Book Review By Prof.M.S.Rao “100 Ways To Motivate Others” Authored By Steve Chandler and Scott Richardson

“The first duty of a leader is optimism. How does your subordinate feel after meeting with you? Does he feel uplifted? If not, you are not a leader.” – Field Marshall Montgomery



I have read the book titled “100 ways to motivate others” authored by Steve Chandler and Scott Richardson recently. The book helps you know what motivates and how to motivate yourself and others. It contains several quotes that are apt and useful to the readers. The authors explain the contents through their experiences and anecdotes.

The book helps you to slow down and enjoy a new level of focus. It unveils that multitasking is a myth and the truth is to keep life simple and straight. It provides a simple and creative way to hold people accountable. It suggests enjoying the art of supportive confrontation.

What Do Authors Say?

“A boss creates fear, a leader, confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting.” – Russell H. Ewing, Author

1. The authors compare managers as firefighters who indulge in firefighting. In the process, the fire controls the mangers not the managers control the fire. They are unconscious of opportunities elsewhere as they are busy firefighting.
2. They compare between a healthy and insecure ego wherein a healthy ego asks: What needs to be done? An insecure ego asks: How do I avoid looking bad?
3. Multitasking is the greatest myth in modern-day business. The thinking part of the brain itself does not multitask, and so people do not really multitask. The human system is not set up that way. The system has one thought at a time.
4. One of the best ways to motivate others is to learn from those who have motivated you. Learn from the great leaders you have had. Channel them, clone them, and incorporate them into who you are all day.
5. One of your skills as a leader is to show your people that they can accomplish more than they think they can.
6. Professional managers fall into two categories. There are doers and there are feelers. Doers do what needs to be done to reach a goal that they themselves have set. They come to work having planned out what needs to be done. Feelers, on the other hand, do what they feel like doing. Feelers take their emotional temperature throughout the day, checking in on themselves, figuring out what they feel like doing right now. Their lives, their outcomes, their financial security are all dictated by the fluctuation of their feelings.
7. A doer has high self-esteem. A doer enjoys many satisfactions throughout the day, even though some of them were preceded by discomfort. A feeler is almost always comfortable, but never really satisfied. A doer knows the true, deep joy that only life’s super achievers know. A feeler believes that joy is for children, and that life for an adult is an ongoing hassle. A doer experiences more and more power every year of life. A feeler feels less and less powerful as the years go on. Your ability to motivate others increases exponentially as your reputation as a doer increases. You also get more and more clarity about who the doers and feelers are on your own team. Then, as you model and reward the doing, you also begin to inspire the feeler on your team to be a doer.
8. Change a single word in what you say, and you can scare a child to death. One scary word can make a child shake and cry. Change that word back, and the child is fine. Words communicate pictures, energy, emotions, possibilities, and fears.
9. The greatest value of planning and goal-setting is that it gives you your own life to live. It puts you back in charge. It allows you to focus on what’s most important to you.
10. We deserve someone talking to us, and really talking to us. From the heart. Loud and strong and with passion and without notes.
11. Leadership requires high levels of humanity. To be great leaders, we need to share our humanity and receive our people’s humanity all day.
12. You were “born” when you woke up, and you’ll “die” when you go to sleep.
13. Every communication from a manager to an employee is an opportunity to instill optimism. Don’t waste that opportunity. A true leader never does.
14. Behavioral studies continue to show that positive reinforcement works more than seven times better than negative criticism to change behaviour.
15. To a good motivator, the past really has only one purpose: to provide building material for creating the future. The past is not used as something to get hung up on, or an excuse for regret, placing blame, nostalgia, personal attacks, and having a defeated attitude. A leader knows that leadership means leading people into the future. Just as a scout leader leads scouts into the woods, a true leader leads team members into the future.
16. When you talk to members of your team, keep paying attention to the end results you want, not the effort to achieve them. When you praise your managers, pay attention to results they achieved that you wanted, not the trying, the effort, or the attempt to do it.
17. Dedicate a certain portion of each day to rewarding people, even if it’s only a verbal reward. Ten minutes at the end of the day. Get on the phone. Send out some e-mails. Reward. Reward.

Takeaways:

“The failure to give appropriate and timely feedback is the most extreme cruelty that we can inflict on any human being.” – Charles Coonradt, Management Consultant

• According to Warren Bennis, “The first rule in any kind of coaching is that the coach has to engage in deep listening. Which means that the coach must relate to the context in which the ‘other’ is reasoning-they must ‘tune in’ to were the other is coming from. In short, perhaps the basis of leadership is the capacity of the leader to change the mind-set, the frame work of the other.”
• As a motivational practice, leading from the front hits harder and lasts longer than any other practice.
• Most managers try double negatives as a way to motivate others.
• A great motivator doesn’t fight fires 24/7. A true motivator leads people from the present into the future. The only time a fire becomes relevant is when it’s in the way of that future goal. Sometimes a leader doesn’t even have to put the fire out. S/he sometimes just takes a path around (or above) the fire to get to the desired future.
• Leadership is a skill, like gardening or chess or playing a computer game. It can be taught and it can be learned at any age if the commitment to learn is present. Companies can turn their managers into leaders.
• To be a motivational leader as you can possibly be, you might want to show your people that life with you is a game.
• It is hard to motivate others if you don’t have time to talk to them.
• One of the most vital aspects of motivating others is the ability to see what’s possible instead of just seeing what’s happening now.
• It is a fallacy to say that a great leader should be egoless.
• Always hire the best talent. The best way to create a highly motivated team is to hire people who are already motivated.
• A true leader does not try to become everybody’s big buddy, although he or she values being upbeat and cheerful in communication. A true leader is not overly concerned with always being liked, and is even willing to engage in very uncomfortable conversations in the name of being straight and thorough.
• Simplify your life to feel your full power.
• It is important to use your best time for your biggest challenge.
• According to William Irwin, the secret of effective leadership is to learn to use 10 minutes intelligently. It will pay you huge dividends.
• According to Lance Secretan: “Leadership is not so much about technique and methods as it is about opening the heart. Leadership is about inspiration – of oneself and of others. Great leadership is about human experiences, not processes. Leadership is not a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others.”
• The less of a quitter you are, the more of a motivator you become.
• To really motivate, talk less and demonstrate more.
• According to Dee Hock, founder and CEO of Emeritus of VISA International: If you seek to lead, invest at least 50 percent of your time leading yourself – your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 20 percent leading those with authority over you and 15 percent leading your peers. If you don’t understand that you work for your mislabeled ‘subordinates’, then you know nothing of leadership. You know only tyranny.
• According to S.I.Hayakawa, professor of linguistics - There are basically two kinds of people: the kind of person who fails at something and says, “I failed at that” and the person who fails at something and says, “I’m a failure.” The first person is in touch with the truth and the second person is not.
• According to Greenleaf, “It is part of the enigma of human nature that the ‘typical’ person – immature, stumbling, inept, lazy – is capable of great dedication and heroism if wisely led. The secret of team-building is to be able to weld a team of such people by lifting them up to grow taller than they would otherwise be.”
• Great leadership by example (the ultimate motivator of others) comes from getting independently better at what you do, and not living in anticipation of other people’s opinion of you.
• Negative criticism causes resentment, depression, anger, and sabotage. People will sabotage your leadership if they feel alienated and underappreciated.
• Unmotivational managers will unconsciously disown and spread fear about the future.
• Victims blame others and victims blame circumstance and victims are hard to deal with.
• You cannot motivate someone who can’t hear you. Your people have to hear you to be moved by you.
• Human beings crave for real feedback, not just some patronizing, pacifying words.

Conclusion:

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill

The book provides tools and techniques for managers and leaders to learn and practice. The book is useful to executives, senior level leaders, and others who would like to know about leadership and motivation.
It fills you with lot of confidence to take on the real life battles and challenges. It is written in layman’s language so that an average reader can understand and appreciate the contents of the book.

The book is worth reading and investing your time to learn the ropes of motivation and leadership. It is useful to leaders and managers who constantly need to motivate their people.