Leadership: How to get people to do what you want

Have you ever wanted to get your kids to read the Bible more or have a daily devotion with Jesus but somehow just saying "Do it" doesnt work? Well, I have been there. Here is a tip on how to get kids to do things that are important without even letting them know you are telling them to do it!

GIVE SPECIAL RECOGNITION

As you know in your own life, recognition is important to us all. We all love to be noticed when we do good things. Heck, most of us like to be acknowledged when we just do our job. So the question: How can you get people to do things (good things) without forcing them?

I believe that one way you can do this is by giving continued and reinforced recognition to people who do what you want, well. Not only do you give that person an opportunity to share about the great things they have done, but others see the recognition they are getting, they see the value by hearing other peoples testimonies, and they might just end up doing it themself. This is a win/win. Not only are you reinforcing the good action, but it now shows others around them that this great thing that they are doing is valuable and important in their own life (the best part is that they can see the benefit for themselves!!!!) 

This strategy can work for contact work, campaigners, or various other aspects of Young Life. 

EXAMPLE 1: If you want to enforce kids having quiet times, ask your campaigner group every EVERY WEEK: What is God teaching you in your quiet times? There are some kids who will talk all the time at first. Once kids start to catch on, other kids will want to have something to share. Pretty soon many of your campaigner kids might for the first time have regular quiet times. 

EXAMPLE 2: If you want your leaders to do more contact work, ask for contact work stories in team meetings (I do this is for EVERY Area Fellowship if you have noticed). Let people teach each other. The new teachers will be happy and it allows people with different gift-sets to be recognized in a new way.