Getting People To Do Things

As the manager of a small real estate office with about 30 associates I know the difficulty in getting people to change and do the right things in life, so much easier to follow the crowd. On May 7th of this year I blogged Are You Intentional About Your Learning? Well you need to be intentional about doing the right things in life one of these being learning.

In Robert Conklins book How to Get People to Do Things He recalls the story of Ralph Waldo Emerson and his son struggling with a female calf and trying to wrestle her into the barn. Drenched with sweat, the great sage was on the brink of losing his self-control when an Irish servant girl came by. She smiled sweetly at Emerson as she thrust a finger into the animal’s mouth; Lured by the maternal gesture, the calf peacefully followed the girl into the barn.

“People are like the calf,” says Conklin. “You can poke them, prod them, push them, and they don’t move. But give them a good reason, one of their reasons, a way in which they will benefit and they will follow gently along. People do things for their reasons. Not your reasons. And those reasons are emotional; aroused by the ways they feel.”

I wish I could remember this more myself. We are in a people business and the more people we can influence to our way of thinking the more homes we will list and sell, but in order to accomplish this we must show those that we work with how it will benefit them