The motivation dilemma is that leaders are being held accountable to do something they cannot do –– motivate others. Understanding what works when it comes to motivation begins with a phenomenon every employee (and leader) experiences –– the appraisal process.
To experience the appraisal process, think about a recent meeting you attended. Reflect on your different thoughts and emotions as you noticed the meeting on your calendar, jumped off a call and rushed to make the meeting on time.Whether mindful of it or not, you had thoughts and feelings about attending the meeting –– you had both cognitive and emotional responses to the meeting.
Is the meeting a safe or threatening event? Am I feeling supported or threatened? Is it a good use of or a waste of my time? Am I excited or fearful? Am I attending because I want to or because I feel I have to?
Ultimately, how you feel about the meeting has the greatest influence on whether your sense of well-being is negative or positive.Your well-being determines your intentions, which ultimately lead to your behavior.
Every day, your employees’ appraisal of their workplace leaves them with or without a positive sense of well-being.Their well-being determines their intentions, and intentions are the greatest predictors of behavior. A positive appraisal that results in a positive sense of well-being leads to positive intentions and behaviors that generate employee engagement.
Our desire to thrive is innate, but thriving doesn’t happen automatically –– especially at work. Human thriving in the workplace is a dynamic potential that requires nurturing.The workplace either facilitates, fosters and enables our flourishing, or it disrupts, thwarts and impedes it. In fact, conventional motivational practices have undermined more often than they’ve encouraged our human potential.
The essence of motivating people lies at the heart of the science of motivation and the revelation of three psychological needs –– autonomy, relatedness and competence. Regardless of gender, race, culture or generation, the real story behind our motivation is as simple and as complex as whether or not our psychological needs are satisfied.
Psychologists use the terms autonomy, relatedness and competence when exploring the individual attributes of these needs and ARC when pointing out their collective power –– which is substantial.
What Really Motivates People
The First Psychological Need: Autonomy
Autonomy is our human need to perceive we have choices. It is our need to feel that what we are doing is of our own volition. It is our perception that we are the source of our actions.
The Second Psychological Need: Relatedness
Relatedness is our need to care about and be cared about by others. It is our need to feel connected to others without concerns about ulterior motives. It is our need to feel that we are contributing to something greater than ourselves.
The Third Psychological Need: Competence
Competence is our need to feel effective at meeting ev- eryday challenges and opportunities. It is demonstrating skill over time. It is feeling a sense of growth and flourishing.
When a person experiences high-quality psychological needs, she will have an optimal motivational outlook. In other words, if her needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence are satisfied, the result is an aligned, integrated or inherent motivational outlook.
When a person experiences low-quality psychological needs, he will have a suboptimal motivational outlook. In other words, if his autonomy, relatedness and competence are not satisfied, the result is a disinterested, external or imposed motivational outlook.
The ARC Domino Effect
Imagine you have a manager with control needs. He micromanages people and projects –– whether they need it or not. His micromanagement is undermining your sense of autonomy –– He is controlling your work and not allowing you to think for yourself. You are afraid to go over his head to complain because you’ve seen what happens to complainers.
This is how the ARC Domino Effect begins.Your lack of autonomy raises questions in your mind about your competence.Your inability to manage your manager’s over-involvement or the organizational politics involved further erodes your competence. Your manager’s ineffective leadership, lack of sensitivity to your needs and apparent self-interest prevent any sense of relatedness. Intangible external forces (his micromanaging style and your fear) dictate your internal sense of well-being.
People revel in the positive energy, vitality and sense of well-being that occur when all three psychological needs are satisfied. But –– and this is a big but –– one depends on the other.The ARC Domino Effect is in full force when even one psychological need is missing.
If A or R or C falls, the others are diminished as well.
The ARC Gap
Every year or so, the Gallup organization releases a poll on employee engagement that inspires the collective hand-wringing of news anchors and editorial writers around the country. The results are as predictable as they are bleak.The latest figures indicate that a full 70 percent of American employees feel disengaged at their jobs.
Of these, 18 percent are “actively disengaged,” meaning that they’re not simply failing to meet their potential — they’re acting out in ways that measurably damage their company.
Organizational leaders have tried to increase employee engagement, but they’ve gone about it the wrong way. As Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief scientist for workplace management and well-being, put it, “There is a gap between knowing about engagement and doing something about it in most American workplaces.”
The real story of motivation is that people have psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence. It is a mistake to think that people are not motivated.They are simply longing for needs they cannot name.
How do you get employees engaged in their work? By daily providing opportunities for autonomy, competence and relatedness.
Psychological Needs are at the Heart of Employee Engagement.
To promote autonomy, provide a rationale when tasks are presented, offer flexibility on how and when a task is performed and minimize the focus on rewards. Help employees feel competent by creating a workplace that provides them with immediate feedback, meaningful recognition and opportunities for growth.
Within the business world, relatedness has long been the most underappreciated of the three psychological needs. But connecting employees to one another doesn’t just
help them enjoy being at work; it leads to quantifiable gains in their performance.To build employee connections, it’s important to create interactions that harness the natural catalysts of close relationships: proximity, familiarity, similarity and self-disclosure.
Most organizations have a vision, mission or purpose statement, but few employees have one for their work-related role. Collaborate with your employees to find alignment between their perception of the role-related values and purpose and your perception. Come to conclusions together that meet both their needs and those of the organization.
What does work is helping people understand why they are motivated.Your opportunity lies in facilitating people’s shift to an optimal motivational outlook so they flourish as they succeed. When you activate optimal motivation for yourself, you provide more than a role model –– you create a ripple effect that encourages your people’s optimal motivation and emotional engagement.
Imagine people choosing to come to work because they experience a sense of positive well-being, the feeling that they are contributing to something greater than themselves, and the thrill of continued growth and learning.
To your greater success and fulfillment,
Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT
Email: petercmclees@gmail.com
Mobile: 323-854-1713
Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.
Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT
Email: petercmclees@gmail.comSMART DEVELOPMENT
Mobile: 323-854-1713
Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.
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