You CAN'T Motivate People!

Carter McNamara says, “You can't motivate people any more than you can empower them. Employees have to motivate and empower themselves. However, you can set up an environment where they best motivate and empower themselves. The key is knowing how to set up the environment for each of your employees.”

That is easy. Find their pain, hurt or problem and agitate it. Much the same way mosquitoes and chiggers (red bugs) make you itch and you are forced to scratch the more you think about the pain and discomfort.

Smart leaders cannot always motivate their people, but they can inspire or provoke their thinking enough to the point that their followers actually WANT to change or be motivated on their own. No, I can’t motivate you to buy from me, work for me or make a key change. I CAN, though make you so uncomfortable with your status quo that you will want to change just to alleviate the suffering.

People usually change when the pain of not changing is greater than the pain of changing...

Where is the pain your people are experiencing? Are you enabling them to stay the same by not making them uncomfortable with their routines?

You can't motivate people... but you can make them uncomfortable with their routines.