Motivation through Flow & Mastery

The other day, I did some momming worthy of the Golden Globe for Best Parenting in a Comedy Series. My daughter had done something kind of stupid and impulsive and was mortified by her own behavior. My husband and I agreed that punishing her for what she did would just compound her embarrassment and shame, and so we decided to help her process her feelings instead. (And, of course, there was no screen time.)

In that moment of parenting, I was intensely focused on the present. I was watching my daughter closely for signs of her feelings changing. I was using a variety of coaching tools and holding each one lightly in case it took her down the wrong road. I was so in the moment, I have no idea how long the conversation lasted.

I was in flow, a term coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. He describes it as a psychological state of complete absorption in an activity, when you're so focused that everything else falls away. You become so involved in what you’re doing that you lose awareness of yourself, time, and your surroundings.

And I have to say, it felt AMAZING! It felt like some of my best coaching sessions or a training day when the audience is right there with me. Parenting is one thing I'm continually trying to get better at, and having moments of flow makes me feel like I'm actually improving.

Flow happens when there's a perfectly challenging fit between the task and your capabilities. It's difficult enough to require your full attention, but not so hard that it creates anxiety, and not so easy that it causes boredom. Ideally, it pushes you to the edge of where you're capable and stretches you into the next level - but not too much!

Apply this to your work - how many tasks do you perform that fit this description? Hard enough to keep you excited and engaged, but not so hard as to cause you extra stress.

Let's take it one step further. How many of your tasks have clear goals - you know exactly what you’re trying to do, and you can tell instantly whether what you’re doing is working, so your actions and the results feel linked? (This is also part of flow.)

Celebrate if you can think of multiple tasks that fit this category. According to Csikszentmihalyi’s foundational study (and it's dated, so keep that in mind), being in flow during work about half the time (54%) is not rare in principle, but I've found that when I ask people what makes them "get lost" at work, not everyone has a clear answer.

In his terrific book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Dan Pink talks about the three major motivators he's discovered in his research: Autonomy (being able to do work you choose, your way, with people you choose to do it with), Mastery (getting better at something that matters to you), and Purpose (connecting the work to something bigger than the worker).

For Pink, flow is part of Mastery. When your challenge and skills are matched - assuming you're meeting a high challenge with high skills and not a medium challenge with medium skills - the process of using those skills develops and hones them further. Especially if you're given clear feedback after the task is completed. (And on top of that, if we're able to create more flow at work, we're likely to be more motivated because flow feels good.)

So how can we create more Mastery and Flow at work, either for ourselves or our direct reports?

Assign work so it has the right challenge–skill balance

Flow requires “just enough” challenge. Mastery requires increasing challenge. To get both, think about ways to:

• Break large projects into progressively harder stages

• Give people tasks that are slightly above their current capability

• Avoid long stretches of repetitive, low-skill work

Give people autonomy over how they work

Flow needs uninterrupted focus. When employees have to do work your way or on your schedule, it's harder to create that focus. Instead, find ways to:

• Allow them to choose how to sequence or organize their tasks

• Establish intra-team “no meeting” blocks or quiet focus windows

• Control the urge to micromanage and hover

Create clear goals and provide feedback

Flow requires instant signals about whether something is working. Mastery requires feedback that guides improvement. Whether you're giving out meaningful positive feedback or challenging corrective feedback, try to find ways to:

• Break work down into units that produce opportunities for fast feedback

• Use dashboards, quick check-ins, or shared definitions of “done”

• Encourage peer reviews if you're not able to give feedback yourself

Normalize a deep work culture

This one is huge, and if you're the leader, you're the only one who can set this tone. People need permission and space to concentrate.

• Model visible deep-work habits, like "no meeting" times, holding boundaries, and turning off devices

• Reinforce that productivity requires you to be unresponsive for a certain amount of time

• Celebrate high-quality outcomes, not quick replies

Expect skill development as part of the job

My career has been in learning and development, so of course I'm biased about this, but Mastery requires the continual expansion of skills. Whether that's through formal training or peer-to-peer learning, if your team members have goals that don't include skill growth, send them back to the drawing board. You can also:

• Provide training budgets, learning time, and stretch assignments

• Treat mastery as part of your employees' performance expectations - "I expect that you will improve in this area this year"

• Pair senior and junior colleagues for skill transfer

Celebrate Mastery

If people can see themselves getting better, motivation increases. We spend too much time at work focusing on where our employees aren't doing well. Instead, we need to spend more time catching them doing something right and getting better at those things they're already doing right. Consider:

• Tracking progress on skills, not just tasks. Look at what their tasks are laddering up to, not just what they're doing

• Celebrate improvements in technique, judgment, problem-solving, or other "soft skills"

• Show before-and-after examples of someone’s growth, both to them and to the team

Motivating yourself and your employees can be hard, but if you focus on creating an environment that encourages flow and Mastery, you'll be one step ahead of the game.