Rethinking How We Motivate Ourselves and Others
If there’s one obvious lesson to be gleaned from the above, it’s that extrinsic motivation in the form of monetary rewards is more often than not, insufficient as a motivator, and more worryingly, can sometimes cause more harm than good.
This could explain why so many individuals in high-paying professions — bankers, financiers and corporate lawyers, are often miserable, stressed and depressed though they are ‘rewarded’ more than most of us will ever be.
In reality, we are all in some way driven by money. After all, most of us still need that monthly paycheck to survive.
But while many of the jobs we hold are mundane and soul-crushing, that doesn’t mean that we can’t uncover the motivation from within that is needed to make our jobs a little more tolerable each day.
Why not use the Sawyer Effect to our advantage, by shaping work into play?
Here are some things you can do:
1. Gamify
Have a boring job? Gamify it to make it more interesting. Compete among your co-workers in a productivity contest where the winner takes all (of the predetermined loot) at the end of the year.
Waiting for your manager to set targets for you? Heck, set your own targets. If he increases your sales targets by 10% for the year, go one better and set your sights on 20%.
Games are fun, after all.
2. Find Purpose & Meaning
You’ll be hard pressed to find a greater motivator than living life with purpose. We all need purpose in our lives to make meaning of it.
Finding a purpose that you can personally identify with, and which aligns with your own values makes work less like work and more like play, in the sense that you derive great satisfaction from the fulfillment of that purpose.
Even if you can’t personally identify with your organization’s mission, there’s nothing stopping you from diving deeper into your role to see how it impacts others internal or external to your organisation.
Your job could be to routinely file away the company’s documents for later retrieval. It could involve scheduling deliveries, or ordering copy paper and toner.
No matter how trivial the job, there’s always a greater purpose to be served. You just have to uncover it for yourself.
If it means that your organization runs smoother as a result of whatever you do, that’s purpose and meaning enough.
3. Get Social At The Workplace
Good workplace relationships have been proven to improve employee morale and productivity.
Even if you don’t find your job particularly engaging, there are always co-workers you can count on to help bring some joy to your work environment. Harmless pranks, good ol’ water cooler conversations and sharing a mealtime can go some way towards reducing the humdrum of the workday.
Having friends at the workplace that you can count on is definitely another reason to get out of bed and into the office every morning.
Ultimately, it is up to us to ascribe meaning to our work. When doing so, it always helps to look beyond the money.
Motivating Others
“Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.” — Anne Frank
Don’t make the same mistake I did. If you are privileged to be a leader or a parent like me, it is rarely wise to use money as the primary means to motivate a person or child into doing something, no matter how beneficial the initial result(s) may be to everyone involved. In the long run, all you end up doing is giving bigger rewards in order to sustain someone’s motivation.
Instead, spend some time figuring out creative ways to unearth an individual’s inner desire without resorting to rewards, monetary or otherwise.
Often, a simple question “How else would you like to help?” can be a powerful way to get people thinking about ways they can get involved, and on their own terms. I’ll be surprised if you didn’t find you can get more out of people this way.
