How do you motivate your clients to achieve their business goals and overcome procrastination?
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Before you can help your clients overcome procrastination, you need to understand why they are avoiding certain tasks or decisions. Procrastination can have different causes, such as fear of failure, perfectionism, lack of clarity, low self-confidence, or emotional distress. By asking open-ended, probing, and reflective questions, you can help your clients identify the underlying beliefs, feelings, and triggers that lead them to procrastinate. This will help them gain awareness and insight into their own behavior and its consequences.
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Knowing the root cause is the key. Procrastination is always a symptom of an underlying problem. No one procrastinates about the things they enjoy. Often the reason is that there is not enough motivation to act. The client must psychologically perceive the cost of inaction, or reward of action as higher than the pain of taking action.
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I'd also want to know if the procrastination is about 'everything,' or a small number of tasks? If their work day is a wall of things they don't want to do, maybe they need a controlled exit plan. If it’s that bad, they might be missing their calling and would find hope in reinventing their career. If it's a little bit of their work they feel stuck on, but otherwise they feel motivated, what is it about this part of the work itself? Get specific. Do they feel their talent is well used? Do they need more help? Do they feel unheard about a better way to do things, or need other resources? Is there a personality conflict they're avoiding? Before questioning the behavior, question the work situation, to uncover why the behavior makes sense.
One of the best ways to motivate your clients to take action is to help them set SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These criteria ensure that the goals are clear, realistic, meaningful, and trackable. By setting SMART goals, your clients can break down their tasks into manageable steps, focus on their desired outcomes, and measure their progress and results. You can also help your clients prioritize their goals and align them with their values and vision.
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Apart from setting SMART goals, what also works is gamifying the whole process. Create a scoreboard or reward mechanism for every milestone.
Once your clients have set their SMART goals, you can help them create an action plan that outlines the steps they need to take to achieve them. An action plan should include the tasks, resources, deadlines, and milestones for each goal. It should also include strategies to overcome potential obstacles, such as distractions, interruptions, or setbacks. You can help your clients review and update their action plan regularly, and celebrate their achievements along the way.
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Most people don't have a motivation problem, they have a confusion problem. That is they are not clear about what they need to do and why are they doing it. A clear action plan where the client knows exactly what they need to do on any day is a game-changer.
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Break goals into smaller, more attainable chunks. Create an action plan and split the tasks into achievable milestone. Breaking things will make it easier to avoid putting them off.
Another way to motivate your clients to overcome procrastination is to use positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is the process of rewarding or praising a desired behavior to increase its likelihood of repetition. You can use positive reinforcement to encourage your clients to complete their tasks, acknowledge their efforts and accomplishments, and boost their self-esteem and confidence. You can also help your clients develop a positive mindset and attitude towards their goals and challenges, and reframe any negative thoughts or emotions.
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People feel good when they are encouraged and bad when they are judged. The thing is our performance and actions are highly dependent on how we feel. No breakthrough will occur from a place of judgement. Breakthroughs only happen from higher levels of self-love and self-demand. So encourage every little step. Acknowledge their efforts. Avoid judgement and encourage self-reflection with empathy.
Finally, you can motivate your clients to overcome procrastination by holding them accountable for their actions and results. Accountability is the sense of responsibility and commitment that your clients have towards their goals and plans. You can hold your clients accountable by setting clear expectations, following up on their progress, providing feedback and support, and challenging them to stretch beyond their comfort zone. You can also help your clients find other sources of accountability, such as peer groups, mentors, or partners.
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