In the study of management, there are many different theories about how to motivate people. To me, this is not possible. We cannot motivate someone else. The only thing we can do is create an environment for that person to exercise his or her motivation.
When I did my Master of Arts in Human Resource Development, one of the team projects was to present a paper on motivation. I had heated arguments with my team members, who all insisted that motivation was partly internal, partly external. Since I was outnumbered — and since they were senior managers who did not think too highly of me, a junior naval officer — I went along with them in the team presentation. As part of the course requirements, however, I submitted an individual report about my learning experience from the project.
In that report, I raised the issue about the source of motivation. When I got my report back, I was pleasantly surprised. My professor, Dr Leonard Nadler — who is highly respected as the “father of human resource development” — said that I was right! He, too, felt that motivation had to come totally from within.
Motivational and inspirational speaker Michael Aun shares a similar viewpoint. In a newspaper article titled “The Genius within the Average Person”, Aun talks about how the legendary swimming coach, George Haynes, was able to produce record-breaking swimmers out of ordinary kids:
“They burst through the locker room doors with an enthusiasm that
would make any coach proud. Never a complaint. Never a negative
thought. Nothing but positive vibes.
I’ve learned three things about motivation over the years. First, you
can’t motivate anyone to do anything they don’t want to do.
Motivation is an inside-out job, not an outside-in job.
The second thing I’ve learned is that all people are motivated.
People who lay in bed in the morning rather than getting up and going
to work are more motivated to lay in bed. They might be negatively
motivated, but they are nevertheless motivated.
The third thing I’ve learned is that people do things for their reasons,
not for yours. The trick is to figure out what THEIR reasons are.
I believe the key to Coach Haynes’ motivation of his youngsters is
that he figured out what their reasons were, and he coached them
based on their motivation, not his own. He was able to find the genius
within the average person and bring out the best in them.”
Read More : Internal Motivation
