Read Time: 2 minutes 13 seconds

One of the best ways to be armed as a leader is data. But getting unbiased leadership data you can trust is expensive.

But what if we used this community of 11,000+ leaders to change that?

If I create a leadership pulse survey of no more than 15 questions and gave free access of the summarized results to anyone who participated, would you be in?

We have a tendency to make things more complicated than necessary.

Want proof?

The market size of Todo List Apps is $3 billion dollars a year. That’s bigger than the GDP of 30 countries for the ability to write down a task and cross it off when complete.

What does this have to do with Motivation?

This is another place where we’ve built a concept into something more complicated than it is.

When we think of motivation, we picture sports teams exploding out of the tunnel. We imagine software developers sleeping under their desks. Our minds conjure visions of palpable energy deployed to overcome nearly insurmountable obstacles (like living in a van down by the river).

Or perhaps 4,000+ pull-ups in a day is your version of pretty darn motivated.

But check out the actual definition:

The motivation hurdle is much lower.

It’s less of a maximum and more of a minimum. It is that trace amount of energy that tilts us from inaction to action. And not a drop more.

So how do we use this knowledge to motivate our teams?

If we’re trying to get someone to do something, they can either increase their desire to do it, or we can reduce the friction preventing them. That’s it.

Most of the attention goes to raising the energy. Who doesn’t love an impassioned locker room speech?

But we wildly overestimate our ability to influence sustainable change in others.

So what do smart leaders do?

They put their effort where they can have more impact:

The environment. The process. The culture.

And here’s how I’d do it.

You’re not going to get a behavior they don’t know you expect. Be measurable and clear on both the ‘What’ and the ‘How.’

Bonus: Have them co-author their expectations wherever possible. It’s much easier to stick to the rules you set.

If you don’t believe in the work, they won’t either. Delete it. Then delegate what’s left and empower them to simplify. Align to their development too.

Bonus: Delegation’s close friend is Automation. Make it clear to your team that if they can hire a computer to do it, they should.

Toxic positivity has gotten too much play. But 99% of employees will say they get little to no praise. As long as it’s genuine, it’s hard to overdo it.

Bonus: Tell someone else about the killer job they did. When it gets back to them, and it always does, this third-party praise is gratitude in its purest form.

Motivation is contagious. Peers who raise the standard challenge us to be better. And grow. Those who coast create a cost others pay. They need to go.

Bonus: Include the team in the hiring process and let their vote count. You’re better off waiting for the right character than settling for short-term capacity.

We can endure almost anything. But when the pain seems optional, it depletes us. Regular enhancements make work better and show you making work better.

Bonus: Give them more latitude to drive these improvements to stop these energy leaks. You can take more risks, and they can get more credit.

There’s a fine line between mastery and monotony. You can move your people or their focus. When the ‘Run’ plateaus, shift capacity to the next level of ‘Improve.’

Bonus: Consider them for off-team assignments - committees, secondments, projects, etc. They’ll return with a fresh perspective or find a better fit.

A-players are hungry to grow. Investing in their capabilities will keep them striving while delivering more impact. Be quick and clear with feedback.

Bonus: Group training grows each individual while providing a shared language and experience. Did I mention we do a two-day on-site version of this now?

People need to know what’s going on so they can operate independently. They also need to be heard so they can contribute to the mission.

Bonus: Consider what communication should be written. This is 10x more important if you’re hybrid or remote. Bias for storing it publically too.

Everybody needs a number, that single speedometer that tells them on-track or off-track. When it aligns your mission and their motive, magic happens.

Bonus: Make them public. Hang the scoreboard for everyone to see. Make sure yours is on there. None of us want to let our team - or ourselves - down.

But more important than any of the solutions above is finding the right root cause it solves for. I laid out the step-by-step process a couple of weeks back.

I opted for a punchier style this week to get you the tips and tactics in a highly enriched form in half the time.

Our mission is to impact 1,000,000 leaders positively. If this playbook would help someone on your team make better hiring decisions, please forward it to them.

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Thank you for reading. Appreciate you!

Dave