Passion Provokes Action: Motivating Employee Performance

Clients often ask me about motivating employee performance: how to do it, is it possible, does the new generation think differently, or do we just have different work ethics today than in years past so we have to accept status quo?

While I don’t consider myself Pollyanna-ish in my thinking, I do think of myself as the eternal optimist. I don’t believe you can take someone who simply doesn’t care at all and motivate them, but I do believe that passion provokes action and that passion is essential to motivating employee performance.

Perhaps you’re thinking, Yes, great, Linda, but how do you get employees passionate? This, of course, is the question employers have been asking forever. I’d like you to consider that it isn’t so much about getting employees passionate as about removing the obstacles and barriers that interfere with their being passionate. Yes, it’s our responsibility as leaders to run interference, remove the roadblocks, and even to eliminate the things that give our employees excuses for poor performance.

Early in my career I worked for a recruiting firm that had a bunch of (in my opinion) of whiners. They had every reason in the book for why they couldn’t perform well. One day I went to the president and said, “Let’s remove these obstacles, all those things they complain about, so then they just gotta go to work.” We did, and guess what happened? Some of them resigned because they had no more excuses. Others stepped up and got passionate, and that provoked action and sales. Both outcomes were ideal.

The point is that employees often find things to fuss about…the uncomfortable chair, the colleague who eats lunch at their desk and it smells awful, too much work to do, poorly defined expectations…you name it. It’s hard to be motivated when you have things to complain about, especially when you have colleagues who agree with your complaints.

Remove the obstacles, improve the communication, eliminate the issues and barriers,  and now the excuses are gone. You have demonstrated that you heard, listened and cared enough to do something about it. Now you can ask for more, incite passion, and that passion will provoke action.

Motivating employee performance is the goal of every leader and company. But you can’t get them motivated without them being passionate. And they can’t be passionate when there are irritants around. Once those are addressed, instead of focusing on what’s wrong, lacking or irritating, they can focus on what’s good, working and successful. Happy employees are motivated employees.

Linda Finkle

Executives and top performers in leading companies rely on Executive Coach Linda Finkle to call them on their blind spots, expand their influence and create bigger things for themselves and the companies they lead. High-achieving professionals from Ameriprise, Mass Mutual, Blue Cross Blue Shield, major law firms and dozens of others have come to know Linda as their secret weapon to overcome leadership and communication challenges that stand in their way of making an even bigger impact.

Linda is described as ‘the best of both worlds in that she understands revenue pipeline management as well as running an organization day-to-day’ and ‘an invaluable resource and advisor’ by others. No matter how they describe her, clients regularly welcome the benefits that come from their work together. Most notably, clients’ gross revenues skyrocketed, communication skills have been refined creating a lasting ripple effect across the organization, allowing them to make bigger impacts at work and in their personal lives, and learn smarter ways of adding value without burning out.

Known for her great rapport and relationship-focused demeanor, she is often called direct and has a truth-telling way about her. Linda Finkle has coached and trained more than 2,000 leaders in six countries since 2001. Widely known as “The Elephant Chaser”, Linda has a reputation for going straight for the throat of whatever problems a business is having and working closely with leaders and managers to resolve them and to heighten the company’s overall performance. Whether working one-on-one with clients, as an inspiring speaker, as a leadership team facilitator, or with partnerships in distress, Linda is committed to guiding clients to clarity about their communications, behaviors and stumbling blocks that stand in the way of their effectiveness.

Before launching Incedo Group, LLC, Linda built and managed an executive recruiting firm for more than twenty years. Her recruitment agency identified talent for Fortune 500 companies and small to mid-sized business as well, and ranked among the top 10 recruiting firms in the country. Her ability to understand the corporate culture and needs of the company for both the long and short term ensured her clients returned time and again. Even today, clients and candidates from her recruiting days reach out to her for advice, help, and guidance.

Her ability to build trust immediately, her powers of perception and intuition, along with her tactful and direct style, create a space that allows clients to share their truth and receive the feedback they won’t hear from anyone else. It is exactly what they need to make changes to catapult their leadership and companies in powerful ways.