Have you ever reached an impasse with a member of your team? No, not necessarily a core performance issue. They’re doing the work. Maybe they don’t quite listen to the degree that they should. Maybe the quality of work has slipped or they’re not growing at the rate you’d hoped when they were hired. The effort needs to be better.

Maybe they don’t quite respect you? It’s confounding. Either way, you’re not getting through, you’re frustrated, and something needs to be switched up.

In a recent conversation with a friend & fellow manager, she hit on a fantastically clever and creative way to try to make some headway with these under calibrated souls:

Outsource the motivation. You have unlimited options.

When your team member doesn’t view you as the expert, outsource the expertise.

• Discover their interests
  • Talk to them about things they enjoy. It could be hobbies, childhood activities, things they do on the weekend, things they do in the evenings, things they don’t get to do as often as they’d like to
  • What gets them excited?
• Talk to them about their heroes
  • Who are the people they deeply respect in their lives?
  • Dig into the characters that have inspired them. Who helped them choose their profession? Who helped them through a tough time?
• Find the Intersection
  • OK, now how can you tie those interests & heroes into overcoming tangible challenges at work?
  • Is there a way to show them that a high level of execution of their work aligns with their future interests? Of getting them where they want to go?
  • How can you spur them to accomplish their goals using examples from their heroes journeys?

Sometimes with a little extra effort you can breach the wall and serve as an effective coach. Other times, it can be equally effective to call in external reinforcements and outsource the motivation to an infinite set of fictional & nonfictional anecdotes and inspirational characters.

We need all the creativity we can muster these days. Is it usually that simple? Nah, probably not. But it’s worth a shot!