Finding the Pay Value

Are you in a leadership position and having trouble motivating other people? Let’s figure out why that happens.

Here’s a tip that may help you change your tactics and experience greater success. The first thing you need to do is understand and accept that you can’t motivate someone else. You see, people don’t motivate other people.

There is one thing that can motivate someone, and that is an idea. A book doesn’t motivate, but the ideas in it certainly can. Money doesn’t motivate either. It’s the idea of what you can do with the money that is a motivating force. A single person cannot change a nation, but that person’s ideas of a better, shared future can change a nation.

So, if you want to motivate other people to do certain things, you need to present them with the ideas that will stimulate them to action. And, you’ll want to do it as vividly as possible. Paint a picture for them of the benefits they, not you, will receive from doing what you want. Show them the personal pay value, the “what is in it” for them. Teachers, help your students understand why they need what you are teaching, and you won’t be able to drag them away from their studies.

Maybe it is a good feeling that they will receive from the end result. Describe that feeling and tell them why they will love feeling it. Maybe it is a specific accomplishment. Describe how accomplishing it will make their life better. And remember, what seems like a good idea to you may not ring someone else’s bell.

Find out what matters to them and build it into your idea. Top sales people know this and use it constantly. They don’t sell products or services, they sell ideas. You can too – and you don’t need to be in a formal “leadership” position to capture another person’s imagination and energy around a good idea.