What Motivates You?

So…. I sit here today contemplating “what drives me?”.  It certainly may be overcoming one of the many mistakes I have made in my career.  It may also be inner drive.  It may also be the need to achieve.  It may also be my parents, “do it right the first time”, “never quit”, “be better”.  It may be DNA.  It may be my boss.  It's actually all of the above.

Thus, today will be like a “little journey through Dave’s brain”.

Let us start with my thinking about mistakes (real or imagined).  I hate to make mistakes, I hate to lose, I hate NOT winning.  As I age (I know in my mind I only look 20 years old and 150 pounds), I am becoming more cordial when I lose – but I still hate it.  That said, I think we would be fooling ourselves to think that we never make mistakes in the workplace – or in life.  Where does my list begin?  Well, let me do this somewhat chronologically and share “the voices” in my head:

Every second: Am I good enough? Am I valued? Am I making a difference?

Every minute: Am I balancing my life appropriately (family, friends, work, volunteering, fun)

Every hour:  Am I using my time wisely?  Am I prioritizing the right work, the right meetings,  the right focus, the right conversations?

Every day:  Am I being the best husband, father, friend, peer, boss, subordinate, best example?

Every week: Am I in the right job, the right company, the right career?

Every month: Am I making an impact with my family, my team, my boss, my company (and also – my family and my community)

Every year: Am I living the right life, with the right values, the right balance, the right focus?

If you are like me, you often have these same questions.  It is healthy.  It is natural.  How we deal with these varies by individual.  I do not think there is a right answer – but I do think this is part of what drives our human behavior.  It also motivates us and drives us to “be better”.  Now motivation, that is another topic.  As "Psychology Today" explains how to define motivation:  it is an internal or external drive that prompts a person to action; the ability to initiate and persist at a task; putting 100% of your time, effort, energy, and focus into your work; being able to work hard in the face of obstacles, boredom, fatigue, stress, and the desire to do other things; motivation means doing everything you can to be as productive as you can.

It's one thing to say you are motivated to achieve your goals; it's another entirely different thing to have that motivation translate into actual action toward those goals. Motivation is so important because it impacts every aspect of your business efforts: preparation, persistence, physical health, lifestyle, outcome … the list goes on.

All else being equal, whatever we put into our work efforts is what we will get out of them. Also, if you are among a group of equally capable colleagues or companies, the one who puts in the most time and effort is, generally, the one who is going to be most successful. A problem I see among many employees in our business world these days is a disconnect between our efforts and our goals. There is often a gap between the goals we have and the effort we are putting into those goals. It's easy to say that we want to be a successful businessperson. It is much more difficult to actually make that happen. If you have this kind of disconnect, you have two choices. You can either lower goals to match our effort or we can raise our effort to match our goals. There is no right choice. But if you're truly motivated to be successful, you better make sure you're doing the work necessary to achieve your goals.

How do we harness all of these voices in our minds, understand all these motivators and put it all in a mixing bowl to help us find that drive to succeed?  How do we understand the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for us as individuals?  Human beings, by the nature of their being human beings, are a mix of drives. We have a biological drive. We eat when we’re hungry, we drink when thirsty. We have a reward and punishment drive, so we do respond very well to rewards and punishments in our environment. Then we have this third drive (as Daniel Pink refers to), that often gets neglected in business, where we do things “because they’re interesting, because they’re fun, because we like them, because they contribute”.

We all know there are a range of motivation theories; you've probably been able to pick out parts of each that apply to you either now or at some point in your past. By recognizing that your behavior reflects these many complex pieces, you can move on to developing your own unique path to change. Whether it's your need to achieve, fear of failure, incentive, self-determination, or self-actualization, understanding the motivation behind your behavior can give you the insights you need to develop your own unique pathway to fulfillment.

Together.  We.  Win.

Dave Harmon
People Division
“Kindness is Currency”
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr

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