How to motivate?

"You can get alot done with a smile, but more done with a gun and smile" - Mafia Boss

Motivation can be a very simple exercise, or a very complicated one. It depends on many variables that are part of any motivational process.

Answer this question... which one is easier?

Taking a horse to water... OR Herding cats

The point of the above is to illustrate that the complexity is dependant on the motivatee, rather than the motivator.

A fundimental rule of this business, is that no one is going to do what they fundamentally do not want to do. Period.

Somewhere there is a motivating reason that will lead them to doing something. The closer you can align their doing, and your outcome, the more successful the process will be.



Horses
Almost anyone can guide a horse.
The horse will go to the water, as its preferences are not that overpowering, but making it drink, is not an easy thing.

The best option would be to hang a carrot in front of its nose, and take it for a brisk walk for around half and hour, until nicely worked-up.

Now take the horse to the water.
Chances are that it will drink more readily than before. Horses, being the way they are, are easily influenced, and their will has been guided by mankind for centuraries. The motivational requirements are fairly simple, compared to that of a cat.

Cats
For those of you that have seen the EDS advert, with cowboys, herding hundreds of cats towards their destination, you may appreciate the humour in this analogy.

Cats have very different preferences to horses. They will not be lead to water, let alone made to drink. You are likely to come away scarred from your troubles.

They are almost fickle in their preferences, and respond best to food, psst noises and the opening of a cat food tin. Outside of that, they respond when, and if they choose to. The better your relationship, the better the response. However, there are always ways of motivating a cat, but not always what you want it to do.


Conclusion
The above respresentations serve to indicate that there are different kinds of motivational needs, that go along with the type of result you want to create, and the nature of the participants

With humans, there are both cat and horse types, along with a few more.

How to motivate successfully with an incentive, depends on a few things.

• End result required
• Participants
• Process
• Time period of process
• Links to articles on psychology of motivation

NEXT » Who to Motivate?