Skip to main content

Intrinsic Motivation

During a course on Gamification that I have been attending recently, the professor talks about different kinds of motivation - extrinsic and intrinsic. I found the classification of the motivation to be very insightful and structured. Extrinsic motivation is when we are motivated by external factors, such as rewards, a feeling of social obligation, if you will or even when you are forced to do something although you don't quite believe in the task. Intrinsic motivation is when one feels good doing a task by himself/ herself only because he/ she likes it.

Of course, the best kind of motivation is intrinsic. If we were to have a team that is full of folks like Anil Kumble in cricket or Lebron James in basketball, then it is safe to assume that that team would be the most efficient and excellent team in whatever task they do. Both the stars in their respective sports are known to be very hard working and appear to be intrinsically motivated to be the best that they can be in their sport. But in reality, a team is not made of only such individuals but is a mix of different kinds of people. Some are driven by the rewards that they would get on achieving success, some others are low in confidence and need encouragement ever so often. Each person is different and his/ her requirements and motivations are different.

Just as managing oneself is paramount before managing others, it is more important to motivate the self and ensure the levels of motivation and will are high all the time. To do that, a high degree of self awareness is a must. Only when one is aware of what is important to them will they be able to identify the motivating factors. It becomes easy when you pursue the one thing that truly exhilarates you - which gets you in "the zone". Sportspersons will identify with that feeling, Chris Gayle was in it just last evening when he scored his 175* off just 66 balls in a T20 match in the IPL season VI. Everything that he hit went exactly where he wanted it to go. He could do as he wished with the bowling attack. A quote by Andre Agassi comes to mind where he talks about seeing only the ball. The crowd, the ball boys, the referee are all blacked out and all that he can see is the ball. In that mind space, nothing can affect you. If you are in the profession or job where you can get into that kind of a state, you are intrinsically motivated. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eraser is the devil!

An interesting read in today's newspaper had to do with the proclamation by a cognitive scientist that a Pencil eraser is the Devil! Who would have thunk it?! The innocent little eraser, the scrubby little thing, the chocolate toffee sized, multi-faceted pencil eraser is a devil?? Really? As you read along, you would realize that the pencil eraser is used to correct mistakes made and give an appearance of cleanliness, almost as if the contents were all written clean and good at the first time of writing. It encourages children to seek perfection in their presentation at the cost of making mistakes and learning from these mistakes. The act of erasing misspellings or hastily scribbled, illegible notes indicates a need to cover up and not own up to faults and/ or mistakes. Ah! Now that makes sense. When I was encouraging people to make mistakes so they learn from them, I did not realize that the devil of playing it safe and presenting a clean picture to the world germinates from t...
1 comment
Read more

Migration

We have hired a cook who comes in every day. His value to our livelihood is immense - he ensures that the primary requirement in every day life is resolved by cooking our food. He has his quirks, we all do. He goes around to 12 other houses in a single day, repeating the task in a seemingly tireless way. He works hard. He is up from 6:00 a.m in the morning, reporting to his first house at 6:45 a.m, returning home for lunch and a nap in the afternoon before another bout of cooking across multiple houses resumes in the evening. He finishes the day at 10:30 p.m, returning home for dinner and a night's sleep. He forms part of a large migrant community that moves from a smaller town to a big city in search of opportunities and a better livelihood than the one that they experience back home. The blueprint has remained the same through centuries and continues unabated even today. They leave their children and family back there to be brought up by supporting family members while they su...
2 comments
Read more

Honor "No"

As a child, the Amar Chitra Katha was a major source of Hindu mythological stories. The stories often dealt with the kings and queens of the years gone by, part mythological and part historical. Now, the kings, being kings, would order things done and voila! there it would be. One such story narrated the happenings - the king would only have to shout, "Who is there?!" and there would be a few courtiers, soldiers that would come running to receive his orders. Nowadays, if I were to shout "Who is there?!" at home, I would hear back: "What is wrong with you? Who else will be here?" Indication enough that I am best off doing what ever task there was to be done, by myself. Move to the office, shouting "Who is there?!" whenever a task needs to be done urgently will return inquisitive looks from all within ear shot. Of course, the source of enormous levity at dinner table conversations at all the employees' homes would be an appreciable side ef...
1 comment
Read more