Full Circle Digital Magazine March | April 2014 | Page 40

B U S I N E S S • M O T I VAT I O N

The Deepest Source of Motivation
by Geoffrey James

Forget the carrot and stick. Motivation and innovation come from a desire to help.

F

or decades, bosses have assumed that the best
way to motivate workers is by promising financial
gain and threatening financial loss. With one hand
they dangle a carrot of more pay while brandishing in the
other, the stick of “get to work or you’re fired.”
However, according to a recent article in the NYork Times,
research in organizational psychology strongly suggests
that people are more innovative and more successful when
motivated by a desire to help other people.
This is a vast departure from the management theories
of the past which have assumed that success in
business is “the survival of the fittest.” Under this way of
thinking, helping others is a waste of time and effort...
except insofar as it’s self-serving.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT YOUR JOB?
Over the past 20 years, I’ve interviewed hundreds
of successful people, mostly top executives and top
salespeople. I start nearly every conversation with a
simple question: “What do you like best about your job?”

In every case, these highly-successful individuals have
responded to that question with some variation of: “I like
helping people.” When I probe, I usually discover that
they’re not just talking about customers. They want to
help co-workers, too.
When I look at the different types of writing I’ve done in
my life, there’s no question that I’ve been happier, more
productive, and more innovative in exact proportion to
the likelihood that what I’m writing will help others be
more successful in their lives.
I’ll bet if you honestly review the jobs you’ve done in
the past, and the job you’re doing right now, you’ve
accomplished more when you were certain that you were
helping others than when you weren’t quite sure.
The lesson here is simple: when you focus on helping
others rather than helping yourself, you draw upon your
deepest sources of motivation. It frees your creativity and
energy while developing simultaneously developing both
empathy and patience.
It’s not a dog-eat-dog world out there. It’s a “let’s make
this happen together” world.

8 Ways to Improve Your
ATTITUDE

I

f you truly want to be successful, your number one task
should be to create and maintain a positive attitude.
When you’ve got an attitude of optimism, expectancy
and enthusiasm, opportunities grow, and problems shrink.
If you’re a leader, a positive attitude draws people to
your side and encourages them to do their best work. A
leader with a negative attitude, however, can only compel
others to take action through fear.
More importantly, what would be the point of being
successful if you’re always feeling lousy?  With that in
mind, here’s how to ensure your attitude stays upbeat:
1. ALWAYS ACT WITH A PURPOSE.
Before you take any action, decide how it will serve your
greater goals.  If the connection is weak or non-existent,
take that action off your to-do list. Aimless activity wastes
time and energy.

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2. STRETCH YOURSELF PAST YOUR LIMITS EVERY DAY.
Doing the same-old, same-old is depressing, even if your
same-old has been successful in the past. Success is
like athletics; if you don’t stretch yourself every day, you
gradually become slow and brittle.
3. TAKE ACTION WITHOUT EXPECTING RESULTS.
While you naturally must make decisions and take action
based upon the results you’d like to achieve, it’s a big
mistake to expect those results and then be disappointed
when you don’t get them.  Take your best shot but don’t
obsess about the target.
4. USE SETBACKS TO IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS.
Rather than feeling bad if you fail or get rejected, look back
at your actions and see what you can do (if anything) to
improve your performances.  Remember: the results you
receive are the signposts for the results you want to achieve.

March | April 2014