Marco Gala Molina

About Marco Gala Molina

How do you get people to want to make a difference on their own?

We all pretty much know it well. Pay attention. Take ownership. Keep promises. Really listen to customers. As a leader, don’t micromanage. We know it. Now we just need to do it. Because if knowing automatically led to doing, gyms would be just as busy in February as they are on January 2nd.

This very gap between knowing and doing has fascinated Marco Gala for over twenty years. Why do smart, grown-up people often know exactly what would be good… yet do something else? That’s why Marco doesn’t try to explain even better what people should do. He asks a more interesting question: How do you make people want it themselves?

Not for their boss. Not for the KPI. Not because it’s in a handbook. And also not because HR made a nice poster with our five new core values. For themselves. Because behavior changes when you look differently at what you’re actually doing. An employee sees table 34. At the table sit two people finally having time for each other. A receptionist sees the next check-in. For the family in front of him, their vacation is about to begin. A leader sees a twenty-minute conversation. The employee across from him might remember that conversation for years. Same work. Different meaning.

And suddenly the question changes from “What do I have to do?” to “Who do I really want to be here?” The one who does what is asked? Or the one who makes a difference? The six-version of yourself because no one can say it was wrong? Or the nine because you just feel better going home? Because in the end, you don’t choose that standard for your manager, your organization, or even your customer. You choose it for yourself. Because it does something to you when you help someone. Make someone laugh. Solve a problem. Make a colleague shine. Mean something. Pride. Energy. Joy. Fulfillment.

And there’s something else interesting. Want better customers? Be better. If you come in rushed, disinterested, and on autopilot, a suspicious number of annoying customers seem to show up. Show genuine interest, give your energy, and really see people? Then those same people suddenly become much nicer. It’s amazing. Works with colleagues too. Teams. Children. Friends. And yes, even at home.

So your standard doesn’t just determine what you give. It also influences what you get back. You can’t always choose what happens. But you can choose which version of you shows up. And according to Marco, there’s much more influence on pleasure, relationships, and results than we often think. Marco didn’t come up with this idea because he wanted to be a keynote speaker and needed a nice story. It was exactly the opposite. For over twenty years, he has been working in the middle of organizations on behavior, leadership, culture, and customer and employee experience. With hundreds of leaders and teams, for organizations like IKEA, ING, HEMA, Accor Hotels, and Koninklijk Theater Carré.

There, it’s tested. With real people. Real resistance. Targets that just need to be met. And ideas that seemed brilliant on a flip chart but turned out to be less brilliant on Tuesday afternoon at 4:20 pm. An international transformation program that Marco co-developed and facilitated was awarded an international HR Award. The practice is his laboratory. The stage is where he shares what truly works there. And that stage is no lecture hall.

Marco tells stories, plays with the audience, confronts, improvises, makes people laugh, and makes complex psychology surprisingly simple. The atmosphere is light. The content is not. He ultimately searches for that one moment when someone thinks, “Shit. I’ve never looked at it like that before.” Because that’s where change begins. Not because Marco tells you what to do. But because you choose again who you want to be.