Let’s face it; it’s just not reasonable to force others to do stuff for you. And at the end of the day, it’s actually impossible to make anyone do anything… Short of hypnosis of course and many don’t believe in it. Furthermore, it’s a pain in the ass to try to convince others to do something they don’t want to do. It will be a big investment of time and effort to get them to move toward a goal they don’t have a vested interest in.
That being said if you do convince them (i.e., motivate them) you must often be consistent a nag, or a nudge (Please look it up if you don’t know, hell you might just be one of those people). Since Motivating others to may hold many benefits for the person doing the motivating, the motivated will be able to get the job done better if the motivator feels there are benefits for them as well. A Win/Win scenario. Positive and reward based motivations can ensure that the task is accomplished in a satisfactory manner as it will benefit the person doing the task.
What is Motivation?
Before I can speak intelligently about motivating others, let’s give a basic definition of motivation. 
Unfortunately, motivation means different things to different people. It’s a favorite subject of mine because it’s an intangible thought/emotion/activity. I love it. Due to the varied meaning leaders find it complicated to get the same amount of work from everyone they lead. For me, the best definition I have so far is what drives people to act in a specific way. Some people call it their why? What’s so cool about it is that there are so many shades of grey when it comes to motivation. From person to person, reactions to different motivations will yield different responses. An idea, an activity, art, etc. can cause a different level of motivation and reaction in different people…
How to Motivate other People?
Because motivation comes in all different shapes and sizes, there is not a hardcore one size fits all just doesn’t exist. What I’m trying to say is that not everyone is motivated by the same situation or stimulation. For example, if you were a teacher with 18 students (yes I’m old, and back in the cave man days we had classes of 18). Each student has a different cultural, ethnic and economic experience. They react differently to different things. For example, if you ask them each the same question you may get different answers. If you present them with a problem, they may also give different solutions based on their experience.
So how do you motivate and inspire the members of the island of misfit toys? The secret is to look for a common thread between them. The CEO of the college I worked for told me to find a common enemy and then focus everyone you are leading’s effort toward conquering the enemy. For example, politicians manage whole nations by maintaining a common belief or goal of the nation. The key is that although you may not have 100% conviction from everyone in the group, that you have enough people following you that they will push the stragglers over the finish line.
“Even God doesn’t have 100% of the human race following his wishes.”
– J –
Motivating people is difficult, in this blog entry you can see that perhaps the best way to motivate people is not to go about it in an individualized manner. If you try to win each person over one at a time, it will exhaust you and chances are you may never get to everyone. Not everyone like the same thing, no matter how convinced you are it’s the best product ever. Even if people don’t like what you are pushing for will understand that you have given them something for their efforts, and will appreciate it.
So what motivates a crowd? Some people may like a highly motivating speech (my personal favorite). But, frankly, some people need to have their palms greased (yes bribery) but for the sake of this article, we will call it incentive. Others just like to be appreciated and recognized… I like these best myself. The easiest way to get a crowd to follow you is to cater to the lowest common denominator; try and find that one common element, goal or belief that everyone is looking for and use that as a motivational tool.
What Can You Do to Motivate People?
The most common way to explain motivation is what my dad called the carrot and stick. People used to illustrate to get a mule to move you could put a carrot on a string at the end of a stick and put it in front of the mule. It’s a form of reward, but in the mule’s case, it is always just out of reach. Sadly humans aren’t that easy to convince. However, the basic principle or reward and punishment can still be handy. Threatening people often doesn’t motivate them in the long term. It will often work short term, but bullying comes from a position of lack and should be a last resort. They will often get offended and secretly undermine your goal. So let’s try to stick to positive motivations like these:
Emotional Incentives: Figure out what their carrot is. What reward do they like, for example, do they just appreciate a pat on the back and a that a boy or girl? Do they favor cash? Outline in advance what your expectations are and what the reword will be. It’s imperative you keep your word, or even put it in writing to alleviate confusion.
Proper Incentives: Be sure the incentives match the outcome of the performance. Make sure they feel like they are treated fairly, and they will usually want to go the extra mile. If you just give them what they need for their personal motivation language you can achieve optimal performance.
Raise the Bar: (but not too high) Make goals achievable and segmented into small short-term easy goals that add up to the final intended outcome in the long term. Openly discuss the goals and celebrate the wins. As much as possible as for input from the performer to create the final outcome. This will also serve to make sure the person performing the task completely understand the task’s intentions. By giving employees, a stake in the final goal encourages them to work hard to reach that goal.
Feed Back: Offer fair and constructive criticisms, but be careful not to stop creativity. The “Shit Sandwich” can be helpful in times like these. If your not careful you can inadvertently demotivate the person, you are trying to get assistance from.
Open Communication: Without question keeping the channels of communication open is the pinnacle of importance. Make sure that you encourage them to tell you what’s going on if there is an issue, and encourage them to work with you to overcome the obstacle before it becomes a major problem.
Deadlines: This is an absolute. They must be defined and adhered to. Be sure to reward the person doing the task equally as quick too.
The Carrot and The Stick
The best motivation is to figure out what drives other people. If they like money to give them money. If it’s praise try to recognize them publically. Be sure to give them the room to reach results, and support them when they ask for help. Be careful of damaging criticism, and help them reach the goals without doing it for them. Let them learn from their failures. Treat them with kindness and respect. Being a bully, will lonely piss them off and make them not wish to perform to their full potential. So be fair but firm. People tend to enjoy working with people when positive energy flows; it makes work fun.
– J –