‘Our greatest weakness lies
in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more
time.’ Thomas A. Edison (inventor)
As
mentioned in last week's post, our happiness at work depends to a large degree on
having the right motivation. Our motivation has not only an impact onto our
productivity and efficiency at work, but it also has an influence on our
persistence and willingness to continue to work in more difficult
circumstances, when we have to deal with failures, defeats or rejections.
The two types of motivation
Before
we get into more detail on how to become more motivated, we will just need to briefly
look at the two types of motivation:1-3
- With extrinsic motivation we are performing an activity because we are expecting an external reward. Common external rewards are praise, attention or admiration by other people, and of course money.
- With intrinsic motivation we are pursuing an activity because we have a passion for it and experience it as pleasurable; the activity gives us a sense of meaning, and/or we care about the end result.
The advantages of intrinsic motivation
Of
course we all rely on money to survive and we also need positive interactions
with other people, so to a degree we are all working for extrinsic rewards.
However, this is only true to a certain threshold level. Beyond this, it is
important to retain as much intrinsic motivation as possible, as it has several
advantages over extrinsic motivation:
- Independence from external factors: If we are pursuing an activity for its own sake, we are of course less dependent on the external conditions. This is a great advantage; in previous posts, we have come across hedonic adaptation, which is the phenomenon that we humans adapt relatively quickly to positive as well as negative conditions (see also Can Money Buy Happiness?). This means that we can easily get used to the money we earn or the positive feedback from others, so that we may need more and more of it over time in order to keep us motivated.1,2,4 If, on the other hand, we are genuinely interested in our work, experience it as meaningful and we enjoy our work-related activities, then we have an automatic inner rewarding system, which gives our well-being more independence.4,6
- It energises us: When we do something we love and we have a generic interest in, it gives us mental energy.2
- It makes us think more creatively.3
- It tends to make us more successful and productive in the long run.3
- Intrinsic motivation fosters greater mental and physical well-being.1-3
Although
people show different tendencies regarding their behaviour (i.e. some of us are
more intrinsically motivated, others more extrinsically motivated), it is
important to bear in mind that motivational behaviour is learned and not fixed.
In other words, cultivating
certain attitudes and mindsets can make us shift towards the more rewarding
intrinsic motivation.3
The problems with external rewards
The
traditional view in business and education has been that people need to get
motivated by positive and negative incentives (‘carrots and sticks’), in other
words that we need to rely on extrinsic motivation when trying to achieve
results. To a certain point this is correct, as we all have to earn a living
and want to be paid fairly. However, it has been shown that under certain
circumstances, ‘carrots and sticks’ can be completely counterproductive. Whether
or not external incentives work depends on the type of task or work we are
performing:3
- Algorithmic tasks are basic actions, which follow established instructions where the solution can only be reached over one certain path. The classic example is work on a production line in a factory or other simple manual work. However, over the last century there has been a huge shift with many algorithmic tasks now performed by machines or computers. Therefore, most of us have to complete more complex, so-called heuristic tasks at work. For these, there is no single script or routine solution path and we have to rely more on creativity, experimentation and open thinking in order to succeed.
- While ‘carrots and sticks’ can increase productivity for algorithmic tasks, this is not fully true for heuristic tasks. Here, external rewards (especially money) can boost the motivation in the short-term, but they can have several detrimental effects in the long run including:
- Decreasing our intrinsic motivation (because an interesting task may be turned into a drudge), reducing our performance and creativity
- They can encourage cheating, shortcuts and unethical behaviour, particularly if we have not set the goals ourselves (e.g. if we are given certain sales targets)
- They can become addictive
- They can make us adopt short-term thinking
How can we increase our intrinsic motivation?
So
if external incentives are not the solution, how can we ensure that we stay
motivated? A lot of research has gone into this question over the last decades,
and scientific studies show that intrinsic motivation depends on three key elements:
autonomy, mastery and purpose.3
Autonomy
In
order to have a sense of autonomy, we need to have some influence over four
different aspects:3 What we do (the task), when we do it (the time),
who we do it with (the team), how do we do it (the technique). Naturally not
all job roles allow us full autonomy in all above areas. However, our
motivation is likely to grow if we are allowed and seek a greater degree of
autonomy.
Mastery and flow
Having
a mastery experience is a huge contributor to intrinsic motivation. Mastery
essentially means that we become good at doing something, which matters to us. Mastery
also increases our sense of self-efficacy and confidence through experiencing
success.8
Applying
our skills makes us feel good, provided that there is the right match between
our skills and the task; too little challenge causes boredom, but too much
challenge is a common cause for anxiety and stress.4 Having the
right match between your skills (and energy) and tasks at hand allows you to
enter the state of flow, which is a
pleasurable feeling and highly associated with well-being.3,4,6,7
When we experience flow, we become so deeply absorbed in an activity that we
lose the sense of time and self-consciousness. We feel ‘in the zone’. We
particularly enjoy an activity (and experience flow) if both, the skills and
challenge, are high. So in order to fuel our motivation, we should aim to enter
the state of flow as often as possible. This means that we are aware of our skills
and deliberately engage in appropriate challenges.
In
order to pursue mastery successfully, we need to believe that we are able to continuously
improve our skills, but without falling into the trap of perfectionism. We also
need to accept that it takes effort, deliberate practice and persistence to
improve our skills.3
Purpose
As
previously discussed in What Do You Live For- About Finding Meaning, we humans
inherently strive for purpose, and the sense to serve or be part of something
bigger than we are.1,4,6,7 Importantly, we all have to figure out ourselves
what gives us meaning. What may be a deeply meaningful activity for one person
may be a completely lost cause to another. Deliberately looking for meaning in
our work and identifying aspects, which resonate with our values not only
promotes well-being but also intrinsic motivation.3
So increasing our sense of autonomy, mastery/flow and purpose will also
raise our intrinsic motivation. Another aspect is that we should ideally set
our own goals and that these should be largely compatible with those of the
business we work for.3
Mind your motivation when dealing with colleagues
Having
a general healthy sense of control is an important factor for well-being.4-6
However, this sense of control arises indirectly when we experience success,
such as mastery experience (see below).3,6 Conversely, gaining power
and control as a primary goal or motivation has been shown to be unhelpful,
particularly in interpersonal relationships.5
As
a highly social creatures, our well-being largely depends on good relationships
with other people, whether these are family and friends or work colleagues.1,2,4-7 However, in some people an intense need
for power and control in relationships can outweigh their need for close and
mutual affiliation. These people are characterized by an aggressive,
self-centered, argumentative or overly competitive behaviour in order to
increase personal status and prestige.5 People with such
characteristics (also called stressed
power motivation) do not only get very stressed and frustrated in
challenging situations where they see their sense of power under threat, but
this personality trait has also been associated with poorer physical health.
On
the other hand, there is the motivational pattern of unstressed affiliation motivation. People who show this type of
motivation in interpersonal relationships readily connect to others and want to
be friendly and liked, not for the reason that they want to increase their
status or influence but because they are genuinely interested in mutual
relationships. Because these people do not experience challenging situations as
a threat to their power or control, the unstressed affiliation motivation is
associated with a higher stress hardiness/resilience.5
Having
a sense of trust in others is essential for unstressed affiliation motivation,
and it as been shown to be an important contributing factor to mental
well-being as well as physical health.5,7 So being aware of our
motivation when dealing with other people and increasing our sense of trust can
not only help us to become more resilient to stress but it may also make us happier
and healthier. Trusting affiliation may be cultivated e.g. through mindfulness
practices, by experiencing positive emotions and by deliberately forming and deepening
relationships with other people.5,7,9
More on
the topic:
Author
Dan Pink has looked into the scientific evidence on the topic of motivation,
and presents it the highly interesting book Drive- The Surprising Truth About
What Motivates Us.
Alternatively,
you can have a look at the TED talk by Dan Pink about the same topic here: https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.
Preview: Next week’s post is
going to be all around the issue of time- our perception of time, time pressure
and self-organisation for effective time management.
References and further reading:
1.
Lyubomirsky S. The Myths of Happiness: What should make you happy but doesn’t,
what shouldn’t make you happy but does. Penguin Books; New York. 2013.
2.
Seppälä E. The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to
Accelerate Your Success. Piatkus; London, UK. 2016.
3.
Pink DH. Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates Us. Canongate Books;
Edinburgh, UK. 2009.
4.
Diener E, Biswas-Diener R. Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological
Wealth. Blackwell Publishing; Oxford, UK. 2008.
5. Kabat-Zinn
J: Full Catastrophe Living: How To Cope With Stress, Pain and Illness Using
Mindfulness Meditation. Piatkus. 2013.
6. Seligman
MEP. Flourish: A New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being- and How to
Achieve Them. Nicholas Brealey Publishing; London, UK. 2011.
7. Fredrickson
B. Positivity: Groundbreaking Research to Release Your Inner Optimist and
Thrive. Oneworld Publications; Oxford, England. 2010.
8.
Wiens KJ. Leading Through Burnout: The Influence Of Emotional Intelligence
On The Ability Of Executive Level Physician Leaders To Cope With Occupational
Stress And Burnout [Dissertation]. University of Pennsylvania. 2016.
9.
Graham L. Bouncing Back: Rewiring Your Brain for Maximum Resilience and
Well-Being. New World Library; Novato. 2013.
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