Ultimate Guide To Leadership Motivation
You may be looking for the Ultimate Leadership Guide.
Intrinsic motivation is when an individual is motivated by internal factors, as opposed to external factors.
Examples of intrinsic motivation would be doing something because you feel it is the moral and ethical thing to do; doing something because you know it will benefit others or doing something because it brings you pleasure and joy.
The latter is common in regards to an enjoyable pastime or a hobby.
It is believed that intrinsic motivation is far stronger than extrinsic motivation however there are times when extrinsic motivation can become stronger because it displaces intrinsic motivation.
This is known as the over-justification effect. For example this occurs when you begin doing something for intrinsic reasons and then are offered monies or another type of reward for doing it that overrides the reason you started doing it in the first place.
In many cases when this happens, a person loses interest in the activity once the reward is taken away. The key is to not offer large extrinsic rewards for something that is meant to be motivated intrinsically (in other words, from within).
Motivation is also completely intertwined with the idea of self-investment.
As an alternative method, many motivated leaders I have come across regularly invest in themselves. Leaders have often sought out useful leadership books and learning material that will help them along the path to happiness and motivation. These days, many e-courses tend to be rather disappointing, but there are a few e-courses that are still respected by leadership professionals such as myself such as The 11 Forgotten Laws. It’s generally seen as an essential and core ‘crash course’ in the laws and secrets you need to know to further your leadership & career and even help find happiness in other areas of your life. It’s an excellent base upon which you can build your personal development.
Intrinsic motivation has been widely studied by researchers in the realm of education since the start of the 1970s and their findings have been that when students are intrinsically motivated to do well in school, they tend to perform better, make higher marks and they also tend to enjoy the material they are learning a great deal more.
A man named Bernard Weiner created a theory known as the “Attribution Theory” and he looked at such things as the orientation of goals and the locus of control (internal and external).
As an aside, an internal locus of control is when a person believes that they have control over what happens to them whereas an external locus of control means that a person believes that control is outside of themselves and has more to do with extraneous factors as opposed to their own actions.
According to Bernard Weiner, students are much more likely to possess intrinsic motivation in their studies if they feel that their educational achievements have more to do with their own efforts as opposed to anything else.
As well students will experience intrinsic motivation if they feel that they play a paramount role in attaining their own personal educational goals as opposed to feeling as those it has more to do with luck or simply a “roll of the dice.” Finally when students have motivation that comes from within they will work harder to completely understand and master a given subject as opposed to simply learning the work at hand so they can pass a test or exam and then forgetting it afterwards.
Keep in mind that intrinsic motivation holds no promise of rewards for students as opposed to extrinsic motivation, which is all about rewards.
Many decades of research has given rise to a theory known as “Goal Theory” which has shown that intrinsic motivation in some communities and groups is altruistic in nature as the desire to help others and contribute to the greater whole is the number one motivator.
When a person appeals to the common good or does something based on a moral obligation or commitment to others this is when intrinsic motivation is shown to be alive and well in the world.
Guest Author:
Charles Williams is a writer for http://www.lsft.org which is an excellent place to find Motivation and Self Improvement links, For more information go to:www.lsft.org
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Actually, that is quite a pertinant point. I did well at school, college and university, I only achieved great results because I worked incredibly hard. I had two reasons, I lok maths (odd I know) and the rewards were for me an no one else. I ended up completing a PhD in a leading UK university and the whole of my education was completely pointless as I knew it would be. The jobs were in London and I can’t spend more than 5 minutes in the place, I like the country. But I did 9 years at Uni for one reason, myself, it was my own motivation – very interesting post!
Thanks for your comment Charmlink! I think when you look back over the great achievements in history – they were achieved because people were pushing for ‘themselves’. Not on behalf of shareholders, bosses or girlfriends. Self-motivation is the real burning motivator inside all of us.
Simon Oates ~ Leadership Expert
The Bernard Weiner theory is completely true, in my case anyway. In my youth I was never an academic and never interested in the benefits or rewards that learning a given subject could provide. I learnt subjects with the sole intention of passing tests. As a student I felt like a cog in the system which, like Bernard Weiner’s theory, might explain why I lacked intrinsic motivation for academic subjects.
My current career spawned from intrinsic motivation as things I enjoy motivate me to learn them. My whole life has been based around self-motivation in the things I enjoy doing which is the sole reason I’ve been able to achieve outside of the education system.
Great post by the way.
I love so much your blog,I like how you write !
I think that the best way to keep someone’s interest in doing or working on something is to motivate that person properly, and that’s the whole secret.
very very good article