Three ways to ignite performance

focus.kornferry.com/employee-engagement/three-ways-to-ignite-performance/

October 23, 2018

The statement that leadership is about driving performance through other people is one of
those easier-said-than-done situations. What’s more, it’s a challenge that changes in both
scale and form as leaders move through what Ram Charan calls the leadership pipeline –
the six critical leadership passages from first-line manager to enterprise leader. Each
passage asks different things of leaders and as such, requires leaders to develop and
deploy different skills.

While the skills required at each level may be different, leaders at all levels share the same
goal, to motivate and get the best out of their people. This is the crux of the leadership
pipeline: organisations must make sure that the right leaders are in place at the right levels
with the right skills to engage their people. Aligning these three things has a powerful
effect on people’s motivation. And it’s these motivated employees who will go the extra
mile to drive performance.

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Of course it’s not as simple as flicking the motivation switch. Motivation is inherently
complicated because it varies from person to person. What’s more, it can be driven both
intrinsically and extrinsically. Intrinsic motivation is sparked by those things that are
inherently interesting to or enjoyable for an individual, while extrinsic motivation is
governed by external forces, influenced by the organisation and work environment.

While both forms of motivation have their place, intrinsic motivation trumps extrinsic
motivation when it comes to performance. Our data shows that 76% of employees who feel
intrinsically motivated exceed performance expectations, compared to 60% of those who
feel extrinsically motivated.

The great opportunity to boost intrinsic motivation

While the research shows the importance of intrinsic motivation, many organisations are
leaving a significant performance dividend on the table. Why? Because leaders rely too
much on the innate motivation employees bring to work with them each day without
thinking specifically about what they can do to bring that motivation alive.

To do this, leaders at every level of the organisation need to look at what they can do within
their sphere influence to boost motivation. Often the answers can be found in employee
feedback. For example, individuals want to feel confident in their ability to achieve career
objectives – it’s one of the most critical drivers of engagement. Helping individuals to
achieve career goals is something that’s at the core of leadership, whether as a first-line
manager or enterprise leader.

Helping individuals to achieve career goals is something that’s at the core of leadership,
whether as a first-line manager or enterprise leader. Click To Tweet
1/2
Three ways to unleash intrinsic motivation

Tapping into intrinsic motivation involves getting into the trenches of leadership. It means
understanding individuals on their own terms to learn what excites and challenges them at
work. To maximise intrinsic motivation, leaders should channel their efforts into:

1. Keeping communication channels open: Leaders should facilitate on-going

communication between themselves and their team members on what helps and
what hinders them from being effective. This could involve understanding particular
experiences that an individual is seeking, or may uncover particular values that it will
be important for the individual to align with.
2. Managing bureaucracy: Bureaucracy – whether real or perceived – is a major de-
motivator. Leaders should remove as many barriers as possible for their teams to
encourage innovation and collaboration, while managing perceptions around those
processes that are necessary.
3. Diving into employee feedback: Often the raw data for boosting intrinsic motivation
can be found in your engagement survey. But to learn more, leaders should use
follow-up initiatives such as focus groups to find out the what really makes their
employees tick, from both positive and negative perspectives. Look at highly-
engaged teams and compare them to less-engaged teams: what it is that makes the
difference?

Learn more about how leaders can tap into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to drive
engagement here.

2/2