One of the earliest mistakes I made as a sales leader was to focus my attention on motivating my team. Every Monday morning, we would have a quick sales meeting and I would seek to implement a new ‘sales motivation’ technique I had just learned from the latest sales and leadership book. I found that it worked in the short term and that sales results were increasing and moving in the right direction. However it didn’t take long before I grew more and more tired, having to come up with more innovative ways to motivate my sales team and I also started to notice that the ‘rub off’ effect of my ‘Monday Motivation’ was having less of an impact, with sales and morale appearing to plateau.

In desperation, I approached my mentor and pleaded for his guidance – hoping he would be able to share with me the secret ingredient that would enable me to reinvigorate my Motivational Monday and return sales to an increasing trajectory. Instead, he delivered a message that at the time I thought to be anything by motivational. He said ‘if you are focussing on motivating your team – STOP!!’ He went on to explain that by me seeking to motivate my team, I was teaching them to develop a level of dependency and I was developing co-dependency and this was anything but sustainable. He said my focus must be on developing a level of independence and seeking to inspire rather than motivate. He explained that true motivation comes from within and any external motivation is often short lived and not sustainable. However, if I created an environment where the team were inspired to achieve, they would motivate themselves and in the process, build the muscle around independence, and increase the chances of developing sustainable success. Continue Reading