The other day, one of my corporate clients who participates in virtually all my programs asked me:
“But Steve, I have an employee at my company who is virtually impossible to motivate. I mean, the guy has talent but I don’t know what to do any more?”
Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever run into someone who, in that moment, appeared to be completely stuck? That no matter how much you tried to inspire them, couldn’t move?
Then read on… You’ll find the way out of this impass in this article.
There are two patterns you absolutely must know in order to master motivation. These two patterns are somewhat counterintuitive to us, and yet they hold the key to unleash the motivation of even the stuckest person.
These two patterns are negative avoidance.
One of my clients started with me because we were able to figure out his problem in a matter of minutes, something he’d been struggling for years. And his problem was this: no matter how much he tried, he constantly let himself off the hook on taking action on what was necessary to produce the results he wanted.
We solved this in a matter of minutes by installing a little voice in his head that repeated: “There’s no excuse.”
What made this work? We simply took something which he abhorred (excuse) and phrased the sentence in the negative.
And you can use this pattern in your communication with anyone who needs a little nudge. When I say “use this pattern,” I don’t mean telling them that there’s no excuse. Obviously, this might not move them at all because these words were designed specifically for my client.
Ask that person: “What do you hate? What totally pisses you off about other people’s behavior? What annoys you in what you do?”
Take that answer and put it in a sentence right after the word “no.”
Try it out with the following few words:
corruption
dishonesty
cowardice
How did they play out?
