5 things you must know about people in order to take the guesswork out of leadership:
1. Everyone is internally controlled. If you try to control another person, you may achieve compliance but never commitment. All you can do is control your own behaviour. If you want to influence other people, what you can do is give them information with which to make their choice.
2. All our behaviour is our best attempt to avoid experiences we believe will be painful and to pursue experiences that we believe will feel good.
3. Most people (though not all) learn how to delay gratification. They learn to accept a certain amount of pain in order to work towards a long-term satisfaction of their own needs. If we want people to delay gratification, we have to convince them that something better is coming.
4. Everyone has genetic needs for:
- Achievement (status, power, competence);
- Satisfying relationships;
- Autonomy (both freedom to and freedom from);
- Learning that is connected with enjoyment;
- Survival.
When any of these are threated people react in order to oppose or escape the threat.
5. Every person lives in his or her own world of experience and value. Because our perceptual systems actually create a unique understanding of the world, no-one’s understanding of the world is exactly the same as the perception of anyone else.
