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After 23 years of leading insurance sales teams — from unit manager to group head, across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania — I've had a lot of time to test ideas about motivation. And I've come to a conclusion that surprises a lot of people when I say it out loud: motivation, as most managers practise it, is a waste of time.
I'm not talking about the idea of inspiration, of helping people connect to something meaningful. I'm talking about the endless cycle of pump-up speeches, incentive trips, leaderboards, team-building days and wall posters. All of it feels productive. Almost none of it lasts beyond a week.
"You cannot motivate another adult for long. You can only create the conditions in which people motivate themselves — and that's a very different job."
The Problem With Most Sales Motivation
When I became a unit manager at APA in 2008, I did what every new manager does: I tried to fire people up. Monday morning meetings full of energy. Recognition boards. "Agent of the Month" certificates. And for a while, it worked — or seemed to.
But the numbers told a different story. The spikes in activity after a motivational push would always decay. By week three, we were back to baseline. The team wasn't building momentum — it was responding to stimulus, like a reflex. The moment the stimulus stopped, the response stopped with it.
I started asking a different question. Instead of how do I motivate my team?, I asked: why does motivation decay, and what doesn't?
What I Do Instead: The Three-Part System
1. Clarity over cheerleading
The number one reason people underperform is not lack of motivation — it's lack of clarity. They don't know exactly what's expected, they don't know if what they're doing is working, and they don't know what the path forward looks like. Demotivation is usually just confusion wearing a different mask.
My job is to make the picture so clear that there's no ambiguity. What does success look like this week? This month? What does a great client conversation look like versus an average one? What does someone who hits their targets in year one do differently from someone who doesn't?
2. Identity over incentives
Incentives trigger behaviour. Identity sustains it. The agents who last — the ones who build 15, 20-year careers in insurance — don't just do this job. They are insurance professionals. The work is part of who they are, not just what they do for a paycheque.
My role is to accelerate that identity shift. I talk about the profession's history, the impact of financial protection on families, the privilege of being trusted by clients at vulnerable moments. I want agents to feel the weight and the honour of what they do.
3. Momentum over motivation
Motivation is a feeling. Momentum is a result of systems. When I stopped trying to create the feeling and started building the systems, everything changed. Daily check-in rhythms. Weekly pipeline reviews with specific coaching. Monthly data sessions where every agent sees exactly where they stand and what's next.
"A team with momentum doesn't need a Monday pep talk. They show up ready because the system makes it clear what ready looks like."
What This Looks Like in Practice
It took years to refine, but the results have been consistent. Four AKI Company of the Year titles. Record policy growth in 2025. A Direct Sales Force that operates across three countries with increasing cohesion and output year on year.
None of it happened because I gave a great speech. It happened because we built clarity, identity and momentum into the daily fabric of how the team operates.
If you lead a sales team — in insurance or anywhere else — I'd encourage you to ask yourself: am I spending my energy trying to create motivation, or am I building the conditions in which people motivate themselves?
The second question is harder. The answer is more durable.