18 Oct Time to work out which motivators will get the best out of your team
Time to work out which motivators will get the best out of your team
We all struggle at times with motivation, not only our own, but that of others. Parents, teachers, coaches and managers everywhere have to contend with how to motivate those with whom they work.
I am sure there are times when you struggle to find energy and effort to keep persisting with the tasks that your business and your life in general throw at you.
In the past, people have often been motivated by external factors such as reward systems, grades, evaluations or the opinions they fear others might have of them.
HOWEVER, the world has moved on and now people are more frequently motivated from within, by interests, curiosity, creativity, care or abiding values.
When you understand how your own behaviour can influence others to act, you can begin to find ways to use motivation to further your personal and business goals.
So here is an important question: What REALLY motivates people?
Driven people are influenced by a blend of motivators:
- Internal biological motivators – hunger, thirst, sex, safety, survival
- External reward and punishment – carrot and stick – desire to complete an activity to attain positive consequence such as an incentive, or to avoid a negative consequence such as a punishment (extrinsic)
- Internal psychological and emotional motivators – deep-seated, fundamental – behaviour that is driven by internal rewards, where there may be no tangible goal to reach in order to achieve satisfaction (intrinsic)
But which of these works best?
Professor Bruno S. Frey (Professor of Economics at the University of Zurich and Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School) neatly points out that
Intrinsic motivation is of great importance for all economic activities. It is inconceivable that people are motivated solely or even mainly by external activities. These intrinsic motivations are not necessarily externally rewarded or supported, but they nonetheless can sustain passion, creativity and effort.