When Motivating, Remember Your Why

There are many ways to motivate as a leader, and they all fit into two main methods:  Manipulation or inspiration.  Leaders have a role to motivate and inspire, but sometimes our vision and goals become more important than the people we lead, and we can start to use those we lead as a means to our end.  This is when manipulation happens, and they begin to STOP following you.

There are many ways to manipulate, and some of them can actually sound really nice.  In the book Start With Why the author outlines five ways manipulative leaders lead, and they are all so easy to do.  Here are two examples:

Fear.

Have you ever said to yourself or others, "If we don't do it, who will?"  Or how about, "If we don't perform well, what will our ministry partners think?"

The problem with operating out of fear is that it limits your effectiveness and diminishes your enjoyment of what you do.  As a Christian, you begin to forget who you are serving and become worried about how you are performing. Being afraid of what your bosses might think of you if you don't do what they want or making sure those you lead know they will be scrutinized if they don't perform well are destructive tools to use.

Aspirations.

"Do well with this and you will be given more opportunities."  "You could be the next Hudson Taylor."  "You might be the next language prodigy."

Encouragement and manipulation are not the same thing.  Any of the could be used as an encourager, but used to motivate someone to do something is a soft form of manipulation.

A Better Way to Motivate

Inspiration is most powerful when it comes from a place of true belief.  It's easy to tell people what you do.  Just think about it for a minute.  If you are attempting to recruit people to a cause or ministry you are involved in, it's easy to tell them what it is you do.  

It's a little harder to tell them how you do it.  Are you able to explain how you are able to be successful in your work?  If you start thinking about it, you might find that you quickly start answering the what, instead of the how.

But the best way to influence and motivate, is to be a true believer.  Why do you do what you do?  If you want to lead people well, you need to have a laser-sharp, clear knowledge of why you do what you do.  Why does this work better?  Because the people that will follow you best, will be the people that believe the same as you do.

Methods differ, ideas can clash, but if the belief is the same at least you know that you're working with people that want the same thing you do.

So, how should we motivate and inspire?  Tell those you lead what you believe, and tell them often.  Don't spend too much time on the how, or even the what, but take time to express why.

The interesting thing about starting with belief as a motivator, is that all tasks, good or bad become secondary to the primary goal.  You can work on something you despise if you understand how it connects to the end result.  Or, you can work on something you enjoy with a better perspective of why you're doing it.  Your motivation shifts from what you are doing (even if you enjoy it) to why you are doing it.  The big picture starts to become more and more clear.

Even more, your focus as a leader can be set free from the stress of needing to manage people to do what you want them to and fearing them leaving you.  The fear of not being the leader is replaced with the felt privilege of working toward accomplishing something good.

Here are a couple of questions to help you narrow down your why:

What makes you angry?  or  What do you want to see change?

When you look at the world, what needs to change?  Is change possible?

What do all people deserve?  Are they receiving it?

How do you remember your why?