In my last post on Courageous Conversations, I wrote about how we need to tap into people’s internal motivations in order to help them to flourish.
What does that look like, then? How do you tap into their needs for autonomy, mastery and purpose? Well, here are some ideas that come from Craig Perrin and Chris Blauth in their article Coaching Redefined: How Internal Motivation Can Fuel Performance.
- Adopt the employee’s perspective
- Communicate in an informational way
- Offer rewards that acknowledge a contribution rather than control future behaviour; appear equitable to employees; and appear worthy of the effort made or results attained
- Provide effective recognition that is genuine, timely, short, frequent
Autonomy:
- Transparency about opportunities, feedback, etc – anything that will give them more facts upon which to make their own decisions
- Generate opportunities for choice
- Flexibility in HOW they achieve things
Relatedness
- Genuine two-way dialogue
- Clear reasons for required structures and actions
- Enable them to engage in interesting activities
Mastery
- Mobility from one role to another to build skills (no time constraints/exception policy)
- Collaboration on solutions and next steps
- Feedback that strengthens and develops
- Set them up for success at new challenges
What else would you add to these ideas for tapping into others’ internal motivations?
