Another post on motivating employees

I read a post by a communication specialist Shari Alexander. Though the title is less serious as it says, 'how to motivate employees in less than 5 minutes', she has couple of good points.
Number one is same as mentioned by Daniel Pink - Purpose. It is equally important to keep communicating the purpose (big picture) as it is to keep reminding oneself of it.
Her another point, 'pay attention to what excites them' is more of a communication (listening) skill but one can use the pointers to excite and motivate people, especially in the short-run.
I liked her suggestion of, 'use positive reinforcement' as I have realized that it is really easy to forget this. Though intellectually most of the leaders and managers are aware of the benefits of positive feedback to reinforce a particular behavior, practice of the same is not as common. 

Get ''excited'' instead of ''anxious''

Alision Wood Brooks, Assistant Professor at HBS has some interesting research findings on the effect of anxiety, which is common amongst corporate employees.

Research participants who were asked to give an impromptu three-minute talk scored higher on persuasiveness and confidence if they first said to themselves “I am excited,” in comparison with those who said “I am anxious” or explicitly tried to calm down, says Alison Wood Brooks of Harvard Business School. Similarly, karaoke singers who first said “I am excited” scored an average of 81% on pitch, volume, and rhythm, compared with those who said “I am anxious” (69%) or “I am calm” (53%). People who are in a “high arousal” state tend to believe that calming down will help them perform, but it can be better to channel that arousal in a positive direction by being energetic and passionate, Brooks says.

In psychological terms, anxiety is an emotion characterized by both "high arousal" and "negative valence." Common wisdom says that the best way to overcome anxiety is to calm yourself down, creating an emotion with low arousal and positive valence. But enacting a transformation across two axes at once is difficult to achieve. Turning anxiety into excitement, however, only requires a person to switch from a negative to a positive valence, while remaining in a state of high arousal, an easier prospect.

"When your heart is already racing, you can use that high arousal in a positive way by being energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate," she says. "People's intuition is to try and calm down. You are better off running with your high arousal and channeling it in a positive direction."

In the case of that high-stakes client presentation, Brooks's findings suggest that an employee might perform better after considering the opportunities for success rather than the consequences of failure. Managers, meanwhile, can help subordinates by keeping them focused on the positive.

Simple method for motivating people

One of the simplest methods of motivating people on a day to day basis is Ferguson's Formula based on the methods of Sir Alex Ferguson. He recommends using 'well done' when you find people doing good work and to not be shy of giving clear criticism right away, without harping on it too long. He recommends to not express anger and be mindful of timing and tone while criticizing.

Motivating People

This is one of the most discussed topics and in a way one of the greatest challenges at every level and not only where one has subordinates. One is required to motivate not only their subordinates but also co-workers, customers, suppliers, and various stakeholders to take action. At home one is required to motivate their children, spouses, other family members to take action in the desired direction.

One of the best books I have read on this subject is by Edward L Deci on Understanding Self-motivation, where the author distinguishes between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the inherent drive whereas Extrinsic is dependent on external stimuli. Intuitively we know that Intrinsic motivation lasts longer and can produce the state of Flow as popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The requirements of Intrinsic Motivation as per Edward Deci are as follows:

Autonomy: Giving the person the options and the freedom to choose as opposed to telling one what to do.

Competence: People want to experience mastery i.e. to get better at doing things. Thus, one would be more motivated to perform a task that requires a person to stretch his/her capabilities and get better in the process.

Relatedness: People want to interact, they want to connect.

Similar findings and suggestions are in another good book on this subject called  Drive by Daniel Pink. He also suggests three drivers of which two are same as above - Autonomy, Mastery - and the third one is Purpose, which is 'yearning to do in the service of something larger than ourselves'.

In my experience Purpose acts as a motivator after one has met the bottom needs on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Thus, four drivers would cover most of the motivational needs i.e.
Autonomy, Competence, Relatedness, and Purpose.