In this 2009 TED Conference presentation Daniel Pink examines motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most leaders don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think.
Posts tagged: systems
Motivation 3.0 for the Christian Leader
I grew up in a time when church frequently included special gospel meetings that featured a guest preacher imploring nightly over the course of a week to get right and reap the rewards of heaven or certainly go to hell. We were encouraged to invite our friends and neighbors where every night the message and volume would escalate until a satisfactory number had responded to avoid the punishment of hell. Unfortunately, the fear motivated responses rarely resulted in life-long change, many left the church quickly never to return.
As I read Daniel Pink’s book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us it struck me that we have built a church, family, and work culture based on an inferior motivational model. In a sense, our churches are stuck in a 20th century when such practices were the norm, but fall short with today’s generation. Because we were raised in this environment most of today’s leaders are just modeling what we know.
Pink presents a compelling case for a deeper method of personal, peer, and subordinate motivation. He contends that human motivation has evolved from a basic needs model, to a “carrot and stick” model, and as he proposes, a more stable intrinsic motivation model. In modern vernacular he labels these models in the style of a progressive human operating system upgrade: Motivation 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.
Manager and Leader
The manager administers, the leader innovates
The manager maintains, the leader develops
The manager relies on systems, the leader relies on people
The manager counts on controls, the leader counts on trust
The manager does things right, the leader does the right thing
- Fortune Magazine
There is some debate about the attributes of leaders and those of managers. Some interchange the titles making any leader also a manger and manager leader. Everyone has an opinion based on their job description, corporate culture, personal preference, and so on.
My belief is that anyone in a position to influence people is both leader and manager. Lower level positions will manage more than they lead, perhaps 60% management/40% leadership. The higher you climb in your organization the more leadership competencies used; a CEO might be 20% manager/80% leader.
The leader who can balance the appropriate level of management skills while leading subordinates through vision, innovation, and trust is the catalyst for organizational excellence, regardless of their position on the corporate ladder.