Motivating employees, or inspiring employees to be more accurate, implies that we understand why people take action. Ask yourself these two questions:
- Are their reasons for pursuing professional development goals positive or negative?
- Will they be internally motivated, or externally motivated?
Ideally, as leaders we’d like to inspire our employees so that the reasons they act are positive, and, they have made the reasons their own.
Let’s look at these two questions by placing them in four quadrants.
Extrinsic Motivation vs. Intrinsic Motivation
Let’s look at these two questions by placing them in four quadrants.
- Starting with the upper right, extrinsic motivation for positive reasons, the carrot approach. Examples include a pay raise, bonus, or other some incentive.
- Moving clockwise, extrinsic motivation for negative reasons, the stick approach. Examples include any threat or reprimand. If you don’t do X … you’re fired. You get the idea.
- Next, intrinsic motivation for negative reasons, I don’t want to do this… let’s move on.
- Finally, we want to inspire our employees to reach a point of intrinsic motivation for positive reasons; I want to do this. Better still, I want to do this and nothing is going to stop me from achieving my goal.
Motivating Employees
Motivating employees implies that you know what makes others “tick,” understanding basic human wants and needs, and you apply knowledge of the quadrants above.
First, however, leaders must have excellent interpersonal skills and be able to establish trust. You can make great strides by keeping these four principles in mind:
Individually, everyone wants:
Collectively, everyone wants:
3. Our values and beliefs shape our attitude, which impact every decision we make. Experiences lead to beliefs. The more we experience something, the greater the intensity of the belief. We begin to value these things, and over time, this shapes our attitude, our approach to every situation. It’s what makes us unique.
For example, let’s say you almost drown at an early age. You start to form a belief about water and swimming. If it happens again, you are likely to de-value open water.
You form an attitude about open water. Every time you have an opportunity to go swimming, you’ll likely decline, most likely never revealing your reasons WHY.
Cooling off by going for a swim is NOT something that will motivate you to take action!
- Is it a matter of communication styles?
- Do you know what makes others tick?
Take this assessment and deepen your understanding of human wants and needs
7 Dimensions for Motivating Employees
Behavioral psychologists Eduard Spranger and Gordon Allport identified six dimensions of motivation, and Jay Niblick at Innermetrix Corporation expanded their work and created the Values-Index™ assessment, a contemporary marketplace instrument that now includes seven dimensions of motivation.
The seven dimensions are:
- Aesthetic – a drive for balance, harmony, and form.
- Economic – a drive for economic or practical returns.
- Individualistic – a drive to stand out as independent and unique.
- Political – a drive to be in control or have influence.
- Altruist – a drive for humanitarian efforts or to help others altruistically.
- Regulatory – a drive to establish order, routine, and structure.
- Theoretical – a drive for knowledge, learning and understanding.
Tom's Biography
Tom Crea is a leadership expert, decorated career Army Officer, and Blackhawk Helicopter pilot. Because of his proven skills, he was hand selected to run the Army’s leadership development program at two Boston colleges, where he and his team transformed college students into combat leaders.
(Discover how to be a Guiding Light — 3-step process)
Today, he is a Servant Leadership ambassador: An author, keynote speaker, and leadership development coach. He is also a radio show host.
Tom has a B.S. & M.C.S. in Computer Science and a M.A. in Political Science and loves coaching basketball and spending time with his wife and two boys.
Creating a Culture:
Tom’s proudest leadership moment came when his unit was called to war in Iraq after he had rotated out. His replacement was not able to perform, so members he developed stepped up to lead; they attribute their success to the leadership Tom instilled in each of them. Today, the Blackhawk leadership way.