Your personal development is ongoing. It’s a lifelong learning process. Creating the life you desire requires finding the motivation to continually expand your ability to grow and enhance your performance. To do this, you must explore and understand what motivates people as a leader.
Motivation is the incentive or stimulus that causes people to behave as they do. It energises, directs or channels human behaviour and the way in which this behaviour is maintained or sustained. Motivation can be stimulated by needs or expectations, behaviour, goals, or some form of feedback. Different individuals are motivated by different needs. While one person might have a strong need for security and stability, another may crave variety and challenge.
Motivation theorists distinguish between extrinsic – external – and intrinsic – internal – sources of motivation. Extrinsic motivation relates to the incentive to perform an activity to achieve a material outcome such as money, status, or position. Whilst intrinsic motivation is driven by values and relates to the incentive to perform an activity to achieve a personal accomplishment, a sense of worth and personal growth. An important motivational principle is that irrespective of how difficult circumstances may be, people have a great capacity to remain motivated. The key is to find meaning in challenging circumstances.
Viktor Frankl’s classic book, “Man’s Search for Meaning” outlies his experience of witnessing the reactions of fellow victims in the concentration camps of the Second World War. Frankl demonstrates the importance of finding meaning and purpose in life irrespective of what life’s circumstances might be.
Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom” also provides an inspirational account of the importance of striving towards higher ideals and overcoming great personal hardships. Identifying motivators will help you to determine ways to get the most out of a variety of circumstances through a process of learning and discovery to create the most powerful and lasting change.
The video forms part of the online course “Emotional Intelligence Coaching“
