AMPing Up Your Motivation

Many years ago, I read the fantastic book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink, and it changed the way I looked at motivation. Instead of thinking about the hundreds of ways I could motivate my people - give them more ownership? chances to belong? free time? cupcakes? - it helped me focus on three major things: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.

Autonomy

Pink argues that autonomy - the desire to be in charge of our own time - is a core driver of motivation. Most people perform better when they have meaningful choice over how they spend their time and approach their work. (When was the last time you enjoyed being told what to do, how to do it, and when?) Autonomy doesn’t mean working on whatever you want without accountability; it means having ownership over decisions that impact your work and the freedom to apply your own judgment, creativity, and personal strengths. When we feel trusted to manage our work, our engagement and commitment tend to rise.

Pink explains that we can help our employees have autonomy in four dimensions: task, time, technique, and team. People are more motivated and take more ownership of a task when they have some say in what they work on, when they work on it, how they do the work, and sometimes who they collaborate with.

What does this look like?

• Making a list of what needs to be done, and letting your employees choose which projects or problems they want to tackle

• Co-designing goals aligned with team priorities ("Given that these are our priorities, what would you like to take on?")

• Allowing flexible schedules or compressed workweeks when possible

• Setting clear deadlines but avoiding micromanaging daily timelines ("These goals need to be hit by noon, and these by end of day, but however you go about them is up to you.")

• Delegating the outcome, but letting the employee choose the process

• Encouraging employees to test new approaches instead of insisting on “the way we’ve always done it.”

• Inviting employees to bring in colleagues from other departments to solve problems

If it sounds so easy, why does it go wrong so often? Leaders have to trust their team members to do the job fully and well, and that's not always easy. Also, leaders have to be willing to relinquish control over the work and being right. And, well, that's not so easy either.

Mastery

Pink defines mastery as the human drive to get better at something that matters. People are motivated when they feel they are developing competence, expanding their skills, and making progress. Mastery is not a fixed destination but a continuous process of learning and improvement. Work becomes more engaging when employees are given challenges that stretch their abilities just beyond their current level and when progress toward improvement is recognized. This desire for mastery, he argues, is why we have hobbies that we work so hard at and don't get paid for. It feels good to get better at something.

What does this look like?

• Creating stretch assignments for your people that develop new skills

• Providing specific, constructive feedback that helps them improve

• Setting clear development goals tied to learning rather than just outcomes

• Allowing time (and money!) for training or professional development

• Pairing employees with mentors, partners, or experts

• And that old growth mindset chestnut, celebrating progress, not just final results

Where does this go wrong? Sometimes, especially when we have an employee who is good at one particular task, we keep loading that employee up with that same task. We forget that developing other skills will be motivating and valuable. We worry that they'll be overloaded and resentful of extra work. Or we get scared that they'll be better at our jobs than we are, and we hold them back needlessly, out of fear.

(Let's not do that, yes?)

Purpose

Purpose (as Pink defines it) is the desire to contribute to something larger than ourselves. People are more motivated when they see how their work benefits others (or the world) or advances a meaningful mission. Sometimes the purpose is clear, like at a nonprofit that's planting trees, for example, but sometimes it's a little murkier. I remember once a coworker talking to me about how to find meaning in promoting a food product that had just been rated the number one junkiest thing to give to kids. I encouraged her to focus on what that work enabled her to do for her family... but sometimes purpose can be harder to find.

When employees understand the “why” behind their work, everyday tasks feel less like obligations and more like contributions. Purpose connects your individual efforts to a broader impact, helping people feel that their work matters. Especially if you are working with team members who do menial tasks that absolutely have to be done (and done well), connecting these dots goes a long way.

What does this look like?

• Linking daily tasks/work to the organization or team’s mission and the people it serves (When I was at the ad agency, our team's motto was "we're here to make your lives better," so if that meant doing a lot of irritating scheduling, we did it.)

• Inviting employees to reflect - in team meetings or performance conversations - on how their roles contribute to team and organizational goals

• Publicly recognizing work that advances the mission, not just the bottom line

• Involving staff in conversations about improving outcomes for customers, patients, or communities

Where does this go wrong? Lots of organizations talk the talk when it comes to mission and contribution to society. But fewer of them walk the walk. If your organization (or team) doesn't take its values or mission seriously, there's not a lot for the employees to connect to (and they'll probably leave to find somewhere that does).

So your job, as a leader, is to think about how you can maximize these variables for your people. Because motivated employees are committed employees. And demotivated employees are a drag on the whole system.

Image source: gamify.com