If you don’t get to know the people you are trying to motivate, you won’t motivate them, no matter what you do. It is really that simple. You can’t apply motivational techniques as if they are a recipe for cooking stew. Besides, even when you cook stew, you often deviate from the recipe.

You must get to the heart of who each person is
when motivating them.

Every person is different, and you need to consider those differences. Some people are driven using high energy techniques whereas others like a laid-back and subtle approach. 

To learn about others, you need to learn more about what they are like on a personal level. If you have been avoiding participation in after-work activities, you may want to start joining in. This doesn’t mean you need to do it every time. Your employees or ministry volunteers need to have time away from the boss/leader on occasion. However, you do want to get to know those you lead in a more relaxed and social environment.

It’s not likely that your team members will open up completely when you are attending a social event with them. They will still have their guards up. You are the leader after all, and this makes trying to learn about them more challenging. However, as you continue to authentically interact with them outside of the work setting, they will naturally open up more.

If you negatively use information about your employees, it will backfire on you. If your team members confide in you and then you turn it against them, you can forget about getting them to open up to you or building any sort of trust relationship. News will quickly spread that you are not a person of integrity. Therefore, you need to be careful what you do with this information.

Motivating others is about formulating a plan that aligns their needs with their higher calling. When you learn what others are about, you can customize each plan accordingly. Discussing these plans with your team is okay. In fact, it’s great to get their feedback as part of the process. It affects all of them so they should know.

You can change plans when you find out about new information or circumstances. Be willing to make those changes, especially if they are in the best interests of your team. Listen to what they say and offer to adjust the plans if it makes sense to do so. They will appreciate you, and you’ll find motivating them will take care of itself.