Motivational Currency: A Simple Approach to a Complex Challenge
let’s face it work can be a grind but it
doesn’t always have to be draining just
like with money if you want to return
you got to make a smart investment the
same goes for it comes to motivating
people we’ve gone way too far with
labels energy colors and putting people
into personality boxes people evolve and
so should our approach to motivation
we’re driven by multiple motivators with
different levels of strengths we thought
this trap of believing our personalities
and minds are fixed such a strong
neuroscientist David Rock and thought
leader Carol Dweck uncovered that our
minds are more adaptive and grow we just
need to use the key that unlocks the
doors to motivation have you ever heard
a word that you’ve never heard before
and then you hear that new word all the
time well obviously the word isn’t new
but your mindset is you trained your
brain to shift and see more so how do
you motivate people you don’t you invite
people to be motivated and we call
motivational current it’s based on the
early work of Harvard’s David McClelland
social motives theory and our experience
and research worked with successful
people globally we’re all coin-operated
it’s a matter of finding what coins work
and when there’s four core motivators
performance people power and purpose the
stronger someones motivators are the
more driven they are to succeed based on
what makes them tick there’s three key
ways to tap into motivational currency
recognizing breeding and leading
recognizing is knowing your motivators
breeding is assessing motivation others
and leadings adapting your approach tap
into other people’s motivational
currency as they walk through their
motivators see if you could take your
best guess if your level of motivation
is high medium or low for each
motivators performance this is about
getting results the performance driven
person takes the lead and drives they
want to be challenged and exceed
expectations people this is about
prioritizing relationships and
collaborations
individuals who are people just think of
getting along an emotional impact power
this is about influence and persuasion
power driven people give advice
communicate a vision that has impact and
they pay great attention to brand and
reputation purpose purpose is about
being helpful and being part of
something larger than yourself they get
energized by mentoring and thinking
about what’s best for the entire team or
enterprise keep in front of mine this
isn’t about what profile is good or bad
it’s about understanding and uncovering
motivators to help people master how
they adapt their approach we need a tool
called a motivational currency
calculator don’t worry this is in some
psychoanalytic test or some pop
psychology quiz it’s about giving you a
simple strategy to influence and engage
people think of it as situational
leadership need some motivation if you
don’t know what drives you it’s probably
try to motivate others and the way that
you want to be motivated tapping into
motivational currency creates loyalty
and excitement for work on point
advising preliminary research has
uncovered some interesting trends while
its usual that there’s a primary
motivator people are often driven by
more than just one form of motivational
currency more support that a
one-size-fits-all put people in a box
approach just isn’t effective men are
reporting higher on performance and
power while women are reporting higher
on purpose and women also have higher
accuracy scores on reading motivators in
others when you see people for what’s
inside of them and speak their language
they take initiative it’s about building
influence capital and making it easier
for you to get work done
just like with any skill with some
insight and practice you can make this
approach a positive habit paying people
with their motivational currency will
give you an edge and help you get the
best out of your people and yourself
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