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Good leaders find the sweet spot
Leaders are motivators. Have you ever been in a situation where someone was trying to get you excited about something, and the incentive they were using was something you simply didn’t care about? If we want to be about winning hearts and minds, we need to be sure we know their “hot button”.
When I think of this ability, my thoughts go immediately to an incident I experienced in 5th grade. I received a test paper back, and I was pleased to see there were no red marks. I got my first “100” for the year! That meant it was time to celebrate. I got to put a gold star next to my name on the wall chart. After that, it was customary to go to Mrs. Pearson’s desk and ring the bell in front of Serapina the Cat. (Seraphina was a book Mrs. Pearson had read us)
As I was basking in my glory, the person seated next to me (Chuck) wanted to look at my paper. He had gotten one question wrong, and he wanted to know the right answer. When he looked at my answer, he exclaimed, “Hey, you had the same answer I did, and Mrs. Pearson marked yours right.” Smugly, I replied, “Too bad”. Chuck blew the whistle on me, and soon Mrs. Pearson had my paper in hand. She affirmed that my answer was wrong, and she was going to subtract the appropriate points. Then she said, “We have to take your star off the chart, but I’ll still let you ring Seraphina’s bell. Big deal! I was not excited. If Mrs. Pearson was trying to appease me, she actually made things worse.
A few decades later I found myself as a training facilitator of a 12-week leadership course. Those who had perfect attendance recieved a gold medallion sticker on their certificate when they graduated. At the beginning of each training series, I got everybody excited about that gold sticker. The result: I had the highest percentage graduation of any instructor on the team. I remembered my experience in Mrs. Pearson’s class. We love those stickers and stars, and they get us “fired up”.