The Mystery of Personal Motivation and its Influence on Success

Wonder why some people seem fueled by passion while others struggle to find motivation? Discover how motivation is a deeply personal concept, one that's intimately tied to our life stories and individual circumstances. In this engaging conversation, we unravel the tale of a young sales leader who grapples with motivating a seasoned sales veteran, only to uncover a surprising, personal reason behind his motivation. We challenge the common notion that money alone motivates all salespeople, offering a fresh perspective on the many complexities of individual motivation.

In the latter part of our conversation, we explore the guiding principle at Progress Coaching: understanding what truly motivates someone before attempting to motivate them. We illustrate this with a hypothetical scenario involving a future leader, showing how understanding her motivation to become a better leader can address interpersonal conflicts and facilitate positive change. This episode invites you to think critically about what truly motivates you and those around you, potentially unveiling surprising breakthroughs and renewed energy. Tune in, and let's delve into the many nuances of motivation together.

Welcome to Coaching Conversations

We have created a NEW and Innovative line of books called Workplace Coaching Books. These books use QR codes with embedded audio and video lessons speaking directly to the reader. Each book comes with assessments and journal based coaching pages where they document what they've learned and what they've applied. In addition each book comes with the self analysis link that prompts them to share what they've learned and what they've put into action leading to greater learner application a

Progress Coaching 360 is a dynamic leadership development system that equips managers and teams with powerful coaching skills through a blend of training, real-time practice, peer learning, and feedback. It combines expert-led instruction, a train-the-trainer model, group coaching certification, and monthly coaching pods where leaders practice, share wins, and tackle challenges. With built-in accountability and hands-on application using Coaching Cards and best practice sessions, Progress Coaching 360 turns coaching from theory into action—building a sustainable culture of growth, feedback, and performance.

Progress Coaching 360 teaches leaders how to coach and employees how to develop coachability skills. This unique combination helps build great workplace cultures.

Get More Info Here: https://form.jotform.com/251187914739165

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

You know, motivation is one of those topics that has, when you think about it, really moving criteria. You know, we have really two high level imperatives when it comes to motivation. We have to motivate the person to do the job and then we also have to motivate the person doing the job. They're two different things. Let me give you an example. You know, years ago I was coaching a young sales leader and he was struggling with a really top performer, somebody that had been a really good performing sales. So here's this young person who really wanted to become you know for lack of better description you know a great sales leader. And he said to me you know, this person's not performing. They have a long history with the company. I'm younger, I'm in kind of this weird spot. You know, how do I coach them? And I said, well, what motivates them? He said, well, you know money. And he said it with a tone of assumption. And I said so, do you know it's money or you assume it's money? And he said, well, I think every sales rep's motivated by money. And I said, well, maybe you know, maybe not. I don't agree with that statement, by the way.

Speaker 1: 1:48

And so I sat down with the gentleman who was more in my demographic in the 50s. The sales eater was in his early 30s, so there's kind of a weird awkward dynamic there. So I ended up sitting down with the guy and we just started talking and I said, and he said, yeah, I've got, I've got three boys. I said, well, I've got two kids. And he said yeah, he said boy, you know, I think about college today. I want to give them what I never had. And I said oh, what's that? He said the ability to go to college without debt. My parents weren't able to help me and I said, yeah, me either. So we're totally connecting on a personal relationship, certainly demographic level. And I said, well, can I give you some good news and bad news? And he said what I go? I just got done paying off my kid's college. I said they have no debt, so I've accomplished what you're seeking to do.

Speaker 1: 2:34

And I said it's getting worse. And he starts laughing and I said so why didn't you go into sales management? And he said you know, just wasn't for me. I didn't want to be responsible for other people, I've always been responsible for myself. And I said why are your boy? You bring up your boys a lot. I said you know, when it comes to your boys, he said well, sadly, I lost my wife a few years ago and she had passed away. So that's my main thing when I'm not working, I'm with my boys.

Speaker 1: 3:02

And I sat there and I said well, let's talk about business for a second. You're having kind of a challenging year. He goes yeah, it's kind of a tough year. And he said you know, I'm willing to do whatever it takes. So this is an ego, this is an attitude, this isn't.

Speaker 1: 3:14

And I said when you get stressed and you're not hitting your numbers, you're not hitting on all cylinders, what do you do? He said what do you mean? I said what do you do? He said I don't know how to answer that question. I said so what do you do to re-engineer yourself, re-motivate yourself, re-inspire yourself? You know, reframe, for lack of better description what to do differently. I said you know that's a great question. I don't give that a lot of thought. I do get stressed when I'm not hitting my numbers.

Speaker 1: 3:42

I said I want you to try something. I said if you were to go watch your kids play literally, because they were playing literally at the time If you were to go watch your kids play little league versus make a sales call, which one would you do? He goes go to the Little League game, it's not even a question. His motivation wasn't money. His motivation were his three boys. Yes, was there a money element? But that motivation became a very deeper understanding to this gentleman. And I said I noticed in your cubicle was a tech company. You know, I noticed in your cubicle you don't have any pictures of your kids. Why he goes. Never thought about doing anything or bringing pictures of my kids. I said interesting. I said will you try something kind of weird? You know we're too old guys and you know, use the demographic to my advantage. And I said when you get stressed, I want you to look at your boys and I want you to just schedule time. It's weird to ask you to do this and then, just every once in a while, just schedule time to think about your kids. And then I want you to think about the college and I want you to put the word 529 up on your little whiteboard here. 529 indicates the college fund. And all of a sudden the young manager called me about 90 days later. He goes. What did you say to him? I said what? He goes, he's like a different person. I said no, he just had to rediscover his motivation.

Speaker 1: 5:04

Motivation isn't just motivating someone to do the job. Our rule here at Progress Coaching is never, ever, ever, ever motivate. Until you first understand what motivates someone, then you can bring it into the conversation. So let's say we have two people who aren't working well together and one person wants to become a future leader and I say well, lisa, I know that you're challenged by working with John. What if you were to win John over? What if you were to have a better relationship with John? How might that serve you well as a future leader if he became one of your employees, potentially? What you do is you bring in the understanding of the motivator into conversations, which magically quite frankly, really magically creates something that most people avoid the emotional reaction to change now can become positive, not negative.