My Motivation Isn't The Boss's Job: Episode #117 Japan Business Mastery

My Motivation Isn't The Boss's Job: Episode #117 (Audio here) (Video here) Japan Business Mastery

Motivation is simple.?It comes from within.?If you don’t believe me, try yelling to your staff member “be motivated, be motivated, be motivated” over and over and you will soon see how ridiculous the idea is.?The boss’s job is to create the environment where the self-motivated can excel.

?“Motivate me” must be one of the saddest requests a leader can receive.?The request may not be so bluntly articulated, but the underlying assumption that the boss is there to motivate the staff seems to linger.?The search for salvation located in the responsibility of others is a big fail.?

Motivation, loyalty, accountability, effort, responsibility, engagement – probably every boss is expecting these from their staff.?They are all outcomes of inputs.?Inputs from both the boss side and the staff side.?We know what level of staff motivation we want as leaders, but how do we achieve it??

?Some favourite leader methodologies are yelling, threatening, instilling fear of loss, shaming and humiliating.?Steve Jobs ticked the box on quite a few of these in his early days as a leader.?He has become a halo encrusted, saint like figure nowadays because he took Apple away from the brink of self immolation and gave it a second life through his leadership.?He was however a flawed leader who, at various times, resorted to these methods.?

?His later success does not validate these bully boy favourites.?We need to look at the opportunity cost of what he could have achieved, had he been a better people leader.?Getting massive compliance will not get you enough creative innovation.?He could have done more, much much more, if he had played to his people’s strengths rather than abusing their weaknesses.

?Strong leaders often work off the assumption that what made them successful is the model for everyone else to follow.?Oh, if it were only that easy!?Unfortunately, few people are ever going to be like you.?You realise this as you go through life, when trying to deal with various others, but mysteriously, we tend to forget this fact when at work.?Personality styles are often broken out into four boxes and by definition we tend to suit one box over the others.?Hence three quarters of the population are automatically not on our wave-length.?

?So how can we motivate the people who are not like us – probably the majority of staff.?By the way, if your staff are all the same personality style as you, because that is how you have tweaked the recruiting system, settle back for disaster ahead.?Your flagrant cult of your personality type and lack of diversity will bubble up so much group think, you will assure yourselves you are correct all the way along, as you speed lemming-like, straight off the cliff.

?Let’s assume that is not the case and you have a typically diverse work group with people with various preferred personality styles.?Do yourself a big favour and start communicating with the team, as they prefer.?This is beyond the Golden Rule, on toward the Platinum Rule of “treating everyone, as they wish to be treated”.?That means knowing what is self-motivating for each person and counter-intuitively, aligning that with the organisation’s goals, rather than the other way around.?

?Communication skills, one of the most important soft skills, are key to success here.?What we say is important, but how we say it is more important.?Let’s be clear - we can’t motivate anyone but ourselves. However, as the leader, we can create an ecosystem where the team are encouraged to motivate themselves.?Mirroring their preferred communication style when speaking means better understanding.?Talking in terms of the other person’s interests, rather than are own, is more likely to be motivating for them.?

?The trick is you have to spend time with your team to know what their individual interests are.?We loop back to the soft skills of good communication. The boss’s barked order generates docile compliance.?The alignment of staff self-motivation with the direction of the organisations’s strategy, coupled with the right communications skills, get’s our people going the extra mile.?That is a good goal - Platinum Rule turbo charged self-motivation.

Engaged employees are self-motivated.?

o???The self-motivated are inspired.?

o???Inspired staff grow your business?

Are you inspiring them??

We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people.?

Want to know how we do that??

Contact me at [email protected]

If you enjoy our content, then head over to?www.dale-carnegie.co.jp?and check out our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules and our whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs.?

About The Author?

Dr. Greg Story, President Dale Carnegie Training Japan

The bestselling author of “Japan Sales Mastery”, “Japan Business Mastery” and "Japan Presentations Masstery" and his new book "The Eigyo" (The営業), Dr. Greg Story is an international keynote speaker, an executive coach, and a thought leader in the four critical areas for business people: leadership, communication, sales and presentations.?

He publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

Has 6 weekly podcasts:

1.?????Mondays -??The Leadership Japan Series,

2.????Tuesdays – The Presentations Japan Series?

Every second Tuesday - ビジネス達人の教え

3.????Wednesdays - The Sales Japan Series?

4.????Thursdays – The Leadership Japan Series

Also every second Thursday - ビジネスプロポッドキャスト

5.????Fridays - The Japan Business Mastery Show

6.????Saturdays – Japan’s Top Business Interviews

Has 3 weekly TV shows on YouTube:

1.?????Mondays - The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

Also every Second Thursday - ビジネスプロTV

2.????Fridays – Japan Business Mastery

3.????Saturdays – Japan Top Business Interviews

In the course of his career Dr. Greg Story has moved from the academic world, to consulting, investments, trade representation, international diplomacy, retail banking and people development.

Growing up in Brisbane, Australia he never imagined he would have a Ph.D. in Japanese decision-making, become a 35 year veteran of Japan and run his own company in Tokyo.?

Since 1971, he has been a disciple of traditional Shitoryu Karate (糸東流) and is currently a 6th Dan.?

Bunbu Ryodo (文武両道-both pen & sword) is his mantra and he applies martial art philosophies and strategies to business.