How To Get People To Follow Through

Committing to an action isn’t enough

Here’s the scenario. You’re coaching a colleague in a one-on-one meeting and they commit to an action you both agree needs to happen. Although this is the last step in the ‘GROW’ model of coaching, you have a niggling feeling that they’re not going to follow through.

What can you do to increase the chances they follow through?

Many people instinctively reach for incentives, i.e., carrots and sticks. However, as I’ve written before, extrinsic motivators can backfire. But there’s an underestimated technique that can increase rates of follow-through, and that is to ask visualisation questions.

A visualisation question is one that forces someone to simulate doing the task in their mind. It’s a powerful way to break through behavioural inertia. Here’s a long list of examples:

• How exactly will you do that?
• When is the next opportunity to do it?

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About me

Hi, I’m Dave Bailey and I coach tech CEOs from Series A to pre-IPO. Find out more about my coaching programs and podcast here.