The Grow Show: Business Growth Stories from the Frontlines

[Season 1] Don't Forget The Corvette: How To Motivate Your Team

August 08, 2022 Scott Scully, Jeff Winters, Eric Watkins Season 1 Episode 17
The Grow Show: Business Growth Stories from the Frontlines
[Season 1] Don't Forget The Corvette: How To Motivate Your Team
Show Notes Transcript

Your company will only go as far as the team behind it. As a leader, the one thing you should focus on is tying your team's personal goals to the company's goals. Whether they want an upcoming promotion or are saving up for a red corvette,  it's your job to know what matters to your people.

Thanks for listening!

Eric Watkins:

Welcome to the grove show where we make it easier for entrepreneurs and leaders to grow their businesses. You'll hear from real leaders with real stories about their successes and failures. So you don't have to make the same mistakes. We won't break out textbooks or talk theory only raw stories from the frontlines with actionable takeaways.

Unknown:

The gross show is sponsored by Reggie are your outbound sales campaigns not driving the engagement you're looking for? Revenue leaders rely on reggie.ai to write high performing sales copy that cuts through the noise and books more meetings. Want to see how it works, head over to reggie.ai/grow show and learn how to put the power of best practices and AI into the hands of your sales team. Here's the next episode of the Grow show.

Eric Watkins:

All right. Welcome back to The Grove show. We're all here together today. And we're excited. Excited to be back with our valued listeners. I'm here with my partners in growth. Scott scoli.

Unknown:

Hello, everyone. Jeff winters,

Jeff Winters:

you're excited twice. You said excited two times.

Eric Watkins:

I'm double excited. That's great. extra excited. You're almost you're motivated. I am motivated, almost excited as your shirt.

Jeff Winters:

Monday, Hawaiian shirt Monday

Eric Watkins:

Hawaiian shirt. Is this a theme that I feel like last Monday you weren't wearing Hawaiian in a way else kickoff.

Jeff Winters:

It is the kickoff. Yeah.

Unknown:

Another great month.

Jeff Winters:

Now what I was thinking,

Unknown:

I know the real reason for that shirt. Well, this Hawaiian shirt one. Because I knew that Jeff was interested in going to Hawaii, I know that his family wants to go to Hawaii,

Eric Watkins:

ah, check out the whole family history. Well,

Unknown:

we got a little care package to go to Home little wine care package so that his family applies pressure.

Jeff Winters:

There we go. That's the next level there.

Eric Watkins:

That is next level.

Unknown:

That's me understanding a little bit about you and what motivates you?

Eric Watkins:

Well, that's important, Scott, because the topic that we're here to discuss today is how do you figure out how your people are motivated? And how do you use that, to make sure that they be the best version of themselves. And Scott, this is something that we're talking about today, because we all three collectively agreed? We're not always that good at it. Right? It doesn't, it's not something that comes to the top of the mind all the time. But as we do in our episode, where you heard about us working in the business, and rolling up the sleeves. It's one of the things we notice, when we work with different new groups of people, it's the first place we start. And you know, this is going to be a good episode for us to not only, you know, help our listeners apply, but also for ourselves. It's a great reminder. Scott, you want to start and kick it off and talk about why do you feel like this is so important?

Unknown:

Well, sure, first of all, I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't buy Jeff that shirt. And I don't know exactly where he wants to go to vacation. Next shame on me. But he just seemed like a good segue.

Eric Watkins:

He likes to stay at home.

Jeff Winters:

I'm an indoor cat.

Unknown:

He likes to hike. The higher up we get, the more we assume that the people that we're working with directly don't need that. They're just motivated, they're going to figure it out, they're going to get the job done. But I think from from the highest levels, all the way throughout the organization, it's important for managers to understand their people understand where they're looking to grow, what motivates them, and if they know that, then they can include that in their ongoing conversations. And somebody's going to realize that you know them as a person you care, you're keeping them on track for their goals. I think one of you too earlier today mentioned that that somebody on our team their main motivations to pay off college debt. You know, so if I know that in that particular individuals making commissions and bonuses and I'm meeting with her on a on a weekly basis, and I'm tying that into our conversation, oh my god more debt off right? Even what's what's after they pay off that college debt? What's next? You know, is it a vacation? Is it a car you're saving for kids college? You know, you're putting your kid in a spot that you you know, weren't in before maybe what is what what is the motivation so you're constantly knowing what they're shooting for and striving for? And that's not the same thing. So I don't know a sales manager may manage 20. Salespeople all the same way. Make this many dials sell this, I don't care hit a number. And they're gonna just be that much more successful if they know, each and every one of those 20 people, what motivates them, and then their ongoing discussions are centered around that. It works. And it's so simple that you all that are listening right now are like, Well, yeah, of course. But are you doing that? Like with the people you manage? And are your people doing that? 100% of the time? You know, if I lined up the 10 people that you're managing directly, dia know them? Do you know what motivates them? Are you are you involved in discussions that are centered around where that person is looking to grow? And what they care about most? Probably not, we'd be lying to if we said we did that 100% of the time, but the more often that we are on point with that, the better off we are, and the more we grow

Jeff Winters:

motivated teams, you can feel them motivated individuals, you can feel them and there's they just performed if it's almost like having like a substitute, it's like having another manager almost like if somebody's motivated, and you know, they're motivated and energized. You okay, I know that so and so's motivated, energize right now, like, they're going to do their job, they're going to do their job incredibly, incredibly well. And it's like, having employees like that, it then becomes okay, I've got one now that's infectious. And that's the fun thing about motivation is one motivated person very easily becomes three motivated people, and three becomes five, and then you have a motivated team. And for those people listening out there, you've all seen it, it's hard to put your fingers on, I think our goal today is to say, Okay, we want to help make sure that we talk about tactically, what a motivated individual. And an individual level looks like how you can identify them how you can inspire people individually, and how ultimately, you can have a super motivated team because it's something that isn't probably something you talk about weekly in your all hands meetings or in your readouts or in your reporting or your board meetings, you're not talking about this stuff. But it's so important. And we want to help give you some tips to how you can let your team on on fire, metaphorically speak.

Eric Watkins:

You know, sorry, go ahead, I was just going to emphasize metaphorically, we didn't want to work like anyone lit on fire metaphor,

Unknown:

you just made me think of something. So you know how you can spot that motivated person I've seen so many times. When it's like, things are like people have pictures in their cubes about the vacation, or the car they want to buy or the house, they're looking, you know, their dream house. And then other people see those photos, or they know what motivates you know, somebody on their team knows that they're looking to get into that house with the white picket fence and the four bedrooms on the street that they've always dreamed about. And then they get a deal, they get another deal. And then the people around them are like, one step closer to the house, Johnny? Like, it's, you know, you'll draw that out of people. But if it's out in the open, and others are aware of what motivates people, you know, they're going to be kind of tied into helping motivate that individual to if they know what they're shooting for.

Eric Watkins:

Right? Yeah, I have a theory about this, too. If you think about the organizations who aren't good at this, which is a lot, a lot of different organizations, they are typically led by people who are intrinsically motivated. Three of us sitting at the table, I would say the reason why we got to this spot was not necessarily because somebody did this for us, it was just built inside of us or what fostered over time. So it's really hard for us. Like, I remember when I first got into management, the first thing I thought about was like, what, like I have to tell people what to do, they don't just bring their A game every single day. And so I think it just doesn't come naturally. So as a leader, especially if you're internally motivated, this is something that you have to work on all the time to bring up to your conscious that you're constantly thinking about how to do it, and you need to not gravitate towards, okay, they're not performing well. Let me fix these 10 things, and then they'll achieve a better result. Now it starts here, it starts right up front with the person. And then in addition to that, there's no such thing as too much of this, like in you could take an internally motivated person. Jeff, you're internally motivated. If I do this with you, you're gonna be that much more motivated. It's only gonna you know, don't Only compounds, it only gets better. So I think just to set the stage, before we get into some of the specifics and tactics, this is for everybody. There's no person that's above this, no matter how internally motivated you are. And chances are, if you are and you're a leader, you're probably not very good at it. So you might want to listen up and hear some of these things. So Scott, let's start with, you know, you've worked with a variety of different individuals at this point, where are some places you start? For how to get that individual fired up?

Unknown:

Yeah, you know, first of all, let me back up, I think that I'm going to oversimplify it, but it's first get the right butt in the seat, you got to have the right person. Sure. Then which we've, we've talked about these things, right, then the next thing is clear expectations on what you want them to do and get agreement. Right? And then ask them how the hell they like to be managed. And what motivates them. That's oversimplifying it, but that's what I do. Spend a lot of time hiring the right person, make it very clear what you expect of them and get them to agree. You know, ask them what style they would appreciate when you're managing them? Do you want me to be all over you and, you know, almost in a micromanage way, you want me to back off? Do you need, you know, you want me to point out, because I think people will tell you, hey, you know, every once in a while, I like to hear good stories or a pat on the back, or I need you to leave me alone, I'll hit my number, just leave me alone. Give me some space. But we don't ask that. And then what motivates you? What like, what are you driving towards? What are some of the things that you'd like to achieve as a position as money savings? Is it responsibility? Is it life for your kids or your family. But I think that the easiest thing to do, if you want to pick something to do right now is start looking at your organization and start talking to your managers. And one way to know if you're there, you know, sit one of your leaders down, talk about the people that they manage directly, you know, have them write names down on the board of their key reports. And tell them to, to tell you a little bit about those people, you know, what do they like? What don't they like? How do they want to be managed? What specifically are they shooting for? What do you know about them? And I think unfortunately, in the beginning, what you will find is, maybe they don't have that data on most of their team. But if you went through that exercise, and you figure out where you're at, then the good news is very quickly, you guys could have a discussion and build that into your culture and, and start making it a big deal. Get the right people, define the work, get agreement, ask them how they like to be managed, and then figure out what they're shooting towards. And make sure that that's always part of the discussion. And you'll be there. I don't think it's that hard. I just think you have to ask the questions, and make him just hold your managers accountable to actually knowing that info. And everybody that reports directly to him,

Eric Watkins:

I think you hit on a really key point, because where this falls flat on its face is if you're not connected to the individual, it just comes across as cheesy, right? If I, you don't know anything about me. And I don't even necessarily like you as a manager, and then you're talking about my dream house and what I could do for my family. I don't care, like it's falling on deaf ears. So I think a very simple place to start is to have a list of questions. And you don't have to be all systematic about it, but have a list of questions that you want to know about everybody on your team. And the minute you get a new member to the team, not only do they share those with you, they share them with the team as well.

Jeff Winters:

I'm gonna give everybody because because that to me is super foundational that that's the start sure what motivates people and but I think sometimes where at least for me, where it went awry, is like I need like framework, I need a framework so I can figure out in larger buckets, what motivates people so I'm gonna I'm gonna thieve an idea, I'm gonna steal it share with the listeners. Guy named Daniel Pink basically said and this is there's more stuff but that people at work are basically motivated by three things. One of the three or all three or two of the three and some proportion, autonomy mastery purpose. So real quick, autonomy is the idea that you can sort of choose how where when you do pick things like we know people like this right? Don't Don't tell me how to do it. Tell me what to do. And I'll tell you the how some people if you tell them the how their motivation is gone. The second is mastery. Mastery is the idea of just making progress. Mastery includes Money Mastery includes getting better at your job mastery includes promotions, mastery improves being at the top of the leaderboard. Some people are motivated by that. And the last is purpose. Purpose could be defined as what you do as an organism. Mission purpose could be defined as something that's important for you in your life, whether it be paying off student debt or helping a family member, or perhaps it's in business. Like for us, I know the three of us are all motivated by the work we do to help other people in this business. That's our purpose, and other people and our clients who succeed as a result of this business. So an exercise that I've had is that people do say, hey, look, I get it's gonna, it's hard. And some people don't know what motivates them. You know, a lot of people do. So if you say, Hey, Jeff, will motivate you. It's like, give me give me competition all day. Like, whatever, whatever competition we're doing, I'm into it, and you can't overdo it. Put people where are they motivated by autonomy, mastery purpose, in some measure. And last point on this, by far the most important mastery, moving up, making progress, top of the leaderboard autonomy, mastery purpose.

Eric Watkins:

I like that. I think one one thing where you can, one pitfall that you can fall into, is just take people at exactly their word. Because a lot of times, they'll say what they think you want to hear. Yeah. And so one strategy that's worked for me, is just to paint the picture with extremes. So let's just take money, because it's easy. Someone says, I want to make $100,000 This year, okay. So you can make $100,000. And you got to work 80 hours a week. And you got to put in five hours every Saturday and Sunday. Or you can make 75,000. And you can put in 40 hours a week. They're like, well, whoa, I don't want to make I don't want to make 100,000 hours if I have to work 85 hours per week. Okay, well, what's most important to you, right? And you get down to like, what is that perfect mix. And then that, I feel like that establishes more clear expectations between you two, going back to your first point. And then you can be very clear on you pick, like how bad you want something is all the stuff that you're willing to do to get there. And the willing the stuff that you're not willing to do. You know, you're not going to be you're not going to get to where you want to be from that standpoint.

Unknown:

I like that. And deeper on a thing. I want to 69 Corvette. Yeah. Awesome. God, I loved one of those two, what color? But but even more specifically, well, what's one of those costs? You know, how much have you set aside so far? You know, what, you know, what's your spread? What, what do you like buy when, you know, because just knowing that they want the 69 Corvette one thing, knowing exactly how much they need to make, how they're going to spread out their commission, the timeframe that they're trying to do that by is important to,

Jeff Winters:

you know, never know.

Unknown:

Sorry, Jeff wants to know, and that may lead asking deeper questions may lead you to? I don't know, I just think that the 69 Corvette.

Eric Watkins:

It's not that big of a deal. Yeah.

Unknown:

I don't even know how it works. Or, well, how much is it? Well, I don't even know. Is that really then? Is that really? Yeah, I'm telling you, that's really what I want. Okay, well, Chip, go find out.

Jeff Winters:

Where you fight figure this out a lot, where it's almost always wrong salespeople? Because I bet you an inordinately large percentage of our audience is what motivates salespeople to go money. Money motivate salespeople, because salespeople love money. It's not like by and large, what motivates sales, the great salespeople is they can't stand to be not number one on the leaderboard. They can't they can't take in money is a great byproduct. They won't do the job without it. But boy, boy, you put your your top salesperson that last on the leaderboard, they'll come out of their skin, they'll come unglued.

Eric Watkins:

I like what Scott, I like what you were saying with the Corvette too is like, as you're talking about that I can visualize it. And I think that's important not to just talk and you know, just throw something, okay? I want a Corvette No, like, what? Where are you going to drive this car? Like, well, who are you going to who's gonna be the first person you're going to show? Like, the more real you make that the more tangible that work goes to being put into that? And then I think it goes to the next step. Which, if you're going to motivate someone, they gotta that's the that's the end goal, right? When we find this inspiration, this mastery, this purpose, this autonomy, but what are the steps to get there? And then how, if you're ever going to talk to them about one of the steps leading up to that point? How does it play into that vision? How do you start with the vision? Because then it's not I'm not asking you to do something because I'm asking you to do it. I'm asking you to do it because you told me how bad you wanted this. And I know what it takes to get there. This is what it takes to get there. And you're if you're not doing it, you're choosing not to get that thing.

Unknown:

You know, we're gonna beat this Corvette to death but SOT let's say I'm the manager of the person that literally wants to 69 Corvette and it's red. I'm getting a little model, read 669 Freaking Corvette or a hot wheel or whatever, I might put a, a jar on the desk with a Corvette on the outside and say, You know what, every time I see you doing something awesome, I'm gonna drop 20 bucks in the Corvette jar. Because I want to see you driving that Corvette to like, it's just could go so deep and be so fun for that individual. If that's something that they're shooting for him. Don't do enough.

Jeff Winters:

Now we don't let me let me kick your question around. So why not? Because people out there saying the same thing don't have a Corvette jar on their top salespersons desk. Scott, why don't why don't why don't we are the broader we'd not do this on an individual level, knowing how important is? Well,

Unknown:

I think this is what it is. I think people think it's hard to hard to do that, as opposed to maybe the only thing you would need to do. Like, oh, but I got all these things I have to do to manage the sales team versus Well, if I just did that. Would that knock out? Would that be the one thing we talk about the one thing? That's the domino that that kind of kicks it off and Max the rest of them down? And I think it would be I think it's just a mindset thing. If I know these people as individuals, and I, and I know what motivates them, and I'm keyed into that, then probably the rest of my job could be easier. But I bet it's time I bet they just think it's too hard.

Eric Watkins:

The other thing that I think the trap that people fall into is they make decisions about people very quickly. And so they might just say that person is just not motivated. Right? Or that person is super internally motivated. I don't need to do anything. And you don't think about that. That internally motivated person, you could get them from 100% to 120%. Right? What could they be at? If you did these types of things? And I think it goes back to what Scott says it's like, when I when we see problems, everybody loves fixing problems, right? Like they see a problem. They want to fix it. They love helping people. But sometimes it's better to help the person help themselves versus going and getting into all the what I would call the X's and O's versus just their mindset. Right, and what motivates them.

Jeff Winters:

I'm gonna tell you why I think people don't do it. And it's silly. And I've thought this too, because you can't scale personal motivation. I can't get everybody at Corvette, Jr. I can't. And that's stupid. Because you can you can totally scale personal motivation, you can totally know on your team, who was motivated by what thing and create incentives or visualizations or connect them and not only can you you, you must, you must do that, if you want to be that's like the advanced leader is, is that so don't cop out because you got too much busyness in your schedule. Right? Or because you don't think it can scale because it 1,000% Can

Unknown:

you know the other thing you could it can be it doesn't have to be saving for a house, you could just know that. Eric likes movies, and has been looking forward to seeing Top Gun. And you know, you Eric has a good day and you get him a couple of movie tickets and say, Hey, man, I know you're looking forward to your love movies. And you'd love to go the movie The dine in, you know, one where you can kick the chairs back. And here's a couple of tickets there. Go have some fun. Go see that? Cut off a little early and go see that Top Gun movie, you're having an incredible month.

Jeff Winters:

So I want it so don't ask it's a Scott. I've actually was written about this before. So this is an interesting idea. This is sort of a surprise that what you'd call surprise and delight, meaning I didn't know you were gonna I didn't know if I had a good day you were gonna get me this thing. But now I did. And now this guy cares about me. Or not necessarily substitute but like and or. Hey, Eric, if you have a good day, I will get you the movie tickets. It's interesting, cuz there's both you gotta do both.

Unknown:

I think both work. Yeah. But knowing knowing that Eric likes movies.

Eric Watkins:

love movies. Great example. Saw Top Gun, great movie.

Jeff Winters:

Let me ask you this quick, little older for them. Some of us that have topco that movie speaking of movie making movies. But I want to harp on this point for one second. I think they're both can work. I know that can both work. Meaning the if you do X, you will get y and I did X I had no idea. I was gonna get y but I got it anyways. But I think they're different. And they're both really important to have as arrows in your quiver, because if Eric has a great day and I give him movie tickets, that's Wow, that guy thought it was thoughtful. He cares about me. Like that's a different kind of mood. Now I'm motivated going forward. The other Also important is like I'm motivated by this thing. And it's exciting because I want that thing. But the care is different. So both work, but I think you got to you got to use both. And I don't think people use the surprise and delight, Scott, what you said, because you're great at this, the surprise and delight, as much as they use the if you do x, then you'll get why

Eric Watkins:

I think they're two. They're motivating two different things, though, as well. So one is the short term metrics, which a lot of people use all the time very effective. The other thing, I think you're just building up your Trust Bank with that individual. Yeah. So when that time comes, and you have to say, hey, we're down a couple people, I really need you to pick it up. Like that's what you're cashing in on at that point. And not that it has to be so transactional, but I think, you know, I would, if Scott came to me and said, Hey, I really need your help with this. I'm down to help. Because he's built up that trust, like over time, and if you don't have that established, so anyway, you can do that. I just think I know that. I don't I'm not saying which one is better. I think one's short term, one's long term.

Unknown:

Eric, if you and I were smart, we would research the best sandals. Yeah. In the market. Yeah. Make a very big deal about getting those sandals

Eric Watkins:

and our friend and pedicures. Right, staring at his toenails.

Jeff Winters:

Let me go back to something you Scott said in jest earlier. Incorporate the family, incorporate it in your business motivation. I'm gonna give you the best surprise and delight. This guy named John Rulon buddy wrote a book called gift ology. Awesome. And I met with him randomly. I don't know. He's the gift guy. He's like the gift guy. And afterwards, like three days later, I got a knife. Really nice knife. And it said to Katie and Jeff winners. Katie uses that knife every day. She use it every day. Katie is always like, Do you Do you ever talk to John cash you get like a referral or something like that, guys? Like, we had salespeople whose kids would ask their Mom, where are you on the leader? Where are you gonna leave, we're like, don't forget the family in can induce motivation to. And I just did that because that knife,

Eric Watkins:

we just worked this with the, you know, the helicopter day and age of the helicopter parents but bringing the parents through on the first day and showing them where their kids gonna be working spouse. I know, my parents would sign right up for that steal.

Unknown:

They would Yeah, your while they were at that event, and they were super, super proud of you. And if you're ever having a bad day, you know, they'd probably be like, Yeah, but

Eric Watkins:

keep pushing.

Unknown:

You're a Titan. Exactly. Remember the event. What we're saying at the highest level is, know your people. And if you know your people, and you're connected to them, and you know what they care about most, and you're doing things with intent, if you're doing things, you're surprising people, and you're just tied into what they care about most and then that probably takes care of over half of what you need to be doing with that individual to get them to do their job. I have

Eric Watkins:

a question. So a lot of people you know, you hear about find your why find your why a lot of people think they need this big, massive why. And when you get into these conversations, a lot of times you're gonna get stuck, because the person is gonna be like, I don't know, like, honestly, especially, you know, maybe kids out of college, we deal with a lot of the younger generation here. They may not have that family that they need to provide for maybe their parents paid for their college, maybe they you know, they don't have the specific why they're just kind of going about their life. How do you all or how have you been successful in getting those individuals to help understand, you know, a why or reason or lead them to that motivation? Because a lot of times I've been in the conversations, they're just like, Yeah, I don't really know. I don't really know what motivates me.

Jeff Winters:

I don't know what I've done. I I go to a time in their life when they were really motivated or a few times in their life where they were really motivated. And I try to work backwards. Because they don't like most reverse engineer. Yeah, you were okay. Well, tell me about a time in your life when you were really incredibly motivated. Well, I gotta tell you is, you know, seventh grade I was doing the spelling bee is very personal. Larry had beaten me in the spelling bee for two years, and I woke up at two in the morning and study, you know what I'm saying? Like, Okay, interesting. So seems like competition. Tell me about another time. Tell me about your parents. Tell me about your story. Like, tell me about your family. You know, it sounds to me like you're motivated by x because then not only figure out why they're motivated, but you've done them a great turn like you took the time to care to figure out what motivates them based on their past and look, when you get older child life changes. You know, I'm not mature, I'm skinny, and I'm motivated by what motivated you at 21 years old now.

Unknown:

Oh, no, you're right. Which is, this is never over. Yeah, right. You know, two years later, it could be something completely different. Got to stay plugged in and ask deeper questions and figure out the person. But I really, I was thinking about this last night, like, hit me between the eyes. It's like, it's that one thing. And we've we've got all these things we're talking to our managers about. We got to do this and you got to do this. You got to ask these questions. You got it. It's like Jesus if like every one of our managers, like if every sales manager we had that has 10 people that report to them knew their people knew, you know, knew what mattered their people thought, you know, hey, my managers asked questions they know me as an individual they know what I care about the most they they know what I'm what motivates me. If that across our entire organization was set. If those boxes were checked, holy shit, what would like what would we be doing? Yeah,

Jeff Winters:

going off this point. And I hate to go into sports all the time. But Phil Jackson, write this book. 11 rings Leaders are readers know we go read it a couple times. Did you listen or is the hardest I always is listening. We can talk about that listening is reading. Comprehending is comprehending. He was not the best. To quote Eric X's and O's. He wasn't the most brilliant basketball though. Phil Jack's Right. Like with the X's and O's. What was he brilliant at? He was the most unbelievable motivator. You know, they told stories where he'd have Michael Jordan plan the stars and practice the best players, Michael Jordan was on that team against the second best players on the team. And then at halftime, he'd switch Michael Jordan, one of the the second best players team, they were getting their butts kicked and then they come back and went like he was a master motivator

Unknown:

or knowing that Rodman needs a little Vegas in his life for a couple of days, a little

Eric Watkins:

autonomy, I

Unknown:

think they had to go collect Mr. Rodman from Las Vegas.

Jeff Winters:

But it just like that point just goes to show. Maybe you don't have to be the best sales manager in the tactics are the best closer, or the best account manager of account manager. Maybe if you just aren't an incredible motivator, you can be the best ever at what you do just from being so great at motivating people.

Unknown:

You know, you're just you're, like, just sparked for me, because people are like, well, I don't think I'm a great motivator. I guess what we're saying is to be a great motivator, just know the person and what motivates them. Yeah. And then, yeah,

Eric Watkins:

not some charismatic speech done. You're motivated. It's every day. It's little things every day that Adam thinks it's a carrot talk about that,

Jeff Winters:

because people think the great motivators give a charismatic speech and walk off to thunderous applause. And everybody's motivated for 90 days.

Eric Watkins:

Yeah, I think it's just consistent, consistently bringing up the things that matter most to that individual, and showing that you care and showing up for them every single day, and no one's perfect. But the more you can do that every single day, it just builds and builds. And I think it ties into like, Scott, one thing you did with me was you gave me a fine reputation to live up to like that, from How to Win Friends and Influence People. You always talked about different things that I could do that when you set them I was like, This guy's crazy. Like, you don't know what the hell he's talking about. There's no way I could do that.

Unknown:

I think he's still Yeah, but

Eric Watkins:

that that's what did it for me. I was like, You know what, maybe I could, maybe I can. And if you can do that with your people. I mean, that one little comment in a day of like, you may be the best sales salesperson we've ever seen. All of a sudden, that's that plays over and over and over. That wasn't some speech. Right? I just think it's a little things every single day consistency.

Jeff Winters:

Yeah, I think a big mistake. I completely agree. I think the biggest mistake I see here other than people who a don't do it is the it's a charismatic speak. And then the other mistake pitfall is like, what motivates you, does not motivate you. Yes. It's so easy to think that how you are motivated. Well, I'm a scoreboard person. So I'm going to put stuff on the scoreboard and everybody loves it. And it's sounds stupid. But it's so easy to get into the rhythm of like, oh, well, everyone's motivated by one thing, because I'm motivated by one things. It's very hard to have empathy, for motivation, because you've been motivated at different peaks and troughs throughout your whole life. It's like something you've felt so deeply. That's hard to be like, Oh, that person is motivated by like, a couple hours off a week. It's just it's hard to do that not think that everyone's motivated the way you are.

Unknown:

I think that that's one of a common mistake. I know we keep going back to sales, but the common mistake is putting the top a sales rep in a sales manager position, right? But nine times out of 10. That person's just pissed off. Like, what? Why the hell don't they do these things? Like I don't get it, it was so easy for me. Yeah. And then they're back to being a salesperson, which is great because they go back to putting up big numbers and making a lot of money. And that's, that's needed as well. It's like the person that understands people and is willing to look under the hood and ask questions and be there. And that's not necessarily the best individual contributor, whether it's sales or another department, it's really more of the person that can show up for others.

Eric Watkins:

Yeah, there's this inverse graph that shows as you increase your role in an organization, your technical skills become lower, like less and less important, and your relational skills, and a lot of people fail to make that jump.

Jeff Winters:

I think that's a really good point, Eric. And I think it also sort of hopscotches into a little verb hopscotches into a, a tangential point, which is, as an organization, you can demotivate your employees so easily with your organizational structure and how they grow through the company. If you're an organization, and you're hiring people who want mastery who want to move up, and you don't have pathways, and we've talked about this on past episodes, but you can't talk about this enough, if you don't have pathways for people to go up, if you don't have managerial positions and offshoots and dotted lines, immediately, your demotivating people as an organization, they haven't even they haven't even started yet. Just by how you've designed the company, you've got to think about that. Like when you're thinking about motivation, and particularly for individuals, and they come in and they go, I got Scott Scalia, he's so motivated. He's an amazing account manager, they go well, those all report to the CEO, and they've all been here for 35 years, and nobody moves. So Scott's great account manager, he can just be an account manager.

Eric Watkins:

I feel like you have to as I'm hearing you talk about it. The mastery, autonomy and purpose. I feel like you really need at least two of the three. Because you could you could say, oh, be as be as autonomous as you want. And I'm sitting in a room all day, but what I'm doing has no purpose. Right? I don't know. I think there's, you need to look at a couple of those. It's not just I think it's not just one person is motivated by autonomy and one person's mastery.

Jeff Winters:

No, it's a little combo of options. And there's probably other things outside of those three things. It's just easy sometimes to bucket stuff. But yeah, if you think about all the people that think about yourself, or think about all the people you've led or for those listeners out there, like you can start to really, I mean, what I do with my team, what I encourage you to do out there not to give people homework is to make a list everybody you manage, and figure out truly like if you want to use autonomy, mastery purpose, great, like in what proportion? Do you have people that are like, as soon as I tell them what to do? They're upset, okay, they're probably motivated by a every time I talk about what the company does for the, for the community, and how much we donate and charity, how they get lit up. Okay. Well, that's that's purpose. You know, I think we saw that the other day, I mean, Scott, hosted this all hands meeting, and talked a lot about all the charitable work we're doing and people lit up. It's a big deal. It's cool stuff.

Unknown:

So what, what are we wanting people to take away? Sounds to me like, at the highest level, just know your people dig in, get, get to know them. Ask ask the questions is a good start. Do it with, you know, with Jeff Jeff's method are, are just simply try to get to the bottom of what motivates them or what they're driving for. And if you understand that, across your entire organization, you're probably taking a bigger step forward than you are today.

Eric Watkins:

Don't forget the Corvette. Don't forget the quarterback, and how deep can you go? How cool or intricate? Can you make it? Yeah, how often? How frequently? Can you bring it up? I mean, that other

Unknown:

seats, you know, visualize convertibles?

Jeff Winters:

I think it's, it's figuring out what motivates people, whatever method you use, connecting them to that motivation with frequency, and being aware of when it wanes, and knowing what to do with that.

Eric Watkins:

Sure. That's a really good point that we didn't talk much about at all. But the This isn't some constant like arrow pointing up as soon as you get it, right. It's figured out this is a always peaks and valleys every day. And it's actually the managers who are best are the ones that pulling people out of valleys. Anybody can motivate somebody when they're at their peak.

Unknown:

But take it from 10th on the list. To number one, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, what I'm saying after you, after you have the right person and after they understand the job. Now you're into the leadership part. put this all the way at the top of the list.

Eric Watkins:

Agree. It's a good episode hopefully have some good takeaways from everybody. Thank you all for listening. All as always like and subscribe. Always be growing. Always be Always bigger. Thanks for listening to the Grow show. Leave us a review and let us know how we're doing or if there's a topic you'd like us to cover in the future.

Unknown:

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