The Eight Motivational Challenges

Social psychologists like to study what motivates people. Maslow was one of them. He suggested that motivation follows a hierarchy of needs. Until basic needs like food, security, safety are met, Maslow said, we don't care about leaving the world a better place and self-actualization.Maslow's theory was done several decades back. Many more people have tried to understand what makes us tick. In 2009, Daniel Pink wrote "Drive - the surprising truth about what motivates us". Pink's view of motivation is that it is largely intrinsic. Aspects of this motivation can be divided into autonomy, mastery and purpose. When these exist, we are motivated. People are motivated when they can work independently, gain mastery of their craft and discover a higher purpose. That is the model of the human being all employers are still looking for.It is clearly time to find another scalpel to dissect this mysterious thing called motivation. That's where this book comes in. Dr Heidi Grant Halvorson @hghalvorson studies the science of performance and productivity. In her book 'The Eight Motivational Challenges', she believes that motivation happens as a result of three factors - mindset, focus and confidence.1. Mindset : A "Be Good" mindset that drives someone to always feel smart, look smart and want to be told so by others. People with this mindset want to avoid failure at all costs. In contrast, some people have a "Get Better" mindset. For such people, mistakes are a way of improving. They want to get smarter by constantly learning new skills and improving themselves.2. Focus : Some people have "Promotion" as their motivational focus. They want to do a job well because it is all about achievement and avoid missing an opportunity. Praise fuels this. These people enjoy exploring ideas and are happy to try a new path. They favour speed. Some people have "Prevention" as their motivational focus. Such people are motivated by the desire to avoid danger, fulfil responsibilities and doing something because they ought to. Negative feedback and self-doubt are powerful triggers in this case. These people work hard to maintain what they have built. They would vote for accuracy over speed.3. Confidence: Having low or high confidence is the third component of motivation. Dr Halvorson reminds us that confidence refers not to the "I-am-the-greatest" kind of swagger. But it is more of the modest and attainable confidence that makes you feel I-believe-I-can-do-it. It is the belief that you can do what it takes to make success happen. Having the right skills is an important part of being confident. So invest in building skills if you wish to feel confident.http://youtu.be/NZQWVilHJj0There were some portions of the book that I found insightful. For example, her view of the four elements that gives someone that quiet confidence. Or how to give feedback to enhance performance. How to reframe goals that help you develop a get better mindset. This is what you should look for in the book. So what did I not find helpful? Dr Halvorson takes these three elements of mindset, focus and confidence to identify eight possible scenarios of underperformance. This is the bit that I did not care much about. It reminded me of the advice columns in popular magazines. The book claims to be "A Short Guide To Lighting A Fire Under Anyone". After reading I realized that not everyone will be amenable to the idea of having a fire lit under them. To be fair, I knew that before I read the book. Now I am merely agreeing with Dr Halvorson. It would have been more helpful to identify a few motivational challenges people face that act as barriers to their success. For example, how could we motivate ourselves to follow through on our new year resolutions.Overall: Dr Halvorson clearly understands what motivates people. She could done without trying to typecast the eight profiles. I give this book a 3 out of 5. Check it out.-------------------Join me on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduriThe 9 things successful people do. How well do you do them? Take the test