Motivate With The Accent

“ Accent” In music, Accents ( >) are symbols placed on top or below one or several notes. It tells you how the note should sound: Hard, soft, short, attacked, hammered... etc, to indicate stress or emphasis.

Great leaders that aresuccessful tend to learn how to “Accent” different areas within a team or business to achieve monumental results. “Accents” are a creative leadership tool. Here are a three key points that I've learned from my first Leader, my wife, Shinelia Little. My beautiful bride has the heavy task of running 2 businesses along with raising a family, along with keeping her husband in line. With all the responsibilities and tasks that she faces on a daily basis, she continues to use “Accents” to motivate her family and teams.

Here are a three ways I have used “Accents” in my Creative Coaching:

Accent the negative to get attention: By our very human nature, negative events are an attention-getter. Research has shown that negative events, fear and danger make lasting significant impressions on us. This has been man’s most important survival survival technique. Our brain has developed systems that make it hard for us to not notice the negative and fear and respond to it. Take for instance, all of us have heard at some point during our childhood, “Do not touch the stove. It's Hot.” Shinelia and parents alike, all across the world have used this technique to lead, to influence their curios children. Accent the positive to stimulate desire for change: Now that the negative event has been placed before the team, you must immediately progress to the next step. A follow-up inspiring positive message will stir teams to action, showing the way to the new future. Once the heart is moved, you can easily move the feet of your team,organization or ministry. Professor of Communication from Stanford University has suggested managers offer praise after criticism, not before, so that the praise actually makes an impression on the receiver.

Accent the Action with reason: After the desire for change has taken place, reinforcement is the icing on the cake. Emphasizing the negative alone is simply non-productive or unhealthy. On the contrary, merely stimulating the desire for change with a positive message may prove to be only temporary, lasting only for a few days. But the added reinforcement with reasons are more likely to solidify the transformational results. Daily action steps explaining the reasons “ WHY” makes room for transformation. These three steps—one, getting attention, two, stimulating desire for change, and three, reinforcing the desire for change with reasons, are the same whatever the leadership setting. Of the three steps, the middle step—stimulating desire for change with a positive message—is the most important. Without desire for change, people will have no energy or enthusiasm. So if transformational leaders do only one thing, they should make sure they stimulate desire for change, for which they will need a positive message. Neither relentless negativity nor perpetual optimism makes sense. Real leadership adjusts the tone to the needs of the particular situation. Creative Coaching through Music: “Music can change the world because it can change people” - Bono