Change your questions, Change your life is a great read by Marilee Adams. The book is all about changing the internal questions we ask ourselves from ones that rush to judge to ones that lead to learning. Read this one. Every BTL client is asked to swallow this baby whole. They just are. However, that’s not the point of this rant.
I would like to challenge every leader to try changing a very particular question. STOP asking yourself this question: How can I motivate people? Why? Because you cannot motivate another human for long. FEAR only works for a season and the money that motivates today will not tomorrow. Start asking yourself and your team this question: How can I create the conditions within which people will motivate themselves?
Changing the heart behind these questions will change the lives of the leader and the lives of the team they lead. It just will. The reason very few leaders have changed this question in their heart is both simple and very hard. Changing this question feels like it’s out of control. Tragically, countless leaders are married to the idea of having control. The vast majority of CEO’s are control freaks. Not good.
These control freaks “power over” you simply because they have a position you FEAR. They are in a “one up” position. You are not. If you work for such a leader you typically respond in one of two ways to their attempt at control. Neither are productive. Do not miss this. This is HUGE.
You either comply or you defy.
A compliant associate does just enough to not get fired, while Mr. Defiant is going underground trying to torch the place. Both are responding to a control freak. Neither are responding productively and sadly the defiant one might also be responding creatively, but far from the kind of “outside the box” thinking you are hoping for.
BTL leaders understand power is a word reserved for describing boats of a certain type. They lose the control they never really had and create an environment that allows team members to become both autonomous and exceptional. This is the fertile ground from which creative ideas turn into game changing innovation. Very cool.
Committed associates are the ones you want and they come with a “no control” label. Stop asking the wrong questions and stop being married to something you can never attain. Just this side of chaos is where high performance thrives. Bury the fear, change your questions, and embrace some ambiguity. It won’t kill you but that defiant guy down in purchasing just might. Remember, Control freaks may make a buck for awhile but over the course of time they and the team they run, simply run out of gas. They just do.
Are you a control freak?
Ask your team and then tell me more…
BUILT TO LEAD 
Creative!