As a leader, how do you get your team to Play a Bigger Game?
One of the key roles of a leader is the ability to inspire and motivate others. This is the path to getting them to Play a Bigger Game.
However motivation and inspiration are vastly different things. Motivation is lighting a fire in someone so they take responsibility for their own motivation. so they find their own triggers to step up and Play a Bigger Game.
The struggle for leaders is that what motivates one person to Play a Bigger Game will have no impact on another.
The struggle for leaders is that what motivates one person to Play a Bigger Game will have no impact on another. So to motivate a group of people you need to understand what motivates them personally. Listen to what they get excited about, to what fires them up, to what stirs their emotions, what gets them in the game!
Before trying to understand the motivations of your team though, you should deeply understand your own personal motivation and be able to articulate those motivations to others. When your team understand what motivates you, they are more likely to play the game, especially if there is some alignment with their own motivations.
When your team understand what motivates you, they are more likely to play the game, especially if there is some alignment with their own motivations.
Inspiration on the other hand is feeding the fire. Its providing your team with examples of people playing a bigger game. Through these examples they can see how they might play a bigger game.
You can share quotes, books, videos, stories podcasts, blogs and all sorts of information with your team to help them feed the desire to play bigger.
However, you also need to understand that what inspires one person may not be of any interest to someone else. One person might love Gary Vaynerchuk and his motivational style, someone else might prefer Tony Robbins. One person will enjoy books another might prefer podcasts. Its your job as a leader to understand what suits whom and then apply that knowledge for the best results.
The best form of inspiration a leader can use is to be a personal example to those they lead.
The best form of inspiration a leader can use is to be a personal example to those they lead. It is not what you say though that most inspires people. Its what you do! People will copy your behaviours. What you do is far more important than what you say to do. If you say “customers are the most important part of our business” and then you treat them like dirt, your team will also treat them like dirt. On the other hand if you treat customers like royalty every single time, your team will be inspired to do the same. You have to walk your talk!
Finally, a little encouragement goes a long way. If you want your team to play a bigger game, give them a genuine thank you, tell them what a great job they have done (but only if you mean it), encourage them to have a crack, give it a go and make it safe for them to do it. Steer them in the right direction, give them feedback, advise and help them find their bigger game. The people you help get ahead will be fans of you forever!
