Motivation and Mediocrity III

How can we use our own motivation to motivate others?

This is the challenge that I find for myself every day: not just that I need to motivate myself, but that as a manager I need to motivate those under and around me.  Motivation is always easy when things are going well and people are happy, of course.  The unfortunate part is that very few of us dwell in that particular world.

Recall that motivation stems from a motive, really something which causes someone to act.  It's often difficult to give myself a reason to act - it can be ten times more difficult to get others to act.  Why?  Because in the end, I know what motivates me.  It can be very difficult to know what will motivate others.

There's a short cut of course, one that authorities like to use all the time.  It's called the "You will do this" scenario, in which an individual is told to do something or something less than desirable will happen.  It certain is appropriate in some cases - traffic laws come to mind - but it hardly lends itself to creating highly motivated people.  It is simply a fact that when I am forced to do something - or when I feel forced to do something - at some level I simply will not put some aspect of my best effort into it.

There is an answer, of course, even if I'm to dim to see it.  Some people simply have the ability to motivate others.  I've participated in being in such groups, even if I am seldom able to recreate the experience myself for others.  If I had to describe it, I would say that it is the sense that what I am doing is contributing to a greater cause, some greater good, or that somehow the efforts that I am putting in now will result in a better person than I am now.

One thing that leaps to mind as I write that is that good motivators have the ability to paint a picture, to make something real.  Be it a future day, be it an output, even be it an idealized picture of myself, the best motivators bring to life a picture of what is possible - indeed, what is probable if only one will rededicate one's self.

But great motivators of others also have something else:  a track record of success.  People believe in their words and visions and become motivated because this person has accomplished such things in the past.   Even if they themselves are not physically leading, their accomplishments serve as a sort of virtual road map of what is possible.  When this is combined with words and visions, it can be well nigh impossible.

But that again points the focus back to where it should probably be:  myself.  Others cannot be motivated by me unless:  1)  I am motivated; 2) I have a vision and can communicate it; and 3) I have credibility that this vision is possible based on my past.  Without any one of these three points, I simply will become one more person in a long line of individuals that people have heard speak before - and then they write them off.

Which, I suppose, explains the issue of "You will do this" as a common form of motivation.  Authoritarianism is always the easier road than self examination.