How To Unlock Your Personal Power and Motivate Your Teams

Do you challenge yourself enough as a leader? Do you excite, engage and motivate the people around you as much as you should? Do you think big—and make sure everyone else has a clear view of your vision? 

In our recent CEO climb live event, award-winning speaker Marcus Child taught our viewers how to do just that. 

This included the secrets of unlocking your personal power as a leader and how to inspire those around you to reach their full potential. 

But don’t worry—you haven’t missed out. In this article, we’ve summarised some of the key points discussed throughout the event. Alternatively, you can watch the webinar recording here. 

The Way You Speak To Yourself Matters

“Our real work as leaders is advertising possibility, inculcating a belief that things can come through, and that we can do more than we think we can,” Marcus says. 

This is because the way we speak to ourselves has a direct impact on our mental state. And our mental state has a direct impact on how we perform. 

“If I said to myself today, for example, ‘I’m rather tired and I don’t like doing webinars, they drain my energy and I’m not good at them and people won’t be listening anyway,’ then I’d step into this call with a sense that this is going to be difficult,” Marcus says. 

“I’ll have talked myself into a state of anxiety. And when I make my first mistake, I’ll say, ‘I knew that was going to go badly.’ And round the vicious circle we go.” 

On the other hand, when we’re in good mental states, we make good decisions. We’re confident. We’re energetic. We’re resilient. And above all, we perform better. 

“You can’t reach the true limits of your personal power unless you’re in a good state,” Marcus says. 

Being in a good mental state includes the following five elements:

• Feeling emotionally ready and confident to take on the day
• Feeling mentally prepared with a strategy and plan
• Feeling physically ready and energised
• Feeling socially supported by peers and colleagues
• Feeling a sense of purpose in what you do

“When you’ve got these five things in place, you’re in the super state for high performance,” Marcus says. “Why does it matter? Well, because your organisation will perform well if you do.”

Why You Should Regularly Measure Your Team’s State

Being in a good state goes beyond just you as the leader. It’s also your responsibility to spread that through your team. 

“When your team is in a really good place and in a really good state, they’re likely to enable customers to get a really good experience. And that’s likely to create more profit and growth,” Marcus says. 

Here’s an example of the power of checking up on your team’s state in action. Marcus recently spoke with Rock Software, a company that takes the time to regularly measure employee state, customer satisfaction and growth. And what they found was astonishing. 

In 2022, 82% of employees said they felt “very happy” on an average day. In the meantime, the company’s net promoter score was an impressive 79, and they saw 44% growth that year.

A lot of your team’s state is influenced by culture that you create. So, here are the three key things that you can do as a leader to build team culture, shape behaviour and improve the team state. 

1. Role modelling and coaching – We have around 11 million receptors in our brain, and 10 million are to do with the visual field, Marcus says. What teams see their leaders doing and how they see them acting sets the example for their behaviour.
2. Reaction to critical incidents – How do you behave when things go pear-shaped? Do you still behave by your values or do you get cross because numbers aren’t being met? 
3. What you attend to, measure and control – The messages you relay and the pictures you paint of what really matters to you and your culture. 

While these might sound like basic principles of leadership, it’s surprising how often they’re forgotten or overlooked. But the consequences of overlooking these things can have a negative ripple effect throughout your business.

How to Really Motivate Your Team

“When we have something which galvanises and draws people together and aligns actions and attitudes, that’s the way of real power,” Marcus says. 

Earlier we mentioned that a key role of the leader is to really draw people together and shape their attitudes so they can unlock their personal power and potential. So, let’s get into the heart of what really motivates people to unlock that power.

People are driven by three different voices in their heads, Marcus says. 

First, there’s the voice that says “I want.” In other words, the benefit that person will get from completing a particular task or a specific future that they desire. 

Second, there’s “I must.” This is the pressure a person feels to do something they must do. For example, if they must do something otherwise the competition will or they’ll let the customer down. 

And lastly, there’s “I can.” This is the knowledge and belief that a task is possible and the voice of real belief and confidence. “The third one is the quieter voice,” Marcus adds. “But it’s the one that changes the game.” 

So, how do leaders speak to all three voices? This comes down to three key messages you should be sharing with your team. 

1. Picture – Engage the “I want” voice by painting a picture of all the benefits that person will get if they can make a particular goal come true. So, think about what you want your business to get out of this year, paint a picture of the best thing you can imagine and make sure your team can clearly visualise it.
2. Number – People pay attention to numbers,  and they’re one of the best ways to engage the “I must” voice. Be transparent in sharing with your teams the numbers you should be chasing each week as well as your progress towards achieving them. 
3. Habit – Lastly, speak to the “I can” voice by clearly outlining the building blocks that are going to get you to where you need to be. Make sure your entire team understands the routines, habits, processes and systems that will enable your business to reach its goals with confidence. 

“Finding ways of enabling people to feel like they can bring their personal power to work changes everything,” Marcus explains. 

Following the three steps above are just one of the key steps you can take to unlock a new level of power, energy and motivation for your team. 

Watch the Full Webinar 

If you found this article useful, take a look at Marcus’ full webinar which expands on the points we’ve covered throughout this article in more depth and detail. 

Watch the full live session here.

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