Want to Get People to be Their Best? Here's How
At one time or another, moat of
us have been motivated to do our
best by a special person who pom
ted the way It could have been a
teacher or a boss, maybe even a
parent or friend.
We all have the ability to motivate
others to be their best It is |ust a
matter of following several key prin
ciples:
• Expect the best If you believe
the people you lead are capable of
great things, their performance will
generally follow suit
That is be
cause they apply your expectations
to what they do
• S tudy o the r people's needs
Don't Dream
About It—
Do It
It takes more than a slap on the
back or an encouraging word to
turn someone into a peak perfor
mer
Listen to what people say
about themselves to learn what will
motivate them For some, the chai
lenges they face in their jobs are
more important than salaries
In
those cases, a manager who em
phasizes a subordinate's chance to
earn money rather than trying to
make a job interesting could be
making a serious mistake
• Set high standards If people
are not regularly challenged to reach
for the stars, they will set their
sights much lower, and their perfor
mance likely will reflect it.
• Create
an
e n viro n m e n t
w here failure is n ot fa ta l
The
best managers expect their people
to make mistakes and. insteed of
replacing staff constantly, recognize
that it is more efficient to teach
people how to learn from their mis
takes Fear of failure can destroy
creativity and initiative
• Use role m odels to e nco u
rage success
Effective teachers
impart values by holding up real
people who embody those values
People are more easily influenced by
individualized experiences stories
about a businessman going to law
school at night or a young farmer
taking correspondence classes
than by general principles
• Recognize
and
applaud
a chievem ent Rather than saving
feedback for when people do things
wrong, look for opportunities to
praise them when they do things
correctly. " The applause of a single
human b eing /' said the English cri
tic Samuel Johnson, "is the great
consequence."
• Place a p re m iu m on coll»
b oratio n. Good leaders do more
than build allegiance to themselves
they also build allegiance to one
another into an organization This
gets everyone working together to
achieve the same level of quality
in all that they do
For a free reprint of Bringing Out
the Best in People send a self
addressed, stamped envelope to
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At some point in our lives, nearly
all of us yearn for a second chance
to do that one thing we always
dreamed about but never got
around to trying. While most of us
hold back from taking the plunge
usually fearing failure plenty of
others have shown it is worth the
risk.
So, if you are harboring a secret
desire to start a business, race cars,
become a doctor or lawyer, maybe
these six pointers can help
1 Take your dream s serious
ly. As a child Charlie Barsotti al
ways wanted to be a cartoonist
Instead he joined the staff at a
school for disturbed children and
made cartooning a hobby.
The
school president took Charlie's
drawings more seriously and loaned
him plane fare so he could travel to
New York to show his cartoons to
magazine editors. That trip chan
ged Charlie's life. Today, his car
toons appear in such publications as
USA Today and The New Yorker.
2
Never say it's to o late
It is easy to pass on your dreams,
believing you are too old
Not Al
Comley.
He waited 30 years to
pursue his dream of becoming a
salesman. At age 53 he retired
early from his job to become an
insurance agent. Now 70, he works
for Fuller Brush and has a territory
of 300 customers
"Stereotypes are breaking dow n,"
says Bernice Neugarten, professor
of education and sociology at
Northwestern University and a
noted expert on aging
"Thirty
years ago people were expected to
do certain things at certain times
Today, life cycles are much more
fluid and we're more open to
change at any age "
3 C onquer yo ur m ou nta in in
stages
John Naber dreamed
about competing in the 1976 Olym
pics but in 1972 he recognized that
he would have to lower his swim
ming time by four seconds in four
years to make the team. At first
the task seemed impossible, but
then he figured that if he trained
10 months out of every year, he
would need to trim only a tenth of a
second per month to shave off
those four seconds
That is just
what he did
Steven Danish, chairman of the
psychology department of Virginia
Commonwealth University, says.
By breaking a goal into achievable
parts you enhance your immediate
benefits in terms of short term
gains, and you reduce the price you
pay in effort "
4 Recognize the trade o ffs In
opting for that second chance,
there are trade offs that must be
faced likt^earning less money but
being happier at what you do. If
you prepare for both the short and
long term consequences of any de
cision, you can help avoid failure
5 Be w illin g to change Lots
of people complain about their |obs,
their marriages, sometimes life in
general But unless they do some
thing constructive to change their
lives, they will remain unhappy.
That is what getting a second
chance is all about —believing that
change is within your grasp, making
the change and benefiting from it.
6 D o n 't take no fo r an answ er
- even fro m yo u rse lf.
There
are plenty of naysayers who love to
warn people of the risks of making
changes Do not do that to your
self Recognize that at some point
you have to jump.
.
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