What motivates us to perform?
Thinking back to school or university what is it that we remember? Usually, it isn’t the material we invested the most time in learning to pass our exams but the stuff we were motivated to read about and understand because of our interest. Our memories serve us well in this regard, letting in and storing things that signal interest, enjoyment, and connection.
There are two types of motivation – internally drive, intrinsic and externally driven, extrinsic.
Extrinsic motivation is doing something for a separate consequence like to be rewarded, to please someone or to avoid negative consequences. Intrinsic motivation means doing something because it is interesting, enjoyable and aligns with us internally.
In a work context, extrinsic motivation is associated with financial rewards or scores on performance reviews. Whilst intrinsic motivation energises us to perform because of our connection with the task itself.
Both types of motivation aid performance, but to unlock maximum performance, intrinsic motivation is the key. Studies have shown that those who are intrinsically motivated to do a task perform better than those extrinsically motivated. In fact, providing an extrinsic motivation like a reward for performance has been found to reduce motivation in individuals intrinsically motivated to perform. Reward is seen as a source of external influence which undermines intrinsic motivation.
Intrinsic motivation - playing to our strengths
We are intrinsically motivated to do things we enjoy, are interest in and connect with us internally. It intuitively follows that it will be both effective and rewarding to us to spend our time doing the things we are intrinsically motivated to do. We don’t need to push ourselves to get started, we are curious and eager to go. When we are doing the work, we are fully focused – the task is just the right level of challenging and interesting to enable us to naturally switch off any distractions. The state of mind when we are totally involved and everything else around us disappears into the background defined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi as flow.
It is easy to see this in action in children, when given the freedom to choose how to spend their time you can watch them go off and do something that they enjoy and become entirely engrossed in it. I see this with my son who can sit for hours, alone, creating things out of anything he can find about the house. While my daughter prefers to solve puzzles in connection with another person who she can learn from.
As adults though so much of our energy is spent satisfying extrinsic motivations to ensure that our practical needs and those of our families are met. We can often lose sight of our intrinsic motivators… but they are there and there is much potential in discovering them.
Flow happens when challenge and skill are in equilibrium.
When our work challenges us at just the right level to maximise the use of our strengths we achieve a state of flow, also known as, mindful challenge. The productivity of the state of flow maximises our performance on the task in hand.
Strong Leadership
The strongest leaders don’t necessarily have the most strength instead they optimise those that they have and integrate with the strengths of those around them. In doing so they enable the performance of the team to be greater than the sum of the parts.
Identifying and appreciating the unique strengths of each team member is an essential ingredient. It is a win-win, enabling engaged, energized, and motivated employees to play their part in maximising team performance.
Sharing this practice with your team enables them to follow suit. Enabling them to feel empowered to volunteer to take on a task that matches their individua strength and to ask for help when the match is not quite right.
Putting your strengths into practice
Discover - Take some time to reflect on what has given you a sense of flow in the past. Be aware and take note when it happens in the present.
Practice - Try out the strengths you discover in different aspects of your work-life. Find opportunities to use more of them to enhance your performance and feel more energised and fulfilled.
Plan - Look ahead at your career or life goals, what role can your strengths play in deciding where you are going and helping you get there.
Practice: A one-page guide to help you identify your strengths - questions to ask yourself and clues to look out for.
Read: Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
Drawing on research, this book explains the science behind the concept of flow. Its focus is about finding happiness in the tasks we perform through achieving a state of flow.
It takes us on a journey through different aspects of ourselves and our lives explaining the conditions needed to achieve flow.
References
Deci, Edward L. (2016) Intrinsic Motivation: The Inherent Tendency to Be Active
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2002) Flow
Comments