I enjoyed facilitating a meeting with some exceptional people last week. The topic was “leadership and motivation.” Here is what I observed during the discussion:
- You can not motivate that which you are not connected to. In other words, the relationship is critical to success.
- You are only in control of the way you go about helping others stay motivated vs. actually motivating them.
- Things like the words, the method, the timing and the environment are things you can control. Ultimately, the person must decide to #1 stay motivated internally and #2 respond to your coaching.
- The old days of carrot, stick and whip are archaic approaches and ought to be carefully thought through in their proper context.
- The consensus was that Dan Pink’s Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose was the most attractive in terms of motivational theories for their situation. No disrespect to Herzberg or Vroom.
- It is the leaders job to own what you can control, which means doing all you can to “put the vision” out there for others to follow. That is the part of purpose and autonomy in Pink’s model.
What is your next step? I might suggest asking the question “When you show up to work every day, what are some of the emotions you feel when you walk through the door?”
