A Common Denominator For Motivating And Achieving Through Others

Talent Management recently circulated one of their classic articles by Derek Finkelman and Jonathan Corke - Nine Ways To Make Top Performers Effective Managers - in which the authors reflected that

Top performing individuals don't instantly become top performing managers. To succeed, new managers require time training and guidance.

At about the same time Forbes.com featured another 'Top 9' list by Glenn Llopis on Things That Ultimately Motivate Employees To Achieve, where the reflection was

While assessments, books and other tools can help project and inspire short and long term performance, the factors that motivate employees to achieve evolve as they mature and begin to truly understand what matters most to them. Therefore, as leaders we must hold ourselves accountable to build meaningful and purposeful relationships with our employees. This allows us to better understand those we are serving.

While the topics are related, each list (separated in its writing by 2-3 years and authored by different people) features suggestions different from the other. That is except for one element they have in common - Trust. What's interesting though, is that even though both recommend Trust as an area of focus for motivating and achieving through others, each list approaches it from a different perspective

• Forbes.com tops its list with "Trustworthy Leadership", in which it reflects that Trust is a powerful motivational tool and those leaders that are more transparent with their employees will find surprising results and new types of opportunities to develop talent
• Talent Management advocates "Building Trusting Relationships", in which it provides an example that illustrates the risk associated with promoting a top performer before understanding his or her ability to trust and respect others

The development work FranklinCovey supports individuals and teams with covers both perspectives. For example, when leaders are looking to develop trustworthiness in themselves, we provide definitions, insights and tools to build 'self trust'. Likewise, for leaders trying to better trust others, our process for extending 'smart trust' allows them to consider their propensity to trust and to combine this with an analysis of 3 vital variables to help improve their judgement in this area