Motivating Others

Excellence is often contagious, and your commitment to excellence can motivate others in your life. This is especially true if you are a leader or coach, either in your personal or business life. If you strive for excellence, so will your team members or employees. Conversely, if you demand excellence from others but don’t strive for it yourself, you will see little benefit.

Nothing creates resentment like an attitude of, “Do what I say, not what I do.”
Trying to force someone to bring out their personal excellence is rarely effective. Instead, let your own actions be the inspiration. As people notice your commitment to excellence in whatever you do, they’ll also feel inspired to give their best effort.

Here are some additional ways to inspire excellence in others:

* Use positive reinforcement. When your team member (or employee, family member, child, etc.) shows a commitment to excellence, comment on it! Say something like, “I admire the way you pay such close attention to detail.” Or, “You’re really good at organization; it makes my life a lot easier.” Just mentioning your appreciation is enough to make them want to continue doing a good job.

* Create an atmosphere of cooperation. Let your team members know that you consider yourself part of the team, not just the head of it. Stress the value that each person brings to the group objective and the importance of working together. Let them know that you’re available to help, or simply serve as a sounding board for ideas and problems.

* Encourage them to do better. Just like you occasionally believe you are only capable of so much, other people can also get caught up in self-limitations. You can make it your mission to help them see their greater potential, and encourage them to try a bit harder in everything they do.

This can be tricky to do without sounding like you’re criticizing, but by focusing more on the positive and expressing your belief in them, you’ll be able to get the point across.
When it comes right down to it, you have little control over what others do. If a person does not want to be motivated or bring out their personal excellence, no amount of coaxing from you will change that. In that case, you can only do what I described earlier – let your own actions serve as an example. As much as you’d like to see excellence in others, your real job is to see – and foster – it in yourself.