Do you ever wonder why you reach some goals easily and struggle with others? In her latest book, Master Your Motivation, Susan Fowler explains the three scientific truths behind motivation that will help you achieve your goals. Distilling many years of research, Fowler fashioned a condensed description of three basic needs we must create in our lives in order to master our motivation: choice, connection, and competence.

Choice

Creating the basic need of choice can be as simple as recognizing you have a choice and you are in control of your actions. Fowler suggests you ask yourself these questions to help create choice:

• What choices have I made? Consider which of your past choices made you happy and which did not.
• What different choices could I make going forward? Consider how you feel about those choices—or if you feel you don’t have any choices.
• Do I feel goals or situations have been imposed on me? Consider where pressures may be originating and whether your behaviors could have a positive impact on outcomes.

Connection

The need for connection is tied closely to values and is created through authentic relationships and a sense of belonging. When it comes to a goal or situation, ask yourself these questions to create connection:

• Can this give me a greater sense of belonging or a genuine connection to others involved? Consider why this goal or situation might give you a greater sense of belonging and whether it potentially could lead to a bigger purpose.
• Is this meaningful to me? Consider how the goal or situation aligns to your values and purpose, and what would happen if you didn’t get involved.
• Do I feel what is being asked of me is fair and just? Analyze your answer to this question to determine the true importance of the goal or situation to you.

Competence

Creating competence is not only about mastery, but also about learning, growing, and gaining wisdom from our experiences. Fowler suggests asking yourself these questions to help create competence:

• What skills or experience do I have that might prove helpful to achieving my goal? Consider your core competencies and whether they are important to this situation.
• What new skills could I develop? Consider new skills you may want to develop and why they are important.
• What insights have I gained—or might I gain—that could help me moving forward? Consider why moving forward is important to you and what you can learn from your mistakes.

Motivation is at the heart of everything you do—as well as everything you don’t do yet, but want to do. The most important thing to understand is that you can control the quality of your life by controlling the quality of your motivation. Fowler’s motivation philosophies are proven through her research and real-world examples of people who have experienced breakthroughs by putting her tips into practice.

To hear host Chad Gordon interview Susan Fowler, listen to the LeaderChat podcast and subscribe today. Order her book, Master Your Motivation, on Amazon.com.

Take an Inside-Out Approach to Improving Customer Service Scores

Customer service expert Kathy Cuff believes that organizations need to take a look at how their culture impacts service. That starts by recognizing that everyone has internal customers. “It’s about looking at the relationships and mindset within the organization.”

You can check out the entire April issue here. Want Ignite delivered to your InBox each month?  You can subscribe for free using this link.

Servant Leadership: 20 Tips & Strategies from Today’s Top Leaders

In a recent Servant Leadership in Action Livecast, over 3,200 leadership, learning, and talent development professionals had an opportunity to hear from 20 of the contributing authors in a new book co-edited by Ken Blanchard and Renee Broadwell. The book, Servant Leadership in Action: How You Can Achieve Great Relationships and Results features 44 short articles that take a fresh look at servant leadership principles and how they can be applied in today’s organizations.

You can check out the entire March issue here. Want Ignite delivered to your InBox each month?  You can subscribe for free using this link.

Leadership as a Partnership

“It’s unfair to expect a manager with multiple direct reports to figure out what each individual needs, let alone always provide it,” says leadership expert Susan Fowler. “Continue to invest in your managers, but leverage your investment by training the other side of the partnership—the direct reports. Don’t ignore half the equation. Make effective leadership everyone’s job.”

You can check out the entire September issue here. Want Ignite delivered to your InBox each month?  You can subscribe for free using this link.

Getting Buy-In for Leadership Development Training

One of the biggest challenges leadership, learning, and talent development professionals face when they propose a new initiative is convincing their CEO of the financial impact of the proposed initiative. Without a clear sense of the positive financial impact, it’s easy for a leader to dismiss a new proposal as being too disruptive, too expensive, or too time consuming.

An analysis of more than 200 organizations by The Ken Blanchard Companies found that every year of delay in improving leadership skills costs the typical organization an amount equal to 7 percent of their total annual sales.

Leading the Duke Energy Way

A senior leader at Duke Energy approached Stephanie Bush, director of learning and development, with a request for building leadership skills in his division. Already familiar with Situational Leadership® II (SLII®), Stephanie decided to pilot the program with this leader’s management group to see if it met their needs.

“I knew our leaders wanted to be able to have impactful coaching conversations with their team members. They needed to be able to set goals, hold people accountable, and provide a leadership style to match their employees’ needs. That is exactly what SLII provides.”

The feedback from the pilot sessions was so positive that SLII was added to the curriculum for the Duke Energy Leadership Academy which was created to support “Leading the Duke Energy Way” by aligning to the business strategy and leadership imperatives.

Podcast: Michael Bungay Stanier on The Coaching Habit

Michael Bungay Stanier, author of The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever shares how time pressed managers can effectively coach direct reports by asking instead of telling, being a little more curious, and engaging a little more often.

Developing Self Leaders—A Competitive Advantage for Organizations

The nature of leadership continues to evolve as organizational structures and business models change. A new Blanchard white paper looks at how top-heavy leadership approaches are shifting and in their place, individual contributors are being asked to step up in new ways, take on more responsibility, contribute differently, and look for ways to empower themselves—essentially to become self leaders.

You can check out the entire August issue here. Want Ignite delivered to your InBox each month?  You can subscribe for free using this link.