I’m not a salesperson. I never have been. I was one of those people who thought of snake oil when I thought of sales (though after working with Craig Wortmann long enough, I have been disabused of those notions). Nonetheless, when I read Daniel Pink’s book To Sell Is Human about a year ago, I was struck by the insight that “we’re all in sales” every day, in many ways.

I was, at first, a bit skeptical that the concept could be extended to everyone. Isn’t selling the act of convincing someone to give you something of value for something you offer (usually money in exchange for a product or service)? However, I read on, and soon Dan had me sold on the idea.

Each and every day, we’re trying to influence people, we’re trying to move people, and we’re seeking to make a compelling case for something we believe in.  What Daniel succeeds in arguing through this book, as well as his latest book, Drive, is that there are insights from research on human behavior that can help us learn how to be better influencers, salespeople, leaders, and motivators of others.

In the course of doing my homework in preparation to host Daniel for a Founders School filming, I discovered that he also wrote a book called Free Agent Nation, which explored the country’s cadre of workers who have forged their own path, working for themselves or for several employers.  In this book, Daniel tells his own story – how he left a job working as a speech writer for Al Gore to pursue a writing career, working for himself.   So he understands the giant leap that entrepreneurs make, and he understands the motivation behind going out on your own. 

It is these insights, and many more, that we’ve tapped to bring you a series on “Leadership and Motivation”.  This series explores not only the motivation of the entrepreneur, but identifies lessons from insightful research to help you understand how you can be a better leader, how you can create engaged employees, and how you can improve your performance when it comes to selling and pitching your company, and how you can be more resilient in the face of rejection.

Daniel’s advice, in several of these arenas, is to discard “old” ways of thinking about management, power, performance evaluations, work expectations, and persuasion, and to adopt new ways of thinking about work and how it gets done— bringing out the best in your employees and your company.

Daniel’s series highlights the importance of autonomy, mastery, and purpose in creating an engaged team.  He provides concrete suggestions for how you can foster these in your own company, and create a thriving work environment that motivates others (and you) to do your best work.  Drawing on social science research to illuminate the art of persuasion, Daniel pinpoints what can make you a more influential leader.  He tackles the difficult subject of rejection, and provides strategies for being more buoyant in the face of the inevitable “no”.  And, he provides fun and easy tips for pitching your ideas to others in an engaging and more collaborative way.

We hope this series will help you tackle some of the challenging aspects of startup leadership, providing you with tools you need to build a motivated and engaged team, and to establish yourself as a persuasive, resilient leader.  Explore the series and ask yourself the pivotal impact question:  How can what I’ve learned today change what I do tomorrow?