Challenges…How to use a Challenge to Get Results

Have you ever had someone tell you, you could not do something? Did it make you give up or fight harder. Chances are, as someone reading this “Success Series Blog Tips“, you are in the top third of humanity who will rise to a challenge. The middle third will usually give up. Most, but not all of the bottom third tend to give up. Sometimes, it may be the only time they really rise up. The need to prove someone wrong ends up being a strong motivator for them.

Which ever group you fall into, if challenge works for you, it may also work for those around you. Unless you know them incredibly well, you may need to experiment a bit. Once you know who responds well to a challenge, use it to get the most from them.

With a child who is coasting in school and you disagree with their hair style, you might try, `I will bet you a new iPod Nano, if you get your grades up to an `A` level and keep them there until the end of the year. If you cannot, I get to say how you wear your hair for the rest of the school year. If you can, you get the iPod and I will talk to mum about your hair, as long as it meets school requirements.`

If you lose the bet, you have an `A` student with weird hair. If you win, you have a clean cut `B` student. Seems like you win either way.

With workers on your team, try, `The 2nd shift keeps outperforming us by 10%. If we can beat them in the next quarter, not only will I give each of you an extra day off for your annual leave, I will punch in and work your shift for you so you take that day off. If we miss the target and 2nd shift still outperforms us, we work weekends the following month until we equal their production.` Big incentive to win. Bigger incentive not to lose.

With your spouse you might try, `I am really tired of picking up your socks off the floor. If you can remember to pick them up every day for a month, I’ll give you a full body massage for an hour. If you miss just ONE day, you owe me TWO body massages. Deal?` This may work out so both win… win or lose.

These specific examples may not work with individuals or teams in your life. The idea is to think of challenges the people you need to influence will respond to and make the outcomes so desirable and the consequences of failure so horrible, you are guaranteed to get the result you desire.

To have this kind of simple yet effective thinking in your organisation, just contact me.  In addition to training, we speak at conventions, conduct strategic planning retreats, sales meetings and facilitate sessions to optimise team growth and productivity.

How to Get Support for Your Ideas

Here are 3 suggestions on how to get support for your ideas:

Input: Did you ever notice how parents often blindly support their children? Giving birth and devoting countless hours to raising a child will do that to you. If you want people to support your ideas, you must allow them to go through child birth and rearing their young.

The birthing process of ideas involves input, planning and nurturing. The rearing process is pruning and watching pet projects take root and grow. The sooner and the longer you get people involved in the planning  and implementation of a project, the more they will `mother’  it, buying into its potential.

Immediate Benefits: `Achieve our team targets and the boss will get a fat increment (raise) and a promotion.` Does that sound like a motivator? For the boss maybe but not the team which needs to see immediate benefit for their efforts.

Compare that with, `Achieve our team targets and ALL of us will get a trip to X and a check for $Y PLUS individual efforts will be recognized by an additional $Z bonus.`The individuals have a reason to excel and to see that the team succeeds.

A mentor of mine in the 1970`s Clem Peterson, owned Century Manufacturing. He told me many times his sales people made a lot more money than he did. He was HAPPY to support his sales people this way; one reason he was a multi-millionaire.

Asking: Being asked instead of being told is the third way to get support. Many top performers are more than willing to help their organisation grow knowing in the long run it will help them too. Unfortunately bosses are busy and many times do not take the time to ASK them to perform but TELL them.  

Which sounds better to you?
1. Our goal is to reduce overhead by 21% this quarter while increasing market share by 8.5%. Get busy and do it please.

2. It is a tough goal to reach, but if we can reduce overhead by 21% and increase market share by 8.5%, that would be the catalyst for us to become industry leader in 2-years time. Do you think we can accomplish these targets and are you willing to work to achieve it?

Simply asking people instead of telling them gives you a lot more support and gives them the motivation as they feel treated with respect.

Getting worker input, showing them immediate benefits and asking for their participation are three very effective strategies to get support on projects and for achieving goals.

Smile Makers : 10 Odd thoughts to ponder.

1. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a workstation.

2. If quitters never win, and winners never quit, who came up with, `Quit while you are ahead`?

3. What hair colour do they put on the driver`s licenses of bald men?

4. How much deeper would oceans be if sponges did not live there?

5. Clones are people TWO.

6. Go ahead and take risks… just be sure that everything will turn out okay.

7. No one ever says, `It is only a game,` when their team is winning.

8. As I said before, I never repeat myself!

9. Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it did not zigzag?

10. Nostalgia is not what it used to be.

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