John Baldoni and Eric Harvey
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I
Proven and Practical “How To’s” to Energize
EVERYONE in Your Organization
TALK
WALK
180
He just doesn’t care.
I do the bare minimum just to get by.
motivation
She has a bad attitude.
He is capable of so much more. Somebody needs
to light a fire under him.
When individuals and teams are motivated, extraordinary
things happen. The group seems to be on fire. Employees don’t
simply perform their jobs, they attack them – eager to make contri-
butions. Walk through a highly motivated workplace, and you can
feel the buzz of excitement. People are engaged. Smiles and other
signs of enjoyment are everywhere. Also found everywhere are
diligence and attention to getting things done.
And the results are obvious ...
The team is so unmotivated.
Sound familiar? These are symptoms. And they
indicate an all too common underutilization of one
of the most important elements affecting business
today. It’s not something you can touch or hold.
But it is something you can feel ... and even meas-
ure. Some people call it “chemistry” – to others,
it’s a “can do” attitude. Most everyone considers
it a requirement for success. It’s called
.
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... customers are delighted; employees
are energized; innovations – large and small – happen with regular-
ity; revenues are healthy; and the organization continually grows
and develops.
Consider this: Your success – your very job itself –
depends upon motivation! It’s a critical component of
leadership ... something deserving of your constant attention and
focus.
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do
what you want done, because he wants to do it.
– Dwight Eisenhower
Fact is, if you can’t open the door of possibility for others, or light
a fire under someone to create a sense of importance, the results
you achieve will be mediocre at best. So, too, will be your repu-
tation as a leader. Likewise, if you can’t open the door of oppor-
tunity for yourself, or turn up the heat on your own performance,
you’ll be forever stuck in the career limbo of that same mediocrity.
You’ll just sit there – watching others who’ve “broken the code”
take the prizes.
Well, the academic (and classically accurate) answer is you can’t!
Motivation is internal – it comes from deep within each of us. The
only person who can truly motivate a person is the person. To be
sure, you can order someone to do something – pick up the prover-
bial stick and most people will comply. But that approach rarely
brings out a person’s best effort or encourages sustained good per-
formance. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that “my
way or the highway” supervision is the “antimatter” of enthusiasm
and commitment.
So how can you motivate people?
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3
Okay. So if motivation comes from one’s self, why do we spend so
much time talking about it? Why do we devote so much effort and
attention to it? For that matter, why should you even bother read-
ing this book? It’s simple:
When this occurs, we say the leader “motivates” because he or she
has helped to shape an environment where individuals are ener-
gized to achieve.
Perhaps the most obvious example of this is in sports. The coach
of a winning team never executes a play – the players do! Good
coaches do, however, create conditions for players to perform at
their best, to contribute, to be part of something special, and to
have the best chance at winning. And the same is true for good
leaders in business organizations: They create conditions for suc-
cess and achievement.
Here’s one you can take to the bank:
With few exceptions, all people want to achieve, contribute, and
be a part of something special. Our inherent drive challenges us to
achieve.
And that’s what this handbook is all about.
Although they can’t control
motivation, leaders certainly can affect it;
they can create conditions where people
want to be motivated and, therefore,
motivate themselves.
The task of the leader, then, is to harness and
nurture that drive; to feed it and encourage it to
grow – while minimizing circumstances and be-
haviors that are demotivating in nature.
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4
180 Ways To Walk The Motivation Talk will provide you with
insights, strategies, and things you can do right away to energize
others ... and yourself. This book is divided into three sections:
– how you can get the people in
your specific work group fired up and ready to achieve;
– how you can help build
and support a winning culture where everyone, from the
CEO to the entry-level employee, can achieve;
– how you can put yourself in a
position to reach new levels of performance and
commitment.
Read this book from cover to cover with a highlighter in hand.
Mark any key words or phrases that you find particularly relevant
and meaningful. Then select two or three strategies from each sec-
tion that you’ll begin adopting immediately. And each time you
complete or master an action item, replace it with a new one to
work on. That way, you’ll always be working to bring out the best
in others – and yourself. Before long, you’ll develop a reputation
for being a master motivator, and the results you’ll achieve will
speak for themselves.
Motivating Your Team
Motivating Your Organization
Motivating Yourself
Get reading ... get motivating!
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5
People often say that motivation doesn’t
last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s
why we recommend it daily!
– Zig Ziglar
