If motivating others were easy, everyone would do it. You can’t just read about a few techniques and implement them, expecting major changes to happen. It takes practice like anything else worthwhile.
Motivating others requires them to be willing. If someone is hard-set in not doing something, there will be little you can do to change that. You may be able to force someone, i.e., if you are a manager, etc. However, that is not the same as motivating them. If you were to leave the business or ministry, they would revert to their former behavior.
Realize that trying a technique only when the mood strikes is not going to produce results either. You must be dedicated to trying something and then continue doing so until you see results. You must determine when something isn’t working after several tries and seek an alternative approach. Unfortunately, there is no magic number as to when to make that determination.
Motivating others is about aligning their goals with yours. This alignment could require some compromises on both sides in the process. For instance, if you are trying to get one of your team members to do something, you need to hear them if they legitimately say they have too much on their plate. You can offer to have someone else on your team take up some of the extra work, or you could even do it yourself under certain circumstances. Overloading someone helps no one.
You can’t approach motivation as entirely academic either. In other words, if you read about something and try to implement it, you think it should work. If it doesn’t, you may blame the people you are trying to motivate and believe there is something wrong with them. However, some people may be going through stressful situations and so are not able to focus on their jobs or even their personal life. You need to have compassion for them and factor in human emotions that may be at play. Your people are not robots. Don’t treat them as such.
If motivating others isn’t working, you should strive to determine why. It may be something you are doing that needs change. For instance, are you practicing what you preach? If you are telling everyone that they must work on weekends but are unwilling to work those weekends yourself, then you will experience resistance from your team. You will have much better results if you are on the front lines with your troops. Be a person of integrity and authenticity.
Motivation is more about communication than barking orders. It is about getting people to recognize the importance of the work or task at hand. You must allow them to take the initiative and own both the problem and their solution to it. Treat your people like the creative, thinking beings that they are rather than automatons that simply run programs.
