Unleashing Motivation by Effective Coaching

  Daniel H. Pink: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

 

In his book, Pink describes three critical conditions for an intrinsic motivational environment:

1.   Autonomy: Give people autonomy over what they’re doing and how they do it, including choosing their time, tasks, team and techniques.

2.   Mastery: Give them an opportunity to master their work and make progress through deliberate practice.

3.   Purpose: Make sure people have a sense of purpose in their work — preferably to something higher and beyond their job, salary and company.

People are most productive when their work puts them in what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls a state of “flow” — more commonly recognized as being “in the zone.”   Flow can be achieved only when leaders provide autonomy, time to practice and improve mastery, and a sense of higher purpose.

Sadly, intrinsic motivation theories aren’t palatable to everyone. Our notions of what constitutes proper motivation are often too entrenched to be flexible. Some companies have given lip service to worker “empowerment,” without actually letting go of control.

Many leaders will resist giving up their carrots, and many workers will find it hard to imagine a world without incentives.  But leaders who can implement intrinsic motivation can expect a whole new workplace — and an entirely new definition of work.

Motivational Coaching or on the bench during March Madness?

Every player has a coach but not all coaches have a coach.  Why is that?

The short answer is coachless coaches have bumped up against the glass ceiling.

Who are these coachless coaches?   In the game of major college basketball, they are the ones whose teams were not invited to participate in the NCAA basketball tournament that begins this week.  Coaches who talk the talk but whose teams can't walk the talk.  They have developed a false sense of security, by thinking they know how the world works, which leads to "CEO disease."  This disease occurs when a chief executive officer (CEO) or a head coach is isolated from reality because no one (except maybe the media) tells them how and where they need to personally improve.   

Just as every Olympic and professional athlete has a personal coach, every coach needs someone who can provide reality checks on a week-to-week basis.   Getting to that area of self-awareness (where there is great leverage for positive change) requires a trusting and confidential relationship so both the person-being-coached and the coach can say the "unsayable" to each other.  This happens because both the person-being-coached and the coach have no other relationship or role in each other's life (that must be protected) and therefore can be completely honest with each other.

Coaching is an important part of leadership. 

Basketball is an intricate, high-speed game filled with split-second, spontaneous decisions.  But that spontaneity is possible only when everyone first engages in hours of highly repetitive and structured practice and agrees to play a carefully defined role on the court.  Great basketball coaches, military commanders and business leaders know that practice of the rules of engagement coupled with split-second decisions in execution by their team can make the difference between winning and losing. 

Malcolm Gladwell, in his bestseller, "blink" (Little Brown), tells us that great leaders know that if you can create the right framework (by everyone knowing the rules and practicing them), when it comes time to perform, your players will engage in fluid, effortless, spur-of-the-moment dialogue and action.  The leader provides the overall guidance and intent to the team, coaches them in mastering tools and general techniques through practice and then allows them to use their own initiative and be innovative as they move forward.

Placing a lot of trust in your subordinates has an overwhelming advantage:

Allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves within the rules of engagement, focuses their energy and opens the possibility for extraordinary leaps of insight and instinct in decision-making.  When the team is "in the flow," split-second decisions are unconscious flashes of insight that drive extraordinary performance on the basketball court, battlefield or shop floor. 

It is the leader's job to keep the momentum going; so as not to lose the flow.  Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads.  It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out by external means.  Know that these kinds of fluid, intuitive, nonverbal experiences are vulnerable...and...your players can drop out of the "zone" or "flow" when you, as their leader, start to become reflective about this rapid cognitive process.

Every player has a coach but not all coaches have a coach.  Why is that?

The short answer is coachless coaches have bumped up against the glass ceiling.

Who are these coachless coaches?   In the game of major college basketball, they are the ones whose teams were not invited to participate in the NCAA basketball tournament that begins this week.  Coaches who talk the talk but whose teams can't walk the talk.  They have developed a false sense of security, by thinking they know how the world works, which leads to "CEO disease."  This disease occurs when a chief executive officer (CEO) or a head coach is isolated from reality because no one (except maybe the media) tells them how and where they need to personally improve.   

Just as every Olympic and professional athlete has a personal coach, every coach needs someone who can provide reality checks on a week-to-week basis.   Getting to that area of self-awareness (where there is great leverage for positive change) requires a trusting and confidential relationship so both the person-being-coached and the coach can say the "unsayable" to each other.  This happens because both the person-being-coached and the coach have no other relationship or role in each other's life (that must be protected) and therefore can be completely honest with each other.

Coaching is an important part of leadership. 

Basketball is an intricate, high-speed game filled with split-second, spontaneous decisions.  But that spontaneity is possible only when everyone first engages in hours of highly repetitive and structured practice and agrees to play a carefully defined role on the court.  Great basketball coaches, military commanders and business leaders know that practice of the rules of engagement coupled with split-second decisions in execution by their team can make the difference between winning and losing. 

Malcolm Gladwell, in his bestseller, "blink" (Little Brown), tells us that great leaders know that if you can create the right framework (by everyone knowing the rules and practicing them), when it comes time to perform, your players will engage in fluid, effortless, spur-of-the-moment dialogue and action.  The leader provides the overall guidance and intent to the team, coaches them in mastering tools and general techniques through practice and then allows them to use their own initiative and be innovative as they move forward.

Placing a lot of trust in your subordinates has an overwhelming advantage:

Allowing people to operate without having to explain themselves within the rules of engagement, focuses their energy and opens the possibility for extraordinary leaps of insight and instinct in decision-making.  When the team is "in the flow," split-second decisions are unconscious flashes of insight that drive extraordinary performance on the basketball court, battlefield or shop floor. 

It is the leader's job to keep the momentum going; so as not to lose the flow.  Insight is not a lightbulb that goes off inside our heads.  It is a flickering candle that can easily be snuffed out by external means.  Know that these kinds of fluid, intuitive, nonverbal experiences are vulnerable...and...your players can drop out of the "zone" or "flow" when you, as their leader, start to become reflective about this rapid cognitive process.