Would You Clean Your Ears With a Plunger?

Hi! This is Peter Winick. I am the founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage. And today I wanted to ask you what may seem like a silly question. But, would you clean your ears with a plunger? Of course not, you say. I see clients doing that all the time. They use the wrong tool to perform a job. And it’s just not effective. It’s not efficient. And it is actually quite comical to look at.

So you might have a client that comes to you and says, I have an event that is coming up in the first quarter and I am bringing my entire sales force, all 1200 of them to Las Vegas or Orlando and I’d like for you to to give them a forty-five minute talk and motivate the troops. Great! The right tool for that is a keynote. It is a keynote that is highly motivational. It’s a keynote that is engaging and it’s a keynote that gets the audience members pumped up.

It is not the right tool if the client is looking for your work to help them change the way they interact with their clients. If your work helps them interact with others in the organization, that is not the right tool. Motivating people does not lead to behavior change. So what you need to make sure that you do, is make sure that you’ve got the right tools in your toolbox. And you’re taking out the right ones at the right time to meet the needs of your clients.

Again, don’t clean your ears with a plunger and don’t try to change behaviors at the organizational level by using motivational tactics and strategies. Use the right tools.