IN THE KNOW —
Motivation: get your team (and customers) on board How do you motivate others? That’s a question I’ve often been asked by the best building companies I’ve worked with in New Zealand, Australia, and North America. To motivate others, the key is to motivate yourself, first of all. It isn’t until you’re clear on your own purpose that you can work on motivating others.
WHAT YOU LOVE
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WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS
How do you motivate yourself? In order to motivate yourself, you need to define your true purpose. That’ll discover the essence of what gets you out of bed every day – with enthusiasm.
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Seven questions to find your true purpose: 1. What really, deeply motivates you? 2. What do you want to be remembered by? 3. What do you want people saying about you at your retirement party? 4. What does the best version of yourself look like? 5. What legacy do you want to leave? 6. What do you want to aspire to be? 7. What were you born to do?
WHAT YOU’RE GOOD AT
IKIAGI
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WHAT YOU CAN BE PAID FOR
Motivating your customers
When I’ve worked through these questions with builders, the answers are often around craftsmanship, family traditions, and the sheer passion of creating something that’s beautiful and enduring. These are exactly the right kinds of answers, and provide the purpose to create motivation. By identifying and writing these things down, it gives them substance and power. This is a good exercise for everyone in your team to do, as it cements their purpose and passion.
Translating personal motivators into team motivation When you’ve answered the seven questions above for yourself, you can extend this to your business. The Japanese ‘ikigai’ model is good for this. Involve your team in this: working on this together for your business is a powerful way to build unity, team purpose, and motivation. Once you’ve defined the ikigai for your organisation, communicate this internally via a purpose statement.
By now, you should have a powerful purpose your entire team can get behind. The next step is to communicate this to your customers. Imagine the difference in your brand story when you can really verbalise your driving force. Instead of being just another builder, you’re continuing the legacy of craftsmanship. Or providing an amazing lifestyle for families. Or creating legacies by constructing buildings that will be there for future generations. This will also differentiate your business from your competitors.
How to communicate your purpose Your company’s purpose and values should shine through in everything you do. Incorporate it into your sales scripts. Tell your story on your website and in your marketing materials. Make sure the photography brings to life these values. The more you embrace your purpose, the more enthusiastic and motivated your customers will be.
Summary The key to motivation is to motivate yourself first and foremost. Then you can involve your team, to motivate them. And the work you do with your team, and communicating your shared purpose and values will then motivate your customers. Need help? Contact us for a free consultation to see how we can help you define your purpose and values – and get your team and customers motivated. https://excc.co.nz/executive-coach-booking/
Examples of purpose statements: • All Blacks: We believe in becoming the greatest team of all time. • Apple Computer: We believe in challenging the status quo and we believe in thinking differently (which we do with beautifully designed devices).
Jason Dinan, Executive Coaching & Consulting. With 27 years of leadership experience working in 23 countries, Jason specialises in growing organisations through developing high-performance sales leaders, sales teams and sales strategy. He was the project head for a leading homebuilder in New Zealand, Australia and North America, helping grow annual sales from 47% to 311%.
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