What is your people's honey?

What's your people's honey?

Let me explain. Once upon a time, there lived a bear who went by the name of Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh, as you will know, was an affable but lazy bear. Perfectly nice, but hardly ambitious. (Bear with me.)

One day, he and his friends were walking in the Hundred Acre Wood when Pooh's attention was caught.

Honey.

It was high up in a tree. He could see the honey, he could smell the honey, but he couldn't quite reach the honey.

Now, Winnie the Pooh really, really liked honey.

So what did he do?

He tried to climb the tree. He found a blue balloon and floated up towards the honey. He was stung by bees.

In other words, Winnie the Pooh made a MASSIVE effort.

Not because someone told him to, but because he wanted to, because he wanted the honey.

This charming little tale (told far better by A.A. Milne than me) is a metaphor for 'vision'.

As a leader, are you endeavouring to motivate people through a vision that means something to you, or one that means very much more to them?

If you want the best out of people, you'd do well to unlock their motivations. And you can do that if you discover what their honey is.

I begin client work using a 'Circles of Context' model, which helps uncover this and other critical insights.