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Selling the Work

Selling the work requires you to get tuned into WIIFM (What’s In It For Me) for your employees.

Though we would like to believe that people get behind a vision and join the mission out of pure altruism, that’s just not the case. They need motivation, and nothing motivates people like knowing what they have to gain from the work you’re trying to sell.

Will it result in a promotion? Will it mean more money? In short, what’s the benefit to the employee? Now the Machiavellians out there would say that’s easy to sell to the employee: “You’ll have a job!” But coercion and management by fear gets you nowhere in the long run. Throughout time, it only builds resentment.

Before you approach the team member about the task or responsibility you’re delegating to him, make a list of benefits you believe the employee will gain from taking on the responsibility. Will it help gain her exposure to senior management? Will it help him grow into a division he has been eyeing for awhile? Will it help her develop confidence in an area of work in which she is unsure?

The list you develop really depends on your knowledge of the employee and what motivates him. But if you’ve done your homework in assessing the team (Idea 116), then you should have good “intelligence” into how to sell the work with each individual employee.