|
Leading & Motivating
May 2011
Motivation is the desire to do. It is an interest or drive to stimulate action.
Homer Rice once said, “You can motivate by fear. And you can motivate by reward. But both of these methods are only temporary. The only lasting thing is self-motivation.”
As a leader, what is your most common form of motivation? Do you use fear? The fear method usually relies on the rules. Do you use the carrot principle? Do you dangle rewards out in front of others and hope that they’ll bite?
There are many tips and techniques out there to enhance these types of motivational styles… or as those being ‘motivated’ tend to refer to them… manipulation styles.
As I’ve mentioned previously, Daniel Pink authored a book last year called “Drive – The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us“. He discusses different types of motivation that align perfectly with the 3 classes of axiological value that I often discuss. Those classes of value are, in order of their objective value:
|
Intrinsic
|
Highest in value
|
infinite
|
|
Extrinsic
|
Mid range of value
|
finite
|
| Systemic |
Lowest in value
|
binary
|
Mr. Pink discusses what he calls “Motivation 1.0“. This is the old command and control. This type of motivation is old school… So old school that it was around before there were schools. Under Motivation 1.0 (systemic motivation), mankind was trying to survive. Systemic deals with either/or… either you survived or you didn’t. The leaders were those who survived. They were the strongest and used their power to command and order the others to work together to survive.
As we formed more complex societies and evolved, so did our motivation. We now needed to cooperate with one another to get the things we needed. At the core of this new and improved form of motivation was a revised and more accurate assumption: “Humans are more than the sum of our biological urges. Now the first drive to survive still exists, but it didn’t fully account for who we were.” We knew how to survive and it didn’t consume all of our time. We now wanted more (extrinsic stuff) than just survival.
Motivation 2.0 (extrinsic motivation) was born. This second drive became the avoidance of pain and the pursuit of pleasure or reward. Using Motivation 2.0, mankind harnessed the power of the carrot and the stick to create amazing leaps in innovation. “We tend to think that coal and oil have powered economic development. But in some sense the engine of commerce has been fueled equally by carrots and sticks.” (Daniel Pink)
These forms of motivation have served us well. But humankind has grown beyond them. Yet our leadership styles have remained ‘old school’.
In order to take your leadership skills and abilities to the next level, you MUST understand VALUE. Intrinsic Motivation (Pink’s Motivation 3.0) is that next level. I have been teaching this to leaders for the last 5 years with tremendous success. Here are the keys:
Your followers still want to survive and they still want rewards, but you will also notice that there are other things that are more important and more valuable to them.
1) Autonomy: This means acting with choice.
- It’s not about go-it-alone, maverick-type independence, but about working with others to achieve a common goal and interdependence.
- It’s not about being ‘managed’ but being led.
- It’s not about being ’empowered’ (which is like being allowed to have power), it’s about being self-directed.
2) Mastery: This is about wanting to work to better yourself and your abilities. Have you ever wondered how people can play Farmville or Angry Birds or Dungeons & Dragons for hours and hours on end? What is the purpose of these games? The simple answer is ‘mastery’. Our brains love to learn and get good at doing things. As you lead others, the challenge should be not too easy nor too difficult. It should be a notch or two beyond their current ability. (That’s why those games have you learn and grow to the ‘next’ level.)
3) Purpose: Most highly motivated people – not to mention the most productive and most satisfied – hitch their desires and lend their talents to a cause larger than themselves. You need to move your mindset from productivity and profit maximization to ‘purpose maximization’. Humanize the words that you say. When you set the goals for your team members, make sure that they understand how their tasks impact the lives of others. When you focus on purpose, you will find that you not only rouse human hands, but more importantly human hearts.
People who are highly successful at leading others are people with superior relationship-building skills. They understand INTRINSIC MOTIVATION. They are surprisingly open about who they are and those around them know that they can trust them. It’s not about tips and tricks; to lead well you must learn to be real, genuine and authentic.
These are skills that we teach our clients every day with tremendous results. If you would like to learn to lead better, please contact me. We would love to help you.
|
