Chapter 10
Motivate the Environment, Not the Team

As a leader, you must recognize the value of motivation. More important than the type of motivation that's used, timing is probably the most important aspect. When given at an inappropriate time, motivation is no more valuable than no encouragement at all. In fact, it may be more harmful to performance. In both the sport and corporate environments, I've always thought overcoaching is worse than no coaching at all.

Leaders shouldn't feel the need to coach people every day. That won't make you look more like a leader. True leaders understand when motivation is needed, when it's not, and when to let people do their jobs but be available if they need reinforcement.

Poorly timed efforts have an artificial air about them. To be effective, motivation must occur when the person will most benefit from a feeling of recognition, belonging, or success. It doesn't have to be some reward system that's involved.

As I've noted in other chapters, many times the activity itself will motivate a person. In sports, golf is a good example. Some people participate in golf not to compete but because the sport presents a challenge, every shot is different. One good shot will motivate players to continue to play. You often hear at golf courses that if you hit one great shot in a round, which may consist of 90 to 100 shots, that one shot will bring you back to play the game again.

The same can hold true in a corporate environment. You can have a pretty tough day but one accomplishment can give you the incentive to come back and crank it up again the next day. You need to be able to transfer that attitude to your daily environment personally as well as professionally so that if several things don't go well, that one thing that does will be enough of an incentive to get you motivated for the next day. We need to recognize the little things as they come to us.

There are several different ways to motivate people. First and foremost, you are trying to instill the desire to explore complexity, which is closely linked to motivation. For example, when engaged in a highly competitive, complex skill, it's probably better to be moderately motivated because of all the information you have to process. In other words, it's best to not be emotionally over the edge while performing something that's really complex.

However, when performing a relatively simple skill that may be part of what you do every day of your corporate career, a higher level of motivation is appropriate because there's much less information to process. Also, the type of motivation is important in regard to what it is meant to do, whether it's intrinsic or extrinsic. To clarify, intrinsic motivation is satisfaction that comes from doing a good job and being fulfilled by the work itself. This can only come from within a person and is very hard to foster in a negative environment. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, comes from material gain. In the context of a job, it means that people don't find the work to be fulfilling; instead, they see the job as necessary activity that provides them money, status, or other material benefits. People who are extrinsically motivated are going to stay with your team only until a better offer comes along—whether that means a bigger paycheck or fancier title— because they're not motivated by the work, the company, or the environment. If these aspects of a job are not fulfilling, a person can find motivation only through material things. It's much more beneficial to you as a leader to work with people who are intrinsically motivated, people who are motivated by the fulfillment they get from doing the job, by being around your team, by verbal reinforcement, by recognition, and by fulfilling expectations that you have passed onto them.

There are probably times when we use both types of motivation, but for long-term results I don't think there's any question that intrinsic motivation is much more valuable for long-term impact. And the timing is obviously important.

It's akin to the critical learning periods children go through. These times, which we often call teachable moments, are when children reach a certain level emotionally, socially, and physically. That's when the package comes together, so to speak, making it an appropriate time for them to learn certain kinds of skills. I think in adulthood there are still critical periods where motivation is either going to be appropriate or inappropriate based on where a person is psychologically at the time.

In youth sports, it's very interesting that many times we judge kids based on their physical appearance. Some kids are big and strong, and we think they're prepared to enter competition, so we don't realize that their size may be very misleading. They may be physically developed, but at the same time they may not be socially and emotionally prepared for competition.

Motivation should never come across as being insincere or superficial either. It should always be exercised at a time when it can be accepted as an honest effort to help a person improve and to accomplish things that they haven't done recently. This is especially true for people with chronic illnesses. It's important that if you're going to be motivated to do something, you recognize the clutter your mind. In other words, understand the things that are taking up your mental space and don't get caught up in being motivated to remove everything at one time.

The same thing holds true in the corporate environment. Too many people have too many things on their mind at the same time, and they become what we call multitaskers. As I mentioned in the previous chapter, I've never had much respect for multitaskers because I think they're usually good at a lot of things but not really great at anything. To avoid falling into a trap of multitasking but not actually getting much done, it's necessary to prioritize the things cluttering your to-do list. Then, you have an incentive to either work on it, store it away for later, or to learn to live with it.

You can't look at the whole package at one time. You have to take each factor that's perceived as clutter, deal with it individually, and set up an action so that you're motivated to accomplish something specific. This makes it possible to evaluate your progress at the end of the day.

Motivation really stirs your system. It is a psychological phenomenon that has a physiological impact. In other words, you get emotional, you get anxious, and once your emotions reach a certain level, then you're motivated to accomplish some task.

It's interesting that motivation is one of the most frequently discussed concepts in a corporate environment but it is probably the most misunderstood. After 45 years of working with athletes, the first question I get asked in meetings is, “How do you motivate athletes?” My response has always been that I've never attempted to motivate anyone. I think intrinsic motivation is the route to go. Extrinsic motivation is superficial and short lived.

Motivation is really just a way of arousing your system. We've talked about the mechanics of motivation and the types of motivation, but in real life motivation means you're trying to accomplish something every day. In other words, if you get up in the morning and you've written down some goals for the day, then those goals will provide you with the incentive to accomplish something. People are either motivated to accomplish something or they're motivated to not fail. I have very little patience with that second group. In the corporate environment, they're great survivors, but they're not going to help the team win. Their attitude also seems to be contagious and eventually everybody will fall into the trap of trying to not fail, and the team never progresses.

It's critical for a leader in the corporate environment to understand when people are trying to not fail—and it's very obvious in most cases. There are only two ways to proceed when you encounter someone who is trying not to fail. You can try to help them change their outlook and find some intrinsic motivation, or you can have them leave the environment. I think that most people who are trying to not fail are pretty scary to be around and they live their lives in a very superficial way. We all need to be motivated to accomplish something every single day.

In other words, there are no guarantees in life, but if you're motivated to try to clear out the mental clutter and get something done, then at least the probability is on your side that you're going to accomplish that. Those things don't really happen by accident, and so you have to have directed energy and emotion in order to accomplish something. We call it selective attention.

Think for a moment of the powerful environment provided by support meetings for any number of negative situations people find themselves in. One of the problems I have with support meetings is that many times they are filled with other people who feel terrible and want everybody to know how bad they feel. That being the case, people who go into those meetings feeling pretty good can leave the meeting feeling pretty bad because nothing positive happened. Negativity is contagious, but a lack of positivity can also have a bad effect. My suggestion to folks who attend support meetings is that if you don't leave a meeting with something in hand that will give you a chance to do more tomorrow, then you're in the wrong meeting.

The same thing can happen in departments or teams in a corporate environment. If you have an office group of five people who are happy and motivated and then one negative person with the motivation to merely survive comes into the office, it won't take long before that one person drags down the whole office attitude.

People who are motivated to accomplish something in life are risk takers. They're willing to fail, but they're also able to recover quickly. People who are motivated to not fail accomplish very little in their lives, and so it's very important that you understand the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. The people who are usually going to be the negative, unmotivated people are usually motivated only by extrinsic rewards.

As a leader, you need to understand the difference in people's needs and drives, and the other mechanics of motivation, so that you can develop a plan to move ahead in your life.

As a multiple sclerosis (MS) patient, there are times when I might be motivated to walk a mile. There are no guarantees, but at least I feel there some incentive to try. If I don't make it all the way, at least I've put in the effort and I can feel good about that, especially if I can go farther tomorrow than I did today. But without motivation or a sense of fulfillment, belonging, or self-esteem, I'm not going to accomplish very much.

Motivation forms the foundation we need to accomplish goals and live life in a very fulfilling way. Without motivation, without incentive, without writing things down, without having specific goals, there's very little probability that you're ever going to accomplish what you're capable of doing because your motivation is going to be disorganized and untargeted. You need to be directed so that your energy is used in a very productive and positive manner.

Now, let's talk a bit about selective attention. Motivation can be a tremendous waste of energy or a tremendous asset, depending on whether or not you have selective attention. In other words, if your energy is targeted to accomplish something, you are far more likely to succeed than if you fully dedicate your efforts to avoid failure. If you take four-year-old kids out and teach them how to throw a ball, they initially will fatigue very early. Why? Because they're paying attention to too many cues in the environment, such as other kids, trees, birds, cars, whatever might be there. But as you take them into that environment more and more, they will be less distracted by the noise, so they will be able to focus on the cues they need for catching and throwing the ball. Once they do that, they can throw and catch all day because they learn to use their energy in the right places.

Leaders in the corporate environment need to understand the needs and the drives of the people around them. They need to know that they're pushing the right buttons. It's not enough to simply coach in the way we were coached. It's interesting to note that if you list the things that motivate you and you have your team members list the things that motivate them, there might not be the alignment you expect. You will find that you are trying to motivate other people in the way you like to be motivated, and it's a failing process. Motivation takes time and energy, but unless you are able to tailor your approach to the people you work with, there's nothing positive to be realized from it.

So it's critical that, as a leader, you understand how and when to offer motivation, and maybe even more important, whether you try to motivate people at all.

I've always felt that if you create a motivating environment that people want to be a part of (Chapter 7), you'll be able to spark intrinsic motivation in your team. That will help you keep your people longer, keep them happier, and keep them more productive.

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Intrinsic Motivators for You as a Leader

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Extrinsic Motivators for You as a Leader

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Intrinsic Motivators for Your Team Members

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Extrinsic Motivators for Your Team Members

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