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In the Alphabet of Leadership under M we will deal with motivation. One of the most common questions asked by managers is how to motivate employees. Committed employees, motivated to work are essential to achieving results and success. When analyzing various theories of motivation, we feel that it is all very complicated and often contradictory. That’s right – motivation has many faces. At the same time, it seems to us that there is something missing in these simplified models of motivation.

All models are wrong, but some are useful,

Leaders, teachers, doctors and parents are looking for the Holy Grail, which is the key to human motivation. They are looking for how to motivate others through trial and error method. They try to solve the problem of lack of motivation.

Why are they failing? They are often ignorant of motivation. Moreover, they do not know much about the other person,  and do not know the person’s needs. That is why they do not know how to act on it. Other mistakes are the inability to truly listen in order to be aware of these needs. Moreover the leaders use a very simplified approach, using one tool for all. Also, it doesn’t work to see others only from your own perspective and to think that if something motivates me, it motivates others.

Photo: Pexels, Ady April

 

Released a little over a decade ago, Daniel Pink’s book “Drive” is extremely popular and its 3-component model has been repeatedly quoted.

Daniel Pink himself says on his website that on the basis on four decades of scientific research into human motivation, he sees a mismatch between what science knows and what business does. Using the division into external and internal motivation, Daniel Pink proves that in the business world, internal motivation seems to be much more effective than external motivation. This means that people are usually much more motivated by internal rewards such as challenge, self-esteem, or influence than by external rewards such as money or benefits. In particular, autonomy, mastery and purpose are three key internal rewards that we strive for through action.

The truth is, every motivation is an intrinsic motivation. When others motivate us, all they do is get us to connect within ourselves with what is important to us and how important it is for us to take action. The final question that often comes up in the motivation center is WHY.

You ask “why” to enable the person to learn about their core values ​​and why they take action. But it is not enough.

Motivation is not only about the decision to get the job done. It’s about making a decision to do something more important than any other task. This means that we put something above something else. This often gets in the way of most motivation attempts. You can motivate yourself or someone else to do something, and they can do it unless something important also comes up. Where does that lead us?

Daniel Pink identifies three elements of true motivation – autonomy, mastery and purpose.

Here are some suggestions From KornFerry to help you support both types of motivation in your workplace:

To support intrinsic motivation:

  • Create opportunities for employees do to challenging and interesting work that fully leverages their skills and abilities.
  • Remove bureaucracy, poorly designed processes, and other institutional barriers that stand in the way.
  • Empower employees to devise new ways of working based on their unique differences and perspectives.
  • Encourage managers to recognize employees who go above and beyond.

To support extrinsic motivation:

  • Establish a strong value proposition to attract key talent and remind employees why they work for a winning team.
  • Help employees to connect learning and development opportunities with future roles and career paths.
  • Ensure financial rewards are fair and competitive without overstating the importance of rewards as a motivator
  • Publicly recognize exceptional performance.

The bottom line: When intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are more aligned, the result will be higher engagement and more inspired performance.

Management 3.0, or motivation according to Jurgen Appelo

Jurgen Appelo developed a game that allows people to reflect on their motivation and the impact of organizational changes on their motivation. The game is called Moving Motivators and is based on 10 internal motivators inspired by Appelo’s works: Daniel Pin, Steven Reiss, Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. To do the exercise, download a file  with a deck of cards and cut out the cards. Then follow the steps mentioned below.

Ten Intrinsic Desires

The Moving Motivators exercise is based on the 10 intrinsic desires which originate from the research of Daniel Pink, Steven Reiss, and Deci/Ryan. In order to play the Moving Motivators exercise you need to download this PDF, print it out, and cut out the cards.

1st Step: Important to You

In the first part of the exercise you determine which motivators are most important to you. You do this by ordering the cards from the left (least important) to the right (most important).

It appears that the results vary strongly among players. For example, Relatedness turn out to be the most important motivator for somebody, and Order is the least important. But for the team members the results will vary.

2nd Step: Effects of Change

In the second part of the exercise you consider a change in your work life, such as an Agile transformation, a relocation, a new project, or a new job. You then determine how that change affects your motivators. If the change is positive, you move the card up. If the change is negative, you move the card down.

You will probably see that organizational changes have a different impact on different motivators. Perhaps the Agile transformation of your team makes your Curiosity card go up, but your Competence card may (temporarily) go down. Or the new job you applied for will increase your Status while at the same time it may decrease your Relatedness.

3rd Step: Reflection on Motivation

The Moving Motivators exercise reveals the effect of an organizational change on your motivators. When most of the important motivators go down, or when only the least important ones go up, you may realize that you have some work to do on your own motivation.

The exercise is particularly interesting for team managers (possibly to be performed with people in private one-on-one situations). It allows managers to find out what motivates their team members, and how an organizational change is affecting them. The exercise may give better insights than a regular conversation.

http://nuworks.jp/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Moving-Motivators-2015-self-print-A4-English.pdf

https://www.bondcollective.com/blog/how-to-motivate-employees/