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Leadership and Management · 5 min read

How can I better lead and motivate the team?

Learn how smart leadership gains willing cooperation: set clear goals, share a practical plan, offer personal benefit and act with trust, honesty and respect.

Chris Farmer, Founder of Corporate Coach Group

“True leadership gains willing support by showing a clear goal, a sound plan and a personal win for each person, then keeping that trust through polite, honest and respectful action.”

Chris Farmer — Founder, Corporate Coach Group

How can I better lead and motivate the team?

How can I better lead and motivate the team?

The following statement is one of the most important statements that you will ever read; so mark it well and consider its implications.
"You need to gain the willing cooperative assistance of others".

Your success in life is related to the degree to which you are able to gain the willing cooperative assistance of others.

  • If you cannot gain the assistance of your financiers, your colleagues, your family and your suppliers, then your chances for future success are in ruins.
  • If you are able to gain the willing cooperative assistance of your financiers, your colleagues, your family and your suppliers, then your chances for future success is almost guaranteed.

How can you go about getting the willing cooperative assistance of others?

The answer comes in two main parts:

  • Do all the things that tend to induce people to cooperate willingly with you and your ideas.
  • Assiduously avoid doing and saying any of the things, that tend to put peoples backs up, and which will tend to lose their willing cooperation, or even worse, will make them want to stop you. Meaning, you make them your enemy whose intention is to frustrate your aims.

So now we have three sets.

  1. How to actively gain their cooperation
  2. How not to carelessly lose their cooperation
  3. How not to gain unnecessary enemies

1. How to actively gain cooperation

In order to gain cooperation of others you need to demonstrate three things to them:

  1. You need to demonstrate that you have a clear vision; a clear goal; a clear target that you want to achieve.
  2. You need to have a practical plan that will likely achieve the goal.
  3. You need to demonstrate that, if the other person cooperates with you in the achievement of your goal, then he or she, NOT YOU, would personally benefit, from their effort.

You must provide a personal motive, a self-interested motive, for the benefit of the other person, if you wish to gain his, her long term cooperation.

Don't expect people to work for you if they are not getting a personal benefit for doing so.
The greater the personal benefit they see for themselves and their family the greater will be their devotion to you and your idea.

If you fail on any one of the above three points then you won't gain their cooperation.

  1. If you fail to show that you have a worthwhile goal, then you won't gain their cooperation.
  2. If you fail to show that you have a practical plan, then you won't gain their cooperation.
  3. If you fail to demonstrate that there is some benefit for the other person, an advantage for the others, in helping you, then you won't gain their cooperation.

2. How not to carelessly lose their willing cooperation

Never be lose with language. Be careful in the way that you speak and the way that you treat others. Cooperation can be lost if you do any of the following:

  • If you let on that you doubt that you will achieve the goal, you will lose their cooperation.
  • If you say insulting things about others, and deride others in public, you will begin to lose their cooperation, because they will wonder what you are saying about them, when they are absent.
  • If you clown around and act the fool, then you will begin to lose their cooperation, because they will begin to wonder if they have teamed up with a clown, or a fool.

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The advice is this:

  1. Always talk optimistically about the chances of final victory.
  2. Always refrain from backstabbing others.
  3. In the presence of those people whom you are trying to gain cooperation it is important that you refrain from clowning around and acting the fool.

3. How not to gain unnecessary enemies

  • Never verbally abuse anyone. If you verbally abuse someone, then they will resent it and will withdraw their cooperation and may even conspire against you.
  • Never make anyone feel that they are stupid. Nobody wants to feel stupid. So even if they do something stupid, never make anyone feel stupid.
  • With relation to property or money, never act in a way that is dishonest. If people see you acting dishonestly, then they will fear that they might be your next victim and will withdraw their support. And they will likely see you as a bad person and will act to bring you to justice, as they should.

Our advice is: In order to keep people on your side.

  1. Maintain your politeness at all times, even when you are angry, even when you are losing.
  2. Always try to make people feel as if you regard them as intelligent beings.
  3. Always be honest in all your dealings with others.

Summary

You need to gain the willing cooperative assistance of others.

In order to do that, please keep to the following 9 rules

  1. Demonstrate that you have a clear goal that you want to achieve
  2. Demonstrate that you have a practical plan that will likely achieve the goal
  3. Provide a personal motive, for the other person
  4. Always talk optimistically about the chances of final victory
  5. Always refrain from backstabbing others
  6. Refrain from clowning around and acting the fool
  7. Maintain your politeness at all times, even when you are angry, even when you are losing
  8. Make people feel as if you regard them as intelligent beings
  9. Be honest in all your dealings with others

If you do all this, then you will gain the willing cooperative assistance of your financiers, your colleagues, your family and your suppliers, and then your chances for future success are almost guaranteed.

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willing cooperation

In business leadership, willing cooperation is a relationship where people choose to give help because they trust you, see a clear aim, believe in your plan, and expect a personal gain. Remove any one of these elements and the help stops.

CG4D Definition

Context: Business
Genus: Relationship

  • Help is given by choice, not by force.
  • Helpers accept a clear goal.
  • Helpers trust a practical plan.
  • Helpers expect personal gain from success.

Article Summary

True leadership gains willing support by showing a clear goal, a sound plan and a personal win for each person, then keeping that trust through polite, honest and respectful action.

Chris Farmer, Founder of Corporate Coach Group

Written by Chris Farmer

Founder & Lead Trainer, Corporate Coach Group

Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has over 25 years experience designing and delivering leadership and management training across both the public and private sectors. His programmes are structured, practical and built around real-world performance. Read more about Chris and the story of how the Corporate Coach Group was founded.

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Key Statistics

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 shows that workers who say their leader sets a clear goal are 4.5 times more likely to feel engaged at work.

Microsoft’s Work Trend Index 2024 finds that 68% of staff say they would stay at a firm longer if their manager shows trust and respect.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about this topic

It is a state where people freely help because they trust you, see a clear aim, believe your plan and expect a personal gain. No force, only shared purpose.
State the goal in one short, vivid sentence, link it to the wider mission and repeat it often. Use numbers, dates or milestones so everyone can picture success and track progress.
Break the work into clear steps, name owners, set realistic times and list resources. Explain how each step leads to the next and show past wins that prove the method works.
People work harder when they see what they gain. Connect tasks to pay, learning, pride or work-life balance. A personal reward turns a manager’s wish into a shared ambition.
Doubting the goal, public insults, backstabbing, clownish acts, dishonesty and verbal abuse all break trust fast. Once trust goes, motivation fades and even loyal staff may resist you.
Stay polite, praise in public, criticise in private, and never make others feel foolish. Keep promises, act fairly with money and property, and speak with calm optimism even under strain.
Polite speech keeps trust alive, shows self-control and prevents rash words that spark conflict. The team then feels safe to focus on the goal rather than your mood.

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