What Drives Motivation?

As Daniel Pink describes in his 2011 book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the reward-punishment “carrot and stick” style of motivation, useful in the industrial age, doesn’t serve people in the information age. Updated research has shown that, indeed, “people are not pets” (link to New York Times article here) and often respond in counterintuitive ways – rewards can serve to dampen motivation over time, for example, and potential punishments may carry little weight. Pink identifies today’s three key motivators as autonomy (the feeling that one is empowered to make their own choices), purpose (the sense that the action will make a difference that one finds meaningful), and mastery (the conviction that one is growing in skill, ability, and/or knowledge over time).  

Many a highly capable student has found themselves unmotivated to perform tasks that the journey through higher education requires of them, despite helpful resources, the native ability to do the work, and family encouragement to earn a degree. Confused, frustrated, and feeling like failures, they respond neither to potential rewards nor threatened punishments. In these moments we hope they find their way to a coach’s desk (or videoconference room).  

Powerful questions can get coachees thinking in a new way about themselves, their motivations, and their resistance. In the best of worlds, the process of thinking through answers to these questions can lead coachees to a new understanding of what motivates them to resist as well as what may drive them to act and to move ahead.

As a coach, given the opportunity to work with someone puzzled about their motivation, you might ask: 

• What action can you choose that would improve things in this moment?

• What meaningful goal do you want to achieve with this major (or work)? 

• What would you like to master as you work toward this degree (or work in this career)?  

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class on March 11, 18, 25