Posts
Everyone has motivators and understands,
in a leadership context, that motivating others is critical to individual and
team success. According to Dr. Heidi
Grant Halvorson and Dr. E. Tory Higgins, there are two primary ways in
which we work to fulfill personal and professional goals: (1) through a focus on promotion, or the opportunity to advance, grow, and avoid missing
opportunities; or (2) through a focus on prevention,
or a concentration on staying safe, not losing anything or incurring detrimental
effects. Promotion- and prevention-focused
people can be recognized this way:
“Promotion-focused
people:
- Work quickly
- Consider lots of alternatives and are great brainstormers
- Are open to new opportunities
- Are optimists
- Plan only for best-case scenarios
- Seek positive feedback and lose steam without it
- Feel dejected or depressed when things go wrong
Prevention-focused
people
- Work slowly and deliberately
- Tend to be accurate
- Are prepared for the worst
- Are stressed by short deadlines
- Stick to tried-and-true ways of doing things
- Are uncomfortable with praise or optimism
- Feel worried or anxious when things go wrong”
Each type has its own strengths and
weaknesses and most teams, regardless of industry, thrive when both types are
involved. Knowing your focus can help
you choose a field in which your motivational focus strengths are utilized
and understanding the focus of your supervisor and your team is critical to
effectively persuading and motivating them.
For example, promotion-focused people can be best motivated through
praise, inspirational stories, and understanding what they gain when they
achieve something. Prevention-focused
individuals are motivated by understanding what they did wrong (criticism),
cautionary tales, and understanding what they will lose if they don’t achieve
something.
I’d also like to point you to an hour-long
webinar presented by Dr. Halvorson in which she delves deeper into this
interesting topic, including describing how your focus can be changed by
circumstances and by different domains, such as work and parenthood. She also gives specific advice about working
with people of both types of motivational focus.
I highly recommend it.
Dr. Halvorsen says you can figure out your
motivational focus by reading the descriptions.
I’m pretty sure I’m a promotion-focused person. What’s your focus? Does reading the description immediately make
you think of people you know who fit into them?
