Earlier this week, I got the privilege of interviewing my Dad for a class project. While he is my Dad and it wasn't that difficult to get ahold of him, I still consider it a privilege to get to interview him for management classes as many students don't have connections to be able to interview a President/CEO, let alone have unrestricted access to one. So yes, he's my Dad, but it is still an incredible privilege to be able to learn from him one on one. Anyhow, during this interview he made a great comment on motivation that I don't think I had ever heard before, but seems like a no-brainer once you hear it. So often we are focused on how we can motivate our teams, focused on what they need, and focused on how we can help. But, we rarely ask ourselves how we can make them FEEL like we helped.
If you read most of my blogs, you may come to find that a good number of them are about motivation, and that's because I really am just fascinated with how to motivate people. I take every class available to me that relates to motivation, and I love learning new things about how and why people are motivated. Better yet, what motivates people. While there are many ways that people can be motivated, and they differ for each person, I think there is one factor to motivation that often gets left out, and that's how the person feels after we make an effort to motivate them. Obviously, the point is that they feel motivated, but think for a second, how closely does that feeling of motivation relate to feeling as though they got what they were after?
Let's say you're driving down the road and you get a flat tire. You were unprepared, you don't have the tools, your phone is dead, and now you're stranded on the highway. Low and behold, a man wearing his Discount Tire work shirt, clearly having just got off of his shift, pulls up and asks if you need help. You're thinking, "YES! Finally someone who can help!" So, you tell him you could use some help. You're prepared to pay him for changing your tire, more than you would be willing to pay if you were to call someone to help because you're just so thankful for his help. He drops the bed of his truck and pulls out a floor jack, socket set, and conveniently, even a new wheel and tire that are the exact match for your car. He brings it all over by your car, sets it down, and says, "just put it in the bed when you're done." Then, he walks back to his truck. While you now have everything you need to fix the problem, you are likely going to FEEL much less than helped. The help you got wasn't the help you were hoping for. In the same scenario, if a guy on a bicycle comes riding by and calls someone to come fix the tire for you, you're going to be thrilled all day that you got the help you were hoping for.
How often do we seek to motivate others by what WE feel is a good motivator for them? Motivation is a feeling, which means the person needs to feel it. (Just to clarify, if you're thinking motivation isn't a feeling, you may be thinking of something more like drive. People have drive, but feel motivation) If the person is going to feel motivated, they need to feel like they got what they were after, and playing into their perceived need does that. The true need to fix your flat tire was the tools to do the job, but your perceived need was someone to change the tire. Providing people with what they need is important, but it may take something in the realm of their own wants in order to make them feel motivated. Give your team what they need, but also be willing to provide them with what they want at times.
Tailored motivation is custom fit. It plays into the wants of the person we are seeking to motivate. Whether they need what they are after or just have a strong desire to attain it, the only way to have a chance at making them feel motivated with our amount of control is to make them feel like we recognized their desire.
** Read the last blog on Complimentary Motivation, because the goal of all of this blog is to better understand how to use extrinsic motivation to influence and encourage intrinsic motivation, not shower people with what they want. **
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