In business negotiations or everyday life, overestimating or underestimating someone can cause significant loss and wasted time.
A sure way to avoid misjudging someone is to find out what he values and what he doesn’t value.
In other words, if you know what motivates him, it’s a significant piece of data that will help you avoid misjudging him, thus know how to negotiate to your advantage. Offer him what he truly wants instead of what he doesn’t, because he appreciates it more than anything.
For example, you may be convinced she’s primarily motivated by financial rewards and security, but later discover she’s driven more by ego needs and approval, mostly due to her hidden insecurities. She has always needed to prove to herself and everyone else she’s good enough, but it’s unfortunate you found that out after the negotiations.
Appearances can be misleading, and self-assessments are notoriously inaccurate simply because most people just don’t thoroughly know themselves on an unconscious level. Subconscious motivations often differ greatly from consciously perceived ones. It’s frequently a surprise to find out a person’s true motivations—sometimes a nasty surprise, and sometimes a pleasant surprise. Extremes are easy to assess.
In my Motivation Assessment Analyses, I evaluate these core thirteen human motivations: financial rewards/materialism; altruism; ego needs; personal accomplishment; leadership; approval; challenge; social involvement; practical interests; security; knowledge/theory; creativity; pleasure.
Avoid intelligence failures. Don’t listen to what a person says about what motivates him or her. Instead, watch what they do, if you have enough time and resources to hire a private investigator. If not, unconventional security investigations, in conjunction with other forms of assessment (including your own observations) can help you save an enormous amount of time and money.
Copyright © 2019 Scott Petullo