Q. How does one inspire others to take ownership of a task or a goal?
Creating or identifying the 'Whats' in it for me?' from the other person's point of view should motivate him / her to take ownership of the respective task / goal. Of course, this is much easier said than done and is insufficient by itself.
Inspiring the individual is a bigger challenge and goes hand-in-hand with providing the right motivation / incentive. There are often situations when an individual understands and accepts the fact that he/she needs to own up to something. But the individual concerned may not be inspired enough, simply due to perceived conflicts in the business environment, organizational culture, belief and value systems. For instance, if an employee believes that his/her manager is not going to give him/her a fair performance appraisal despite a stellar performance... the employee will not have the drive to achieve the goal (however compelling it may seem) as he/she has given up even before starting. So creating a healthy corporate Eco-system sans contradictions will go a long way in providing the much needed inspiration. Understandably, the larger the organization the more difficult it gets to get the right culture within the organization and weed-out unhealthy politics, wrong perceptions and the wrong people.
This explains why there are so few truly great teams and organizations.
My answers to interesting questions on Quora
Creating or identifying the 'Whats' in it for me?' from the other person's point of view should motivate him / her to take ownership of the respective task / goal. Of course, this is much easier said than done and is insufficient by itself.
Inspiring the individual is a bigger challenge and goes hand-in-hand with providing the right motivation / incentive. There are often situations when an individual understands and accepts the fact that he/she needs to own up to something. But the individual concerned may not be inspired enough, simply due to perceived conflicts in the business environment, organizational culture, belief and value systems. For instance, if an employee believes that his/her manager is not going to give him/her a fair performance appraisal despite a stellar performance... the employee will not have the drive to achieve the goal (however compelling it may seem) as he/she has given up even before starting. So creating a healthy corporate Eco-system sans contradictions will go a long way in providing the much needed inspiration. Understandably, the larger the organization the more difficult it gets to get the right culture within the organization and weed-out unhealthy politics, wrong perceptions and the wrong people.
This explains why there are so few truly great teams and organizations.
My answers to interesting questions on Quora
