Sustaining Motivation in your Workforce
Leaders are tasked with not only rallying others to march towards an objective, but also with keeping people engaged long enough to actually see the future they have imagined become reality. This article is about finding success with the latter task. The initial enthusiasm one has towards a new job, a new company mission, a new team - can often wane over time. Effective organizations intentionally create an environment that plays to three key areas, Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose, to foster durable motivation and engagement.
These three concepts come from the work of Edward Deci and Richard Ryan in the 1970’s. Originally disregarded by their academic peers and the professional community, it was nearly ten years before Deci & Ryan’s work was broadly accepted. In 2009, Daniel Pink wrote New York Times bestseller Drive, a book applying this motivation science to business practice. To define the three pillars of motivation:
Autonomy is our ability to self-direct and make decisions we feel are our own.
Mastery is our sense of high proficiency or progress towards it.
Purpose is our feeling of connection to something greater than ourselves.
To create the highest levels of engagement and motivation in a team, each of these elements must be present. Here’s why.
Autonomy drives engagement and self-direction
Giving people throughout the organization the agency to make decisions on their own is powerful because it encourages them to take ownership. It also inspires more action as new challenges or opportunities arise, individuals given the autonomy to take care of things can act with their best judgment, instead of asking permission or waiting for instruction. More things get done, and team members feel empowered to innovate and improve. To allow for more autonomous decision making within your organization, it helps to have a clear set of guiding principles, process best practices, and expectations for how things best get done.
Mastery increases our sense of fulfillment and competency
No surprise, it’s rewarding to improve our skills and develop into more capable versions of ourselves. Mastery comes in two forms. First, it is the continual process towards our next level of competency and performance. In a role within an organization, this usually means intentional practice of core skills and expanding our knowledge. Practical, on-the-job experience and coaching/training are both important. The second form of mastery is having the opportunity to apply our skills and knowledge to challenging situations. Being at the limit of our capabilities allows us to access flow, and will both enhance further development and positively impact perceived job satisfaction.
Purpose gives us meaning and connects us to others near and far
Purpose is power. Connection between the business’s purpose and personal purpose is even more powerful. If you are giving the person you are hiring the opportunity to perform duties that align with their personal purpose in support of your organization’s purpose, you have added a team member who is intrinsically motivated to do great work. The organization’s purpose must also be well understood by employees because it contextualizes everything they do. Your people will come off track easily if their purpose is unclear. Help them see how their efforts contribute to those your company aims to serve.
The Bottom Line
Autonomy is our ability to self-direct and make decisions we feel are our own. Mastery is our sense of high proficiency or progress towards it. Purpose is our feeling of connection to something greater than ourselves. To create the highest levels of engagement and motivation in a team, each of these elements must be present. It is a leader’s responsibility to create an environment where team members feel these things. What are you doing to foster Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose in your organization?