two get to know your people so you can lead and grow your people. Number three create clarity and inspire competence through goals and meaningful support. Number four recognize effort and celebrate results.

Speaker 1 12:06

Valued people are wildly motivated people. The really neat thing about leadership is that we are actually in a never-ending learn and lead loop, meaning, when you learn something new, you incorporate it immediately into your leadership, and I hope that you do that with this today, now that you've learned these four simple, practical ways to motivate others. I hope that you incorporate that immediately. I hope that you think about leading by example. I hope that you get to know your people and find out what they want, what they want to accomplish, what motivates them, so that you can help them bring that to life. I hope that you get in there and set goals and provide the right kind of support and I hope, mostly, that you get really good at recognizing effort, all the while celebrating results, because, again, valued people are wildly motivated people. You guys, thank you so much for being here with me to learn today. I can't wait to see you spark motivation within those you have the privilege to lead you. Thank you.