Be a kid again

If you have been around children you know they have a very simplistic view of the world.  They enjoy what they are doing or they don’t do it.  Think of asking a child to clean up, go to bed or eat their veggies.  It’s a battle, yes you finally win but you are exhausted and maybe foul tempered.

This will usually spark your creativity in how to deal with the issue so its not so painful next time.  For example in order to stop my son from eating his bread down the middle (picture a roll with a ditch in the top) I was telling him “good boys don’t eat that way” or “look at how mom & dad eat their roll” (both of which didn’t work).  After several attempts to get him to eat properly, I had to tell him how “gross” it would be to eat that roll if he had a runny nose (yes the roll was being smashed up against his nose).  Amazingly, it worked! Why?  Because I started thinking like him.

This is a long winded way to say – the same works for employees, managers, and humans in general. We all have aspects of our jobs we don’t like.  You could probably name a few right now.  There will be times howver that you will run across someone who no matter how many times you try to explain why they should do something – it doesn’t work.  Don’t despair.

Try to think like they do.  What is their motivation? What appeals to their sense of how things work? Then reword your request.

I know, I have made this sound simple – it’snot.  It may also take several attempts to get there.  That’s ok and I know you will get frustrated but the reward is worth it. Once you find what works, you have made it that much easier for yourself the next time.

Patience, creativity and perseverance are key!