One of the most significant challenges a leader will face is determining what motivates their team. Some ideas might be:
While the above can attract prospective employees, will any motivate them to go above and beyond? Well, the truth is, it can, for potentially a short period. The problem with external or extrinsic motivation is that it can have a justification effect [1]. Once an activity is rewarded, an individual may become less interested in performing that activity. In other words, they lose their internal or intrinsic motivation to perform that activity.
If external motivation can remove an individual's internal motivation, and if they lose their internal motivation, they lose interest in performing the activity. It would seem that the real thing driving outcomes is internal or intrinsic motivation. External motivation may help push an individual in a direction; it may help get someone started down a path, but ultimately, the individual needs internal motivation to excel at the activity they are performing.
What we see when individuals have high internal motivation is:
Above, we can see the behaviors and outcomes of highly intrinsically motivated individuals, which is what all leaders want to see in their teams. We can also see this isn't possible through a carrot or stick from external motivators. This leads to the question, how does someone in a leadership position create intrinsic motivation for their teams?
The answer is company culture. Leaders get to decide how to shape the company culture with what kind of behaviors they want to reward in an organization. The main distinction here is that the focus is on the experience or environment in which an employee shows up to work, not the work itself.
Some foundational things need to be in place for this to work. The first one is a shared sense of company values. An organization should be able to quickly identify and assess when someone is living those values or not. This should be foundational to every interaction in the organization. These values should be well-defined and established so you can hire and fire based on them.
The other foundational item you need to have is a clear mission and vision for the company. Mission-driven workers are 54% more likely to stay for five years or longer and 30% more likely to become high performers than those who only show up to work for a paycheck [5]. When every person in an organization buys into the company's mission, it's usually because it's somehow aligned with their own internal goals, which links the company's goal, an extrinsic motivation, with their intrinsic motivations.
Once an organization has a strong mission, goals must be directly tied to that mission and cascaded down. Everyone should be able to have goals that are measurable and actionable and directly tied to that larger mission so they can see how their work directly contributes to achieving something larger than themselves.
Having those two things in place is a great foundation, but work still needs to be done. For example, a company culture with a distributed leadership structure where leadership pushes authority down to information instead of pushing information up to authority creates a strong sense of ownership among an organization's workforce. This creates a greater sense of autonomy and independence, allowing individuals and teams to move quickly.
Autonomy is also a flow trigger for individuals. When individuals have the freedom of thought and choice, their whole being gets involved. This process can cause the brain to release dopamine, creating a sense of being alive; this feeling increases focus and allows the individuals to have an easier time entering a flow state [4].
Autonomy and a psychologically safe work environment allow individuals to feel safe enough to lean into their curiosity, passion, and purpose. When these three elements are present, they increase focus and begin pushing the individual into a state of flow where hyper-focus is present [4].
Providing clear goals to the rest of the organization is a critical component and one of leadership's primary responsibilities. Leadership should provide consistent, repeated messaging that tells the entire organization where and when to pay attention through clear goals. This offloads the cognitive load of determining where to focus next. Everyone already knows. This allows focus to tighten, motivation to heighten, and our brains to filter out noise and distractions [4].
Leadership should celebrate examples of living the company's values and constantly tying individual and team accomplishments to its mission and goals. When everyone in the company can see how they are directly contributing to the larger mission, which is more significant than themselves, their sense of value goes through the roof.
This all directly leads to high-performing teams and organizations. All the benefits of intrinsic motivation are also directly linked to individual and group flow states. When this happens, individuals can perform at their peak.
If leaders can create the above culture, they won't have to worry about finding ways to motivate individuals; they will be self-motivated and inspire everyone around them. Teams will crush goals and exceed expectations.
Therefore, a leader's primary focus should be on managing their company's culture and the environment in which their employees operate. Whether in a physical office, remote, or both, there needs to be a laser focus on how the company engages with its employees and how employees engage with each other. If done well, individuals and teams will be more motivated, engaged, and likely to become high performers, leading to organizational success.
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