| The key is understanding what makes a person tick By Gary Dichtenberg The corporate trainer calls the production manager and says: "You said that Susan wasn't motivated, but she's the most highly motivated student in this class."The general manager walks into the convention sales manager's office and says: "Jim, I've talked with that new salesman. I don't know how you can say that he's highly motivated. When I spoke to him, he didn't sound at all motivated."Are these situations the result of a change in an individual's motivation or do they occur because people do not have the same perception of the nature of motivation? Probably some of both and neither needs to happen. By knowing how each person is motivated, we know which key phrases to use to spark that person's motivation.Motivation, however, is not one single, measurable thing. It is the result of the interaction of a variety of components for each person at any given moment.When you have a chance to be around someone for a few days, these patterns will begin to emerge in almost every action a person takes. The following are some of the categories you can use to "sort" people. Based on the kinds of behavior you recognize, certain key words and phrases are given to best spark the motivation of that kind of person. Ask yourself the following questions: Direction What is the direction of motivation for this person? People either move Toward what they want to attain, gain, or achieve, or move Away From what they want to avoid, steer clear of, or get rid of. Toward people are motivated by goals. When they have a goal to strive for, they generate behavior. When Toward people are focused on a goal, they seem unable to recognize problems associated with their goal or the path that they are on in their attempt to achieve that goal. Away From people are motivated to avoid problems: They take action when they recognize that something is going wrong or can go wrong. The resulting behavior is directed either at avoiding the problem or at fixing it. The Away From person does not think in terms of goals, and is unable to act in response to goals.To motivate the Toward person, you would talk about the result," "the goal," "getting what you want," "having," "attaining," "gaining," and "achieving." To motivate the Away From person, speak in terms of "the problem," "the solution." "avoiding," "getting rid of," "steering clear of," and "not having." |
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Source Where does this person's motivation come from? Internal people know what they want to achieve; External people need someone else to decide for them. Internal people decide for themselves about the quality of their work. On their own, they decide how to proceed with a task, which goal to reach for or which problem to avoid. As they are beginning a project, they know what successful completion will be. External people need others to judge the quality of their work. As they start a task, they do not know what successful completion will be. They either need some objective standard by which they can judge the progress of a project or they need others to tell them about their progress. (Don't confuse this with a need for strokes–everybody needs strokes.) The External person needs someone else to define what goals to go for or what problems to avoid. If you want to spark the motivation of an Internal person, you would say "you know" or "you decide." To spark the motivation of an External person, assure him or her "others will help you decide" and "someone else will let you know." Reason What provides the spark for this person to want to do something? The Possibility person wants to be working with ever-expanding options. The Necessity person wants to continue to work with known options. Possibility people are always looking for new ways to do things. When they are given a procedure to follow, they will subvert it. They may be able to create procedures for others to follow, but they seem unable to follow even their own procedures. The moment they are faced with an obstacle, they begin thinking of loopholes. They work best when juggling more than one task at a time. Necessity people need to have clear-cut procedures to do their jobs. They want to stay with known options and will follow any given procedure. If they do not know what to do, they will do nothing. Necessity people function best when they are working on only one task at a time. When talking with a Possibility person, "think of the options," "consider the possibilities," "other ways," and "choices" will spark that person's motivation. With a Necessity person, use expressions like "procedure," "known way," "proven way," and "follow directions."
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Level How much energy will a person have for initiating the performance of the appointed task? The Proactive person is one who initiates; the Reactive person waits to respond to others' initiations. The Proactive person is interested in doing the task. He or she jumps into the task, usually without any analysis or study. This person is doing and working most of the time. When given an opportunity to perform some task, this person will immediately begin. The Reactive person needs to understand and analyze before acting. This need for "knowing" keeps the individual from initiating, but or he or she will act and perform in response to others. When given an opportunity to perform some task, the person will ask for more information or time to study or understand. When talking with the Proactive person, you need to say "do," "act," "get it done," "work," "do it now," and "make things happen" to spark his or her motivation. For the Reactive person, use "this is what you've been waiting for," "know," "understand" and "analyze." Criteria So far we've discussed components of a person's motivation system that are binary (either one way or the other.) The criteria component, however, is open-ended. All people have their own criteria by which they decide about everything in their lives. For one person it might be "fun," "meeting people," "challenge," and "interesting." For another person the criteria might be "useful," "effective," "see what I've done" and "satisfaction." Criteria are the basis for making decisions. Whenever people object to anything or decide to accept something, they do so based on one of their personal criteria. For each person the set of words and phrases is unique and personal. Each person's definition for his or her criteria is unique and personal too. Don't think you actually understand the meaning of someone else's criteria. "Casual" conversation is the best way to learn what another person's criteria are. While it would probably be awkward to ask someone, "What is important to you in your life?", it wouldn't be unusual to ask an employee who is about to buy a car, "What are you looking for in a car?" Values tend to be consistent. What a person values in a car probably reflects his or her overall values. To spark the motivation of any individual, use that person's criteria as the justification when providing information or asking for action. For example, if a person has criteria of "satisfaction and challenge," and you want to get that person to perform a task, describe the task as "satisfying and challenging." Or, you can ask the person to find a way to make the task "satisfying and challenging" for him or herself. Putting It All Together Let us consider an employee who is Toward, Internal, Possibility, Proactive, and whose criteria are "self-satisfaction, honest, reliable, and happy." To get this person excited about a new project, you would say, "Honestly now, this project is a reliable way for you to get what you want. Think of the possibilities. By making this happen, you'll get the self-satisfaction that makes you happy." These sentences will so closely match this person's way of making sense of the world that he or she will be unable to resist your suggestions about doing the project. If you want to increase your effectiveness at motivating others, look for these patterns in other people and speak to them in ways that match their ability to understand and respond with increased motivation. As you use this information and as you change your language patterns to match others, you will join the ranks of those who are most successful at motivating others.
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