REAL LEADERSHIP By The Proper Use of Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose

Using Autonomy, mastery, and purpose to motivate people will accomplish much more than the use of fear, greed, or guilt. Not too long ago I was asked to give a motivational speech to a group of men at my church to motivate them to give of their time and talent to increase our impact in the community for Christ.

I had worked my way up in an International Corp called Automatic Data Processing from 1978 to 1996 and enjoyed great success at my various positions in the company.  I hated the so-called motivational speakers that used the negative to try to motivate people to perform and spoke to one of department heads about putting together a motivational platform from which to project our intent to our client base. Well, I wish I could say that out of that conversation came great revelations of how to bypass Management Speak, but a committee had been formed and needless to say not much came of it. A few good things occurred in that we all agreed that motivation by fear, greed, guilt, and the overall goal of creating a need approval was the wrong approach. Why?

Fear makes some people energetic but stupid because they are so busy trying to look busy. Motivation by Intimidation doesn't work very long anyway and your better employees will find a better place to work.
NOTE By the way, motivation by intimidation not only doesn't work it makes you look helpless and foolish!  If you ran your home that way, you would eventually have a mass mutiny on your hands and lose the respect of every family member when they figure out how foolish and fearful you really are as a leader in the home and on the job! Strict control is an illusion anyway...


Guilt makes people act like children always looking for approval and too careful about what questions to ask or what proposals to make for fear of looking stupid-it actually intensifies the fear factor!

Greed harms cognitive performance! The process of perception actually gets skewed in order to line someone or a groups pocket just to produce a result that management can live with...still not attaining the highest possible goal for all to attain to. Let's face it, if you know you aren't going to be in the "reward" group you aren't going to be very motivated to perform. The other problem is that receipt of a bonus quickly shifts from being appreciated to being an entitlement, so bonuses have to escalate to retain their motivational power.

When a business leader dangles a carrot in front of an employee to encourage strong performance, he/she has redefined the leader/employee relationship to the one between a farmer and a donkey. If you think you've hired donkeys to work for you, fire yourself for doing such a bad job of hiring. You don't deserve your position in the company!

Manufacturing the need for constant approval can drive employees to work hard but still not achieve the desired results simply because you start feeling more like a dog looking for a pat on the head and small bone to appease your daily appetite. Again, that approach gets old too unless you add something to mix. The something is called ACHIEVEMENT by Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose!

So what is the alternative to motivate a group overall that brings about positive change? I turn to one of my motivational heroes Bob Lewis, President of the consulting firm IT Catalyst posted his formula for success in CIO Magazine. I can tell you from first hand experience his motivational skills far outweigh any previous motivational material I have had to take part in. The results are stellar in performance. Let's see what he has to say:

Taking advantage of the need for approval remains a good way to motivate employees, but leaders should also recognize employees' desire for ACHIEVEMENT . In other words, recognize the desire among employees to make an important contribution.

For achievement to be a motivator, employees have to be given some autonomy so they "own their success." They also need MASTERY through continuing education of how best to perform their job. Otherwise they will not be in a position to ACHIEVE anything of importance. They need PURPOSE, which positions them to accomplish important things.

"Create an environment that encourages achievement, recognize it when it shows up (taking advantage of the need for approval) and you'll be amazed at how often you'll see it in action," Lewis recommends.

I am happy to say the implementation of his methods worked not only for our church project but created new vigor in our employee output in the company. Thank you Bob Lewis for your masterful contribution to a tired subject called Motivation.







See you next blog,
Ted