Motivational Monday
Motivational Monday
I have been bombarded, this morning, by hoards of Social Media moguls pushing out posts around Motivational Monday.
Understandable, when many of my friends and family are currently in lockdown once again because of this COVID-19 Pandemic, home schooling is once again a thing and discussions are rife concerning the vaccination programmes being offered around the world. I am surrounded by snow drifts and haven’t left the house for over a week. So I can understand why the world feels like it needs a Motivational Monday.
Therefore, my questions to you are – what motivates you? How do you keep up your levels of enthusiasm for what you do, particularly in the workplace, in an ever-changing and uncertain environment?
The reason why I thought to write about this today was that one such advert this morning asked you to set your goals for the week and put down in writing what you wish to achieve. This made me smile as it brought back memories of a Recruitment Team I used to manage, what feels like many moons ago! I was doing a massive Transformation Project with the team whilst we were running a sizeable operation – to give you some perspective, within that first year we recruited 25,000 employees. The team were long serving, tired and getting to the point of real overburden at the beginning. The one excellent thing about them was, they had amazing team spirit and worked together amazingly well.
So as a manager, I looked around for different ways of keeping up the team spirit and offering a bit of momentum when times were difficult. I had two plastic buckets, not big ones, one red and one green. At the beginning of each working week everyone took a rubber ball from the red bucket to symbolize their goal for the week ahead which they verbalized to the rest of the team. As soon as they achieved their goals, they got to slam dunk it into the green bucket and take another ball all the while ringing the bell and getting a cheer from the team. Whenever we got the balls up to a line in the green bucket (therefore depleting the red bucket) the team won a gold trophy which they displayed on their cabinet. Then, when they got 5 trophies, we would have a pizza party. They were held accountable to a certain extent by the whole team, but they also had something tangible to hold onto and a ‘prize’ at the end of it.
In adult learning, the one fundamental difference between pedagogy and andragogy is that adults inherently look to find out what’s in it for them before getting involved in the learning experience. They call it the WIIFM factor. I have personally, however, found that there are not many more differences between teaching adults and children. I always had a jar of sweets and lollipops on my desks at work which were bottomless pits and funnily enough I didn’t often see the repeat offenders – but when it gets to 3:30 in the afternoon and you just need that something extra to keep you going… why not?! I’ve always found food to be an amazing motivator but there’s a good reason for that in an office environment. They say that when people ‘break bread’ together it unites them on the same level. The common function and need for food surpasses all boundaries and brings managers and team members together.
Nowadays when I think about Motivational Factors, I am always reminded of my MBA studies in People & Organisational Development which focused a great deal on the work of Frederick Hertzberg. He had a 2 Factor Theory of Motivation in that there are both Extrinsic & Intrinsic Motivational Factors, particularly when it comes to Job Satisfaction.
The Extrinsic Motivation factors are things which come from the outside in. These are almost always things that you expect others to do for you or to give you. External factors could be salary, bonuses, promotion, health and safety, management, training etc.
However, what is important to know about this is that extrinsic motivation is short-term motivation; it does not make your job or tasks more meaningful so therefore cannot retain attention (nor employees) in the long-term.
The Intrinsic Motivation factors come from the inside out. It’s all about feeling a part of something bigger than yourself, leveraging your talents and knowing your contribution and purpose related to the overall objective.
Therefore, Intrinsic motivation is long-term motivation, so it measures the extent to which you respond positively to factors associated with feeling connected to, or finding pleasure/ challenge in your work, and with actively using your talents and skills. Intrinsic motivation is based on taking pleasure in an activity itself, rather than working towards an external reward. When people are genuinely not motivated by the money, they are intrinsically motivated.
It is thus often felt that how motivated you are in what you do is 100% the responsibility of the individual. Here are some questions to help you be more motivated – something you might like to keep in mind on this Motivational Monday!
At a considerably basic level Motivation is connected to the individual’s energy first and then needs. What drains and what enhances your energy? Where are the negative influences in your life? What would give you the energy to get up and go daily?
In terms of your needs, what do you need to be doing to earn a living? Could you be doing it more effectively? What factors do you need to consider on a longer-term basis? Our needs are our strongest motivational drivers. Is your salary high enough? Are you being managed effectively? Do you have clear career progression? What training are you doing? Do you know where you are going in your current position?
Do you feel like you are fulfilling your true potential? Where do you see yourself longer term? What is your dream and your passion in life?
If you are feeling like you’re just not motivated perhaps take a moment to ponder as to whether or not it is a direct result of the current climate or is it something bigger? Have you been feeling like this for much longer? If so, do feel free to get in touch with me for a chat and let’s see if we can’t help you to find your mojo once again. I run a workshop dedicated to planning your own future and taking charge of what you want in life – for more details click here.