The Best Motivator For You

You're here because you have already achieved some outer success and reached your current executive leadership position. But growth doesn't have to stop here. There is a thrill and satisfaction in challenging yourself, stretching and seeing how much you can achieve. Have an impact and make a contribution.

The talents, skills and tools that have got you to this point will not necessarily take you further. Or the approaches you've used to achieve this success may have been expensive in terms of time, energy, stress and effect on your relationships. You need new or upgraded power tools to make sure you can sustain or advance your position more easily.

The High-Performance Executive Newsletter introduces these tools, so that you can level up, as video-gamers would say. It draws on many areas of solid research into high-performance in business, including neuroscience, psychology, physiology, trauma therapy and flow-state study.

The three essential areas for high performance are neuro-regulation (to get and stay calm), clear the negative self-talk and the beliefs that create them (including imposter syndrome), and create new success habits.

This week we're looking at personalised motivation for high performance.

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The Best Motivator For You

To achieve consistent and sustainable high-performance, you need the very best motivation to reach your goals.

But not all motivators are the same. It turns out that some will be far more effective for you than others. And the most effective motivators also make your high achievement less of an effort.

This week we're looking into one way to identify the most powerful motivator for you personally. With this knowledge, you can make your high performance both easier and more enjoyable.

In last week’s Issue (27) of the High-Performance Executive, I discussed the best way to not take things personally.

It was a framework for understanding people that brings you equanimity when dealing with people especially when they are difficult or challenging.

We can use this same framework to guide you to the best type of motivation techniques that work for your habitual behaviour patterns.

The Freedom Framework

It all starts with the problem of a belief that our worth is conditional (that it depends on what we do). In order to avoid the distress of experiencing that our worth is conditional (see last week’s Issue for more details), we each developed a way to feel a little better. Less helpless, overwhelmed or alone.

I call it a survival strategy to avoid that pain. But it’s not all about stress and pain, and these survival strategies are useful for self-awareness and should not be used for criticising yourself or others.

In the 1990s, Dr Greg Baer identified five patterns (survival strategies) that we developed as we grew up.

1.??????Power – the need/desire to be in control of ourselves and others, to be responsible, feel more powerful and to have choices

2.??????Praise/approval – the need/desire to have people approve of you or to avoid their disapproval

3.??????Distraction – the need/desire to avoid difficult feelings by escapist or distractive behaviour

4.??????Safety – the need/desire to control your environment and minimise risks so that you are never surprised

5.??????Drama – the need/desire for people to pay attention to you and offer their help

This is the best framework I’ve come across for describing people’s habitual patterns of behaviour – which become more evident when we are stressed. But there's more to this.

A Motivator

When the need or desire behind our survival strategy is met, we feel a sense of relief, and our brains give us a little hit of the feel-good chemicals such as dopamine or serotonin.

You can use those brain responses to discover which motivational approach will work best for you, as follows;

Power

The classic carrot-or-stick motivation will work best if you have the power survival strategy. Receiving material rewards will resonate well with you.

Taking it a step deeper, you will be even happier with rewards that give you more choices, because that is a more fundamental need/desire with the power survival strategy.

And a ‘stick’ motivator that takes away your choices will be very motivating too. Imagine if the consequence of you not meeting a target was that someone else (or a waiter) selects your restaurant meal for you. For most people who use power as a survival strategy, this will be very uncomfortable!

Praise/Approval

With this survival strategy, you will be most responsive to other people’s approval (or disapproval). An accountability group, mastermind group or an accountability coach will keep you working to achieve the goals you have set for yourself.

This recognition feels like approval for goals you meet and disapproval for those you don’t meet - a powerful motivator.

Distraction

The distraction survival strategy is often about avoiding discomfort by escaping. Sometimes that is with emotion-numbing methods such as alcohol or food.

However, this distraction pattern often leads to a love of games too. You will get excited about being a competitor or on a ‘quest’ and typically you are great in a crisis. But the routine, boring consistency is tougher to sustain and this is where you need the most help to maintain motivation.

With this pattern, you can motivate yourself in routine tasks by gamifying them. For example, a good, if rather cheesy, gamification tool is the Epic Win app.

Short-term sprint challenges at work or the gym, for example, are also satisfying and bring enough excitement to help you stay easily focused.

Safety

With the safety survival strategy, the most satisfaction will come from having your environment ordered. An effective tool for you will be time-boxing. Set a specific amount of time aside for a task, and block that out in your calendar to do it.

Not only will you be more motivated to accomplish the planned task, but your brain will also reward you with the dopamine for having kept to your schedule – a double win.

Drama

The prospect of a highly visible win will be very motivating if you have the drama survival strategy. Receiving awards and getting public recognition for your achievements will be a real thrill.

A work culture with a public celebration of wins will suit you well. For personal motivation, Facebook groups, for example, will be a great forum for celebrating the wins by posting them to the group.

?Does it fit?

Take a look at the survival strategies and see which one seems to resonate or seems most like you.

Then consider the corresponding motivational method. The chances are high that you will enjoy that one and be less motivated, or even put off, by some of the others.

In fact, you will find it much easier to achieve your goals when you use the motivator that gives your brain that little dopamine hit. You are enlisting your biology to help you achieve.

For high performance, when you know your most effective motivator, then you can proactively choose it or seek it out to help you reach your goals most easily.

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What I've loved this week:

High Performance by Jake Humphrey and Prof Damian Hughes

Lessons from the best on becoming your best. Of course, I had to read High Performance! And I’m very glad I did.

This is a well-written, very practical book looking at high-performance mindset, behaviour and teamwork. The authors have distilled eight lessons from interviewing high-achievers in sport and business. The summary box at the end of each lesson makes it easy to flick through for the highlights and great as a resource to refer to later.

High Performance is rich with stories from sportsmen and sportswomen. I’m not a huge sports fan, but I still found it very enjoyable and readable. The authors have made the stories accessible to everyone by explaining events clearly and not assuming you know anything about the sports.

I found the book fascinating, entertaining, educational and, yes, very motivational.

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An action step you can do today …

Know Yourself - and Use That Knowledge!

Take a look at the different tools and techniques you use to motivate yourself in the past. Some will be ones you've chosen, experimented with or been exposed to from company culture.

Group them into types of motivators as discussed above. Of all of these, which ones were most effective?

Now you know the type of motivator that works best for you personally.

Look to see how you can purposefully incorporate this type of motivator in both your work life and to help you achieve goals in your personal life too.

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We'll cover more on motivation for high performance in future issues.

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I'm Dr Tara Halliday, Imposter Syndrome Specialist.

I've been a holistic therapist and high-performance coach for over 21 years.

I'm the creator of the premium Inner Success for Execs programme - the fastest and best solution to imposter syndrome.

My book, Unmasking: The Coach's Guide to Imposter Syndrome was an Amazon #1 bestseller in 2018.

Check out the Inner Success for Execs programme for fast 'up levelling' of your internal leadership tools.

https://www.completesuccess.co.uk

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Have an excellent, refreshing and recharging weekend!

Tara