Practice Notes

What's new in the world?

Intrinsic Motivation

This is another important take on motivation. Intrinsic motivation leads to more interest, excitement and confidence than motivation based on external factors. Most people have some degree of inherent motivation that may be triggered by:

a feeling of competence, triggered by feedback and the optimal level of challenge

autonomy - having some control over what you do and some freedom to determine your own behaviour

relatedness - a sense of security and relating to people who endorse your identity

But this intrinsic motivation may only be triggered if someone has an intrinsic interest in the activity they’re engaged in.

You can argue that Gallup and JRA both pick up these motivators in their engagement approach, but they’re worth thinking about as intrinsic motivators.

Giving Praise – process praise and growth mindsets

Process praise focuses on the effort and strategy behind a specific behavior. “You worked hard!” “You thought of a terrific way to help that person.”

In contrast, person praise involves making global assessments based on specific behavior. “You are so smart!” “You are so kind!”

Process praise tends to be motivating, increases self-confidence, and leads to mastery behavior; while person praise promotes avoidance of challenges and greater fear of failure. That’s according to Carol Dweck and outlined in her book, Mindset. Dweck describes two different mindsets, or views people adopt about themselves:

The fixed mindset is a belief that your abilities are carved in stone. So everything you do, success or failure, reveals what you are. With this mindset, failures are signs of deficits in abilities. People with fixed mindsets believe they were dealt a particular set of basic abilities at birth. They feel a need to prove over and over that they got a good set, and any evidence to the contrary is highly unsettling.

The growth mindset is based on the belief that one can cultivate basic abilities, changing and growing through application and experience. Dweck illustrates this mindset with people who were considered ordinary as children: Darwin and Tolstoy.

While the mindset is within the individual, other people can affect it by the kind of praise they give. Process praise encourages the growth mindset, while person praise reinforces the fixed mindset.