Employees often hesitate to take the initiative to learn and grow. Instead, they wait, expecting to be passively taught what’s needed, or they balk entirely, feeling content where they are.
Unfortunately, as we’re well aware when people aren’t challenged, they stagnate or get bored. Productivity and morale suffer.
And, even if they think they’re happy, they often don’t realize what they’re missing.
I recently coached a client through a situation in which she was reassigned to a different department after ten years in the previous one. When she first learned she’d be moving, she was frustrated and unhappy. “I don’t want to have to learn how to work with all new people,” she complained. Plus, she lamented, there were all those new processes and work situations to have to deal with. “I feel like I’m starting all over again.”
The problem always boils down to a version of, “What’s in it for me?” If the answer isn’t obvious, the person doesn’t see the situation as an opportunity. It’s difficult to motivate someone to want to learn or change when they can’t see the potential gain.
How can we change this mindset? I like to use a combination of two steps to turn their thinking around so they start realizing the benefits they’re missing.
Step 1: Introduce Them to Their Future Self
Clients stuck in their comfortable version of today have often forgotten to think about what they might do in the future. In short, they’ve forgotten their dreams and aspirations—and some of them may never have allowed themselves to have any in the first place.
To address this issue, we visit the imaginary future, where they meet their Future Self. The Future Them is successful at their dream job, has their dream situation, and knows the value of everything that got them there.
If my clients don’t have a Future Self, that tells me they aren’t allowing themselves to be anything but what they are today. That’s inevitably due to fear. People fear the unknown because they envision all the terrible things that can happen. That’s why their Future Self embodies all the amazing things that can happen. Once their Future Self is clear enough that they can believe in it, we go to Step 2.
However, even if they still can’t quite see Future Them, Step 2 can help there, too. The client I was coaching wasn’t sure what her Future Self really looked like. Though she knew she’d be in marketing, she didn’t know where that path would take her. We realized that this was important: She had a gap in her self-knowledge. You can’t answer “What’s in it for me?” if you don’t know who “me” really is. Realizing she needed to address that, we could still move forward.
Step 2: Link Opportunities to Their Future Self
The next step is not just to take them to their dreams but to get them to take themselves there. That requires turning the fear-based concerns into different, forward-thinking questions. The only rule for answering them is that they have to give a creative answer—no copping out at “I don’t know.”
As my client navigated through her situation, seeing from her still-cloudy Future Self’s viewpoint, we used this technique. “I don’t want to learn a whole new set of processes” became, “How will learning a whole new set of processes help me get closer to becoming my Future Self?”
Whoa. That changed her perspective. The move would require her to learn things she didn’t know. She’d attain knowledge and skills that might help her career in ways she didn’t yet understand, but her Future Self did. Her curiosity began to build as we tackled the next statement.
“I don’t know if I’ll like doing it,” became, “How will figuring out whether I like this new type of work take me further toward my Future Self?” Suddenly, even this unknown became a learning opportunity. Being in a job she didn’t like wouldn’t be the end of her world, just another way to build her sense of what she liked or didn’t. Wasn’t that valuable? Future Her thought so. It would fill gaps in her self-knowledge and help her visualize more clearly where she wanted to be in the future.
“I don’t want to have to learn to work with all new people” turned into, “How will working with all new people take me closer to Future Me?” She realized she’d be developing her people skills and creating a broader network, all of which took her toward Future Her.
With this new perspective, not only did she end up loving the new assignment and her new co-workers, the lead-generation skills she learned there propelled her more quickly into leadership roles later. The move was instrumental in advancing her career.
But just think: She might still be working in her old department, with the same people, doing the same old thing she thought she was happy at. She and I still laugh at that thought.
You may not be able to convince every reluctant team member to transform their mindset overnight, but with the right approach, you can help them see where they’re hampering themselves. Even if it happens one small conversation at a time, the end result may surprise you—and them.
