🦦 C’mon, You’re Lazy!
Yes, I risk offending you. Not the first time, though! Sometimes, I call myself a “tough love coach” and here we go: You are lazy! And if that helps you: I am too. So is everybody. Even the hardest worker is lazy.
What do I mean by this?
As you have heard a million times (at least from me), our brain is hardwired to keep us alive. Not to create great work or to be happy.
Not at all, we all prioritize the actions that most likely keep us alive. This instinct is controlled by our subconscious, by our lizard brain. We are not even aware of it.
Here comes my point: Science proves that all conscious thoughts and actual changes in our beliefs and routines require tremendous physical energy in our brain. That’s why a lazy brain is, in this sense, good for survival: it saves energy for more important stuff.
What I observe more often than not in organizations of all sizes is that people are remarkably tired when it comes to changing their beliefs about success and what they could do better in life. In fact, their brain protects them from changing!
Isn’t this amazing? You have a team of people with all kinds of great skills who are often well paid, who are subconsciously unwilling to move from good to great, to step out of their comfort zones, to try something new, to make a greater contribution.
Now that we know WHY we all are lazy to change, the question is, how can you ignite the desire in your people to step up and raise the bar? Here are three essential steps:
- Be inspired yourself. I frequently talk to leaders and CEOs who express their desire to raise the motivation of their team but radiate so little energy that I myself almost fall asleep. I often fail to see sparkling eyes and a strong desire to improve and change. Instead, too many leaders try to compensate their energy deficits by asking for more motivation from their staff members. Sorry, doesn’t work this way! You as a leader go first, always!
- Paint the picture. Give your people something to dream about. You can ignore it, but it stays true: people love stories with emotions and great ambitions. Why, then, do over 90 percent of organizations have no great story to tell? Nobody will be motivated about something boring.
- Change change change. Yes, change something every day. Change the seating arrangement in meetings, change locations, surprise people with new communication channels (yes: video is great for this), bring customers in, or whatever. We all can train to be comfortable in the uncomfortable. See yourself as a coach for change.
These are only 3 ideas from my arsenal of specific topics on which I work with my mentoring clients to raise their success levels.