English: Motivational Saying (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Effective managers know and follow three important rules regarding human motivation. Here’s what effective managers know:
1) The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is broken. Dr. Tony Alessandra created the much more relevant “Platinum Rule®: Do unto others as they want done unto them.”
A manager will naturally manage the way they want to be managed, based on their own motives and values. This works well if the person they are managing shares similar values, but is highly frustrating for both the manager and the follower if they hold opposite values, which is highly likely.
Knowledge of both your own values and your followers’ values allows the responsible manager to appeal to followers’ needs, motives, and values so that the follower is motivated to follow the manager’s vision. People tend to follow because the manager’s vision matters to them and satisfies one or more of their needs and therefore the follower values the vision enough to be motivated to follow.
How does a manager discover their own values and their followers’ values? Reiss Motivation Profiles® (RMP) are the most effective means of understanding the sixteen common human motives and values. Both managers and followers can complete RMPs and then compare results.
2) “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” —Dr. Stephen R. Covey. We always observe and interpret others’ motives through the lens of our own values. This naturally flawed method of motive evaluation is neither accurate nor predictive of others’ motives/values and behaviors. We try to put ourselves in other people’s shoes to understand why someone behaves a certain way and we end up disguising our own values in their clothes which often do not fit and wearing our own shoes. We understand why we might be motivated to behave the way someone else behaved in a situation, but we are never sure why they were actually motivated to do so. This leads to a manager’s frustrated and true exclamation, “I DON’T KNOW WHY SOMEONE WOULD EVER DO THAT!” The manager doesn’t know why someone would behave the way they behaved because the manager’s value lens blurs the observation with the manager’s own values blind spot and prevents the manager from being able to understand why someone might be motivated in an opposite way than the manager.
RMPs allow managers to greatly increase the level of motivational and values-based behavioral understanding of both themselves and the people they manage. Knowledge of followers’ RMPs allows managers to more accurately predict followers’ motives and values. The reason someone behaved the way they chose to behave is that they were motivated to do so. RMPs are the flashlight that shines insight into your motive blind spots. Understanding your own motives and values, and those of your followers, is critical to be an effective manager.
3) Dix’s 1st Law of Motivation: How you feel about what you do ultimately motivates you more than how successfully you do it.
Feelings matter and impact decisions and behaviors. Managers ignore and minimize the role and impact of emotion at their own peril. Logic is not a very strong motive.
At the 2012 World Society of Motivation Scientists and Professionals Conference in Washington, D.C., one esteemed presenter put forward the concept that humans are all drug addicts. We are motivated to think and behave in ways that release the most desired, naturally produced neurochemicals in our brains. We do what feels good and do it again and again to get our internal neuro-fix. Emotions are an indicator of our needs. There is truth in the saying, “If it feels good… do it.” We may rationalize many behaviors, but ultimately we are motivated to satisfy our greatest needs and when we do so we feel good. When we deny our needs, we feel frustrated or worse.
We are motivated to do more of what satisfies our greatest needs even if we are not particularly effective or successful at doing the actual task. This is why there are so many happy enthusiasts, hobbyists, and amateurs. They are in active pursuit of their bliss and enjoying the neurochemical payoffs of satisfying their needs.
Managers who understand the emotional side of motivation can understand a more complete picture of the dimensions of human motivation and can then manage from the heart as well as the head.
Managers who seek to master values-based management must strive to lessen the natural tendency to view others’ behaviors through the manager’s value lens. The manager must use valid, unbiased information on followers’ motives to genuinely understand and predict their behaviors. The Reiss Motivation Profile® is the proven tool to provide this level of understanding and insight into motives and values.
These three rules are the first steps to effective values-based management (VBM). VBM can be highly effective in unlocking the full potential of both managers and followers and lead to new levels of sustainable performance.
If you would like to obtain your Reiss Motivation Profile®, contact me at andy@adgrowthadvisers.com.
Ready to fire up your work and your life? I’m an executive coach from Indianapolis, and I work one-on-one with executives and managers, in person for local clients or via Zoom. If this post raised a question about your work or your next step, we should talk. The first discovery call is free and confidential. Book your discovery call, or call or text me at 317-643-0058, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5.
