Dear Fellow members, Distinguished guests,

Good morning.

The title of my speech is pull the trigger.

What do you think I am going to talk? Am I going to talk about shooting someone?

No, absolutely not.

Last time I talked about my small project. I brought out the topic of motivating people. As I said, I am going to continue this topic.

Motivating people is hard. One of the most common things we hear is “our people just need to be motivated.” In all honesty, this statement is true in the business community and also in the non-profit world. This is true from the heart of human nature.

When my son was young and just started to walk alone. Often he did not like to walk and asked us to get him up and carry him forward. As parents, we all love our children, while we still want they grow independently. So we encouraged our son to walk along by pointing to some interesting building, by promising a good toy for him, and so on and so further. Most of time, the technics worked out.

Why? Because we understand our son’s interest and needs.

The true key to understanding motivation starts with understanding people, and that must start with understanding ourselves and our motivators. Then, we will realize that each person has different motivators and that the vast majority of them come from within, not from the outside. The team are and always will be more motivated to succeed for themselves and their goals than they will be for anything other reason. This is human nature.

When we have a team, we need be familiar with the members individually, understand their expertise and find out their desire.

Our team members could have different needs or desires. Find out their is like to pull the trigger. Once motivated, people will move with energy.

One of my team members said he wants our club to be a better community to live. What do you think is his desire here? I think it is affiliation, a sense of belonging. This is a very important human desire. This member enjoys to be part of a big group so he would be motivated to contribute to the group. Point out the benefit is for the group is his trigger.

Another team member said he would like to get more links to more people. What do you think is his desire here? I think it is also affiliation. He wants to be in a bigger group and meet more friends. Tell him my task could help him reach more people is a good motivation.

There are also members who are very excited to take part in speech contests. What do you think is their desire here? I think it is recognition. Some may say it is achievement. The two desires are very similar. If your team member wants to win a competition or win a contest, recognition is the best motivation. Tell her that finish Pathways level 2 will be qualified for international speech contest. This is her trigger.

People in Toastmasters clubs are often motivated by affiliation and recognition. Affiliation and recognition are the trigger for them. You can help them find their desires and pull the trigger.

In our club, we listen to people; we encourage people to do new things; we help people to reach their goals. These are the basic steps to motivate people. Moving with these steps, we will recognize people’s dream, we will find out the desire, and we will help them pull the trigger, and then they become self-motivated.

Thank you.