You Can't Motivate People: True or False?

I was not motivated to write this newsletter. I’m in Vermont with friends and it’s gorgeous and I’m not feeling the drive. However, usually I am really motivated to write these emails to you. I feel extrinsic motivation: You (my wonderful readers!) seem to like them. LinkedIn asks that I write them. They are an important part of my work week.

And I have an intrinsic motivation to write the newsletter, too. The task makes me feel good about myself. It’s satisfying and burnishes my sense of efficacy and mastery.?

So I wasn’t feeling motivated and I was procrastinating but then, I got inspired. And annoyed :) (Kayak.com co-founder Paul English says that annoyance is a fantastic inspiration for starting new businesses. He started Kayak because travel sites took too long to load.)

I was annoyed by a comment made by my wonderful podcast guest this week, Jeff Dewing. Jeff’s story is rollicking and fascinating. He’s a self made CEO who has embraced vulnerability and mental health care. But there was something he said that stuck with me and bothered me.?

We were speaking about his employees and Jeff told me, “I couldn’t motivate them, because you can't motivate people; you can only motivate yourself. But I can inspire people and inspire them to be motivated to do things that are unbelievable.”

I don’t think I agree with this statement. The best leaders, I believe, know how to inspire and motivate, and they are different. Listen to our interview here .

But Jeff’s statement caused me to delve deeper into the difference between inspiration and motivation, and why it matters. I found this article on BetterUp to be useful so I am drawing from that.

First, some definitions. Inspiration and motivation are related. Motivation is the reason you work hard , and inspiration is the catalyst behind those actions. So Jeff is right on that point: inspiration can drive motivation. Inspiration is sensory. It’s something that catches your eye, makes you curious, moves you to tears or joy, or moves you to get creative or consider taking action. It’s that gorgeous view that inspires you to paint your living room shades of green. It’s that incredible book that causes you to rethink (I’m reading Demon Copperhead right now…and wow). And it’s that person whose words and actions spark you to do something different in your life.?

If inspiration is passion, motivation is reason. Motivation is how we get things done when we have an objective we care about.

I asked my colleague Mita Mallick , one of the most thoughtful leaders I know, how leaders can think about using both inspiration and motivation with teams. We agree that really good leaders have the skill to do both. Good leaders know how to tap into your intrinsic motivation, which is about self-efficacy and mastery. Leaders can directly motivate their teams. Motivating your team members with a bonus because your company needs a sales boost, for example.

But I think we can all picture a professional mentor or boss who did inspire us, although it doesn’t happen every day! And this is a skill. Mita notes, “For a CEO, I can understand that part of retaining talent and developing talent is inspiring them to have a long career here. They feel inspired to stay and work here because they are like, "Wow, look at these leaders. Look at the CEO. I want to have a career like that. They inspire me.” Mita says,

I think inspiration can be a really lofty word and it can be really heavy to try to live up to feeling like you're inspiring someone, or you're a source of inspiration. I think in our workplaces, we tend to use the word motivation more. Particularly if you're trying to motivate someone to finish a project or a goal that could be tied to recognition, reward, compensation, a bonus, or trying to meet a quarterly goal. Inspiration might be the course of your life and career and journey.?

If you're a sales representative and you're just starting out your career, you may need more motivation in the beginning to help learn skills, and you might not actually be inspired to be a chief revenue officer. That might end up being your career.?

Motivation and inspiration are first cousins. Motivation is about short term results, and inspiration can ebb and flow. Your sources of inspiration can change depending on the environment, depending on how you're feeling individually. All of those things contribute to whether we feel inspired or not.?

I also think we throw the word inspiration around a lot. So to really understand what that means, how many people would say they're inspired by their job? My identity has been too often in my career tied to my job, and so I'm very careful about that. My job is a source of inspiration, but not the only. It can't be the only.

I think that inspiration inspires energy and free thinking and creativity, but it's not necessarily applicable in the way that motivation is. Mita agrees: “I think this idea of having to live up to the question of whether your work is inspiring, is it meaningful, do you feel that what you're doing every day is changing the world, that is hard. And I think sometimes that can also be spewing on the toxic positivity side of the Instagram posts we see. And for some people, their job is meaningful, but it's a job. It's a means to an end to other things that might inspire them outside of the workforce.?

Mita notes that ultimately, it’s about knowing what your people need and crave, “You have to know your people well enough to know what is it that drives them to make an impact. For me, it might be ... I love Starbucks, so you can buy me a Starbucks and I'll do just about anything. Just kidding.? For me, it's recognition. Having people say my name when I'm not in the room, making sure I'm getting credit for my work. For other people, it might be very title driven. We all want to be paid fairly and equitably. It might be about a retention bonus, a big bonus. It might be the opportunity to get paid to go to a leadership and development conference that the company's going to support you in because of the way in which you've been driving results. So I think you have to know what it is that motivates drive. You have to know your people. Not one size fits all. What motivates and drives you is different from what motivates and drives me.”

What do you think?

What motivates you at work?

What inspires you?

Morra