The Science of Motivation

What motivates you?

While there are thousands, millions, maybe billions of answers to that question, a growing body of research, some of it dating back 50 years, shows two things that don't motivate us very well - the promise of rewards and the threat of punishment.

It seems counter-intuitive, since after all we take it for granted that we need incentives to do work. It's the basis for whole economic systems, for crying out loud! And yet, the research is abundantly clear: once a reasonable standard of living is achieved, rewards and punishment not only don't motivate us to do more, better, or faster, they often demotivate us.

One classic example of this is a study involving lawyers asked to provide legal services for low income persons. One group was asked to do so for a low fee, $10 or $20 an hour, while the other was asked to do so for free. Interestingly, the subjects asked to provide services for a fraction of their typical rate were unwilling to do so, while those asked to do so for free were overwhelmingly willing. By offering a small fee, the subjects were actually less motivated, since they could only think of the work in relation to their normal, much larger fees. The other subjects were not pushed to think about their work as an economic transaction (in which the fee was nothing) and so were able to imagine other ways in which the work itself was its own reward.

Rewards force us to consider our work in a limited way, even work that we might gain great satisfaction from doing without the promise of reward. In fact, offering incentives can limit not only one's perception of the work but one's ability to even do the work. Consider the "candle problem" (watch author Dan Pink's TED talk on the candle problem on YouTube for more information). Subjects are seated at a table against a wall, given a candle, some matches, and a box of tacks, and told to work out a way to burn the candle without getting wax on the table. In one study, one group was offered money for figuring the puzzle out, while the other wasn't - and the subjects who were not offered any reward did remarkably better.

(The solution, by the way, is to empty the box of tacks and set the candle up inside the box - most people ignore the box at first, because they see it only as a holder for the tacks and not as part of the equipment available to them. People working for a reward have a much harder time making the creative leap to seeing the box as part of the puzzle than people who are not being incentivized except by the pleasure of solving the puzzle itself.)

I should clarify here: it should be clear by now that it's not rewards in the abstract that demotivate us, it's rewards that are external to the task at hand. We are actually very easily motivated by any sort of challenging work, which is why so many of our hobbies involve complex problem-solving (working on motorcycles, woodworking, gourmet cooking, reading mysteries, sailing, training pets, collecting rare things, fantasy sports, and so on). But when someone else offers us money (or some other reward) to complete the same problems, it gets shunted into the category of "work" and our creativity shuts down.

The trick to motivation, then, is to find the intrinsic reward in our work and to enjoy it. Note that this doesn't mean that nobody should ever accept money for anything - before our drive for mastery and personal challenge lies our drive to survive! But there's a reason why so many painters are willing to suffer for their art while so few people are willing to become hobby investment bankers - one kind of work has its own intrinsic motivation while the other, except for a very rare few of us, does not.

Knowing all that, there are a few things you can do to keep yourself motivated.

1. Have a mission. Perhaps the singles most motivating factor in our lives is the sense we are fulfilling a greater purpose. That's why lawyers will do for free what they won't do for cheap - the sense that they're contributing to something greater than themselves. A lot of people have taken a page from the corporate world and written a short, one- or at most two-sentence mission statement, against which their actions can be evaluated. If your mission is, for example, "to make the world a better place" (which is maybe too vague to be all that effective, but it'll do for illustration purposes) then knowing that some task is helping to make the world better can be very motivating, indeed!
2. Measure improvement. While work that engages with the rest of the world can be very intrinsically rewarding and thus very motivating, so too can work that makes us better people.  Personal growth is an important motivating factor. But most of us take little time to determine just what constitutes being "better" - we set goals like "be more moral," "spend more time with family," or "do my job better" but those aren't very powerful motivators because they are not concrete. This is the idea behind S.M.A.R.T. goals, goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Set goals whose progress you can measure - according to whatever metric matters most to you! - and keep track of your progress.
3. Make learning a primary goal. An important part of personal growth is achieving or moving towards mastery - of a body of knowledge, of a tool or system, of a particular task. Work that helps us move closer to mastery is generally rewarding in its own right. But it's not always clear what, if anything, we're learning. So I'd like to borrow an idea from marketing "guru" Seth Godin. Godin advises readers of business books, to "Decide, before you start, that you're going to change three things about what you do all day at work. Then, as you're reading, find the three things and do it." This can apply to just about anything: ask yourself, as you start a new project or a new job or anything else, "What three things am I going to learn from doing this?" This will put you in a mastery frame of mind so that you're aware of the learning you're doing as you move through your various tasks.
4. Examine your life. Alan Webber, the founder of Fast Company, keeps two lists in his pocket on index cards. One is the list of things that get him up in the morning, the other of things that keep him awake at night. Ask yourself what gets you out of bed in the morning, and what keeps you up at night. If your answers are positive things, you're in pretty good shape - but if they're not, you're begging for a motivation problem. When you get out of bed eager to tackle the challenges of the day, and lay awake at night dreaming up new challenges, new projects, and new directions to take your life in, motivation comes pretty easily!
5. Separate work from rewards. This is a tough one, because we often battle procrastination by depriving ourselves of something positive and promising ourselves we can have it once we've gotten some work done. The problem is that it paints the work we're doing as something undesirable, something we wouldn't do unless we had that grand latte, trip to the mall, or afternoon swim as a reward. In his classic, The Now Habit, Neil Fiore suggests that procrastination comes not from the nature of the work but from our relationship with it - work we see as drudgery that we have to do in order to get something we want is ripe for procrastination. Instead, he suggests we change the very language we use to talk about our work, emphasizing that we choose to work on a task or project. Work we choose to do - like hobbies - rarely suffers from motivation problems!

With all that we've discovered about what motivates people, it will be interesting to see how businesses, who have until now depended on perks, stock options, and other bonuses to increase motivation, will adapt. It's become clear that, while rewards and punishments might have increased productivity on the factory floor, it actually hinders the kind of knowledge work that makes up the vast bulk of our economy these days. Already a few companies are experimenting, quite successfully, with ways of helping employees to discover intrinsic rewards of their own work - Google's 20% time, which gives engineers one day a week to work on whatever project they choose and which has resulted in products crucial to the company as Gmail, AdSense, and Google News, is one prominent example - most managers remain convinced that their employees will never do work without the promise of a reward or the threat of punishment.

Which is kind of a sad commentary on all of our lives, isn't it?

Taken from Lifehack.com  Written by Dustin Wax

Women Who Display Masculine Traits - and Know When Not to - Get More Promotions than Men

In the business world, women who are aggressive, assertive, and confident but who can turn these traits on and off depending on the social circumstances get more promotions than either men or other women, according to a recent study coming out of Stanford Graduate School of Business, by Olivia O'Neill and Charles O'Reilly.

The research suggests that for women to be successful they must simultaneously present themselves as self-confident and dominant while tempering these qualities with displays of communal characteristics. "Women may have a ways to go, but their ability to be flexible in how they behave is leading to some extraordinary results. Some women are starting to go very high in the managerial ranks using this strategic approach," concludes Olivia O'Neill, PhD '05, assistant professor of management at George Mason University who coauthored the article with Charles O'Reilly, Frank E Buck professor of human resources management and organization behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Using comprehensive interview, survey, and observational data from 132 business school graduates over 8 years, the researchers found that certain women high in "masculine traits" - defined as aggressiveness, assertiveness, and confidence - were also able to "self-monitor" their behavior. "These women were able to be chameleons, to fit into their environment by assessing social situations and adapting their actions accordingly," explains O'Neill.

Masculine women who were high self-monitors did quite well professionally, according to the study. They received 1.5 times more promotions than masculine men, and about two times as many promotions as feminine men, regardless of whether the men were high or low self-monitors. They also received 3 times as many promotions as masculine women who were low self-monitors, affirming that masculine behavior alone does not garner success.

"The interesting thing here is that being able to regulate one's masculine behavior does not simply put women on par with men, it gives them even more of an advantage," notes O'Neill. "This shows that for women who do want success at the managerial level, the paths are there."

The study also showed that self-monitoring masculine women received 1.5 times as many promotions as feminine women, regardless of whether those women were high or low self-monitors. "There is no evidence that 'acting like a lady' does anything except make women more well liked," O'Neill said. "Women with ultra-feminine traits, in fact, are still seen as less competent in traditional managerial settings."

The effect of managing "masculine" traits is significant, say the researchers, since it can have a noticeable effect on success early in women's careers. Even small differences in success rates at the beginning of one's career have large long-term effects. They postulate that as more and more women understand and adopt the behavior pattern they describe, the lower percentages of women currently in the upper managerial ranks could reverse out over time. The study resolves the conundrum that has plagued women in the business arena: To be successful, you must be assertive and confident, but if you are aggressive as a woman you are sometimes punished for behaving in ways that are contrary to the feminine stereotype. Such negative response to assertive women has been labeled the "backlash effect."

The paper follows upon an earlier study by O'Neill and O'Reilly, using the same data set, in which they determined that learned behavior patterns - not biological sex - may be the greatest determinant of workplace success as measured by salary and promotion.

Taken from www.gsb.stanford.edu  Written by Marguertite Rigoglioso

How to Increase Your Willpower

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt


This quote embodies everything I know about willpower. It displays what we as people are capable of when we are pushed to the nth degree. While this quote is indeed powerful, most of us still don't understand how to increase our willpower. Whenever we perceive even a little step in the wrong direction, it becomes the end of the world. Such thinking cannot yield good results. Remember that you have to always...I can not stress this enough. No matter how long it takes and how beaten you may feel, you must try and try again. You'll never know how much you can handle if you don't put your limits to a test. How many times does it take for a baby to stand up before he or she finally does? How long do great athletes, actors, writers, composers, first-time mothers and fathers practice before they finally get it right? How much heartache do you have to feel until you finally feel true love? You will never know if you do not try. The very act of trying itself increases your willpower because it instills in your mind that you can do it; that you can succeed.

Eliminate negative influences

Who has not felt the sting or hurt when someone you thought supported you, in fact, actually didn't? You are not the first one to be criticized. People deconstructively criticize what they do not understand. If you come from a long line of farmers and you have big dreams to be a "hot-shot lawyer," expect some backlash. If your friends are all planning to work in the same field, but you choose another, I bet you dollars to donuts that at least a few of them will look down on you. Cut them loose if you have to. There is no way a negative influence has ever made a person successful (except in defiance of that said influence). Listen only to constructive criticism that help you learn and grow as a person.

Seek out those who you resonate with

You may think you have achieved great willpower, but nothing can push it ever higher than surrounding yourself with those who are similar to you. In times of sheer doubt, they can fish you out of your pit of despair. When you achieve the little goals, they will revel with you in your glory. When they are down for the count, it will be your job to push them back up. What you can accomplish alone will be amplified when you put great minds together. To have someone always there to drive you forward makes you feel as if you've promised them to endure what lies ahead.

Realize defeat, but never accept it

Those who know defeat are the ones that have the most willpower. After their long line of defeats they will always say, "but the day I was about to quit, I decided to try one more time..." There will always be days when defeat rears it's head, but that doesn't mean you should accept it. Even when it seems as if you are making no headway, stop and think about how far you've come. The effort you put in beforehand has made you who you are now. Learn from your defeats, but act immediately afterwards to redeem yourself.

It has been said that confidence cannot be faked; that you must fake it until you make it. This is not the case in willpower. You cannot fake effort or will. All the hardships, all of the constant forward trudging: it's all real. As long as you keep acting positively, you can be sure to achieve anything you put your mind to.

Give up. Quit. Can't. These words should not exist in your vocabulary.

Taken from Pickthebrain.com  Written by John Anyasor.

Gathering Courage to Switch Tracks in Mid-Life

Circumstances and the call of the heart often push career changes in mid-life, forcing professionals to make life-altering decisions.

Rakesh Jinsi moved to the non-profit sector as the national director of the SOS Children's Village in 2009 after spending 32 years in profit-oriented organizations. His tryst with the corporate world began in the 1970s when he joined a leading manufacturing and consulting company with his engineering degree.

"There was an advertisement in the newspaper. I applied for it and was called for an interview," Jinsi recalls. Over the years, fortunes swung with the fluctuating economy. The dissonance began to show more acutely and Jinsi was not satisfied with the work environment he was getting into. "I was getting uncomfortable with this competitiveness. So, with that understanding, I also realized there is a certain personality and character of mine that needed to be addressed," he said. It was around then the offer from SOS Village came.

For former hardware chip designer Anand Dharmaraj, "Life is an adventure." After spending 17 years designing hardware chips, he quit at the age of 40 and started guided motorcycle tours across the country. His company, indiMotard, allows people to enjoy the sights and sounds of India on motorbikes. Dharmaraj does not regret his decision. "I found that very little original work happened in India in technology product development. Basically, I was a glorified outsourced worker," he said. A native of Kerala, Dharmaraj now works out of home and finds the new environment reflecting his style completely.

Finding our passion, while it may seem difficult, is not impossible. "We need to pay close attention to ourselves, our minds and the things that catch our attention constantly. But the most difficult thing about passion is to be able to put it in an organized manner that will fit neatly in our lives," says writer, teacher and management honcho K. Rajeshwari in her book, My Life; My Choice: Mid-Life Career Choices. The book, published by Macmillan was released in the capital Wednesday at the India International Center. Rajeshwari chronicles the lives of 10 dare-devils who gave up lucrative professions to listen to their heart. "It requires enormous courage and self-belief to walk away from all of these and say I want to do something else," the writer, a graduate of IIM-Ahmedabad, said.

Says former diplomat-writer and member of parliament Shashi Tharoor, who switched vocations several times in life as a UN official, writer, consultant, minister and a member of Lok Sabha: "It is important for us to be aware that the kind of choices people make in their career can change dramatically in the mid-point of their lives." Releasing the book, Tharoor said a child very much finds himself streamed in a particular direction. According to him, only a very small handful can, at a particular stage of life, reinvent themselves.

"I came first in science (in school) and I studied humanities. My parents said to do economics. I did history," Tharoor said of his own choices in life. "After my unsuccessful bid to take over as the secretary general of the United Nations - even though Ban Ki-moon wanted me to stay on - I decided to leave. It took me time to decide to take the plunge into politics. Too many remain trapped in what they are doing. Changing careers is not a bad thing," the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

"It is actually about finding where your heart belongs," says CD Gopanith, founder of the country's low cost airline Air Deccan. Writing about his life in the book, Gopanith said he left the Indian army in the 1970s after spending seven fruitful years.

"The 70s in India was an era when jobs were scarce, the government followed protectionist policies and the pace of growth was very slow. When I quit, I did not even have a plan on what I would do for a living. But among the many other career choices I made, I started India's largest low cost airline," Gopanith said.

Career transition is stressful, says motivator and co-founder of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) Richard Bandler. In the book, Conversations with Richard Bandler, the NLP guru advises those in the throes of transition to 'identify supporters to enlist their help and adjust one's standards to reduce perfectionism.'

"A mid-career change may not always bring out the best in us. But middle age is the time when we reset the agenda for the rest of our lives,"writer Rajeshwari says.

Taken from Sify.com

Job Communication

For every person who is employed in any kind of business establishment, communication is very important. Often times, assertive communication, must be practiced to provide a disciplined atmosphere. But every day in the workplace, various kinds of communication happen, and it is very important to know what the most effective forms of job communication are.

Job communication takes place in different forms. There is a communication between a superior and an employee, or vice versa. There is communication between departments within the same establishment. There also exists communication between separate business entities.

Along with the directions of different types of job communication, there are those which could also be classified according to tone, such as friendly, commanding, reprimanding or warning.

Persons with superb job communication skills make valuable employees as they become skilled at working with others, befitting the company, and contributing to the objectives of the company. Improving communication is simple, and with a little practice, one would be able to develop his or her verbal and nonverbal communication skills necessary for workplace success.

All types of communication in the workplace are essential. Job communication skills involve:

• Written communication. Instructions, peer communication, questions, and answers are often given through verbal communication. Letters, memos, and other documents within the workplace intended to convey a message are also considered to be written communication.
• Nonverbal communication. Gestures, facial expressions, actuations and signals are all this type of communication. It often happens in informal work settings where there is no need for formal use of words to relay a message. In the work area, nonverbal communication includes eye contact, body language, and posture. At work, people often practice nonverbal versus verbal communication more frequently. Especially considering that you can't always talk in the workplace. But every movement conveys a message.

Some basic rules: Help others feel the sincerity in what you say. Keep your mouth shut unless you have something worth saying. And then, only when you know what's being discussed.

Job communication also requires a clear delivery of a message as well as knowing when to speak and when to listen. Sharing worthwhile information with others in the workplace provides a good way to establish a rapport with fellow workers. Good communication should be direct and definite when speaking with a co-worker.

In making sure that good job communication is maintained throughout the office, one must always think before speaking. The words you speak will build harmonious relationships with others, and will gain their trust. This way you will improve or help the company progress. 

Taken from Typesof-communication.com

Listening Communication

Listening is an important aspect of communication, and the role is played by the receiver of the message. Communication is successfully completed with listening and understanding with the use of any of the types of listening communnication. Understanding the different types of listening is important to be able to apply the right one for the right situation. Although listening is not communication in itself, it is still an integral part in communicating, thereby giving it more focus in the classification of the types of listening communication.

People are taught to read, to speak, and to write, but are not taught to listen, not to mention analyze the types of listening. In fact, 45% of all communication activities are made up of listening, which is big enough to have room for the thorough discussion of the types of listening. This way, people can become better listeners and have a better understanding of the various types of listening, but also the utter need for it. Besides, the fact that any of the types of listening are coming, may it be at home, the workplace, or any gathering, further stresses the need to become better listeners.

As mentioned, earlier, the types of listening are used for certain scenarios. With the use of certain skills, listening can be beneficial by rewarding the person with new information, better relationships, appreciation of things, and more. With that, the types of listening are informative listening. In addition, three variables come into play when engaging in this: vocabulary, concentration and memory.

There is a type of listening that calls a person to build healthier relationships with others through deeper understanding of other people. This is known as relationship listening, which has further specific types. Although information is needed to understand, the stress is placed on the person rather than the information about the person. The behaviors involved in this type are attending, supporting and empathizing.

A type known as appreciative listening involves enjoyment, such as listening to your favorite music, watching movies or TV, or simply listening to nature's sounds. It is affected by presentation, perception and previous experiences.

Critical listening involves more attention than the others. It plays an important role in shaping opinions and bringing about changes. The things that encompass critical listening and thinking are the credibility of the speaker, the logic of the arguments and the psychological appeal.

The last type of listening is discriminative. This is perhaps the most important since it is inherent to the rest of  them. This is because it is usually used in conjunction with the other types of listening. Your hearing ability, awareness of structures in sound, and nonverbal cue integration must be considered when keeping up with this type.

Having a good command of the types of listening communication can tremendously improve the way you communicate and receive messages. Listening communication is used in daily living, so making a conscious effort in improving your listening skills will make the most out of your ears!

Taken from Typesof-communication.com

Nonverbal Communication

The various types of nonverbal communication are basically forms of communication without words. You might be led into thinking that this form is rather inhibiting, but the types of nonverbal communication are perhaps the most pervasive and can even become unconscious habits. In addition, enhancement of the messages that the sender intends to deliver can be achieved with the various types of nonverbal communication, not to mention that they comprise the highest percentage of communication.

You may not know that you are employing different types of nonverbal communication in your everyday life. Even seemingly nonsensical sounds can fall under one of the types of nonverbal communication. Specifically, the types of nonverbal communication are facial expressions, gestures, paralanguage, body language, distance, eye contact, touch and appearance. These can all be done through the use of the different senses.

Facial expressions are the most common among the types of nonverbal communication. A lot of messages can be sent through a smile, a frown, a twitch of the eyebrow, a purse of the lips, and many more. Feelings and emotions which are harder to put into words are better made known with the different types of nonverbal communication, specifically this type, such as bliss, melancholy, rancor, dread, and many more.

The wave of a hand, the point of a finger, and other conscious body movements are called gestures. The messages associated with each gesture may vary, depending on location and culture; so sticking your tongue out at somebody may not always mean the same thing to every person that you meet. This is among the types of nonverbal communication that people have to be wary of when using.

Paralanguage has a thin line separating it from verbal communication that makes itself one of the types of noverbal communcation. The inflection, loudness, pitch, and tone of voice make up paralanguage. These are all used to stress a point, to give disapproval, to show disinterest, and others that can either make or break the flow of conversations.

Body language such as posture and stance can give away a lot to people around you, making it another of the types of nonverbal communication. This is important because it defines the level of relationship that you have with others. The distance you maintain adjusts according to situation, personality and familiarity.

The way you look can also convey a lot of signals and messages. Eye contact is very similar to facial expressions, giving away more emotions than you think are possible with the way you blink, stare, and with the way your pupils dilate.

Touch can mean a lot of things, but in this aspect, it is yet again another type of nonverbal communication. Touch can be therapeutic, meaning a single tap of encouragement can mean a lot to distressed persons. More so, lack of touch can cause problems in the development of a child, affecting his or her social and psychological spheres.

The final type of nonverbal communication is appearance. Your choice of clothing and hairstyle can say a lot about your personality and who you are in general. Other people may interpret and judge you by merely looking at your appearance. Furthermore, some people resort to this type in order to deliberately send a message to everyone, which is more commonly termed "fashion statements."

Taken from Typesof-communication.com

Types of Communication

Humans live their daily lives through a series of communications without which nothing in this world would be achievable. The medium through which men convey their innermost thoughts and will are expressed through a variety of communication channels. When you take a closer look at the number of expressions and responses that human beings make everyday you begin to understand the types of communication that exist in the world of homo sapiens.

The types of communication that humans use come in different forms. It may be verbal, which means that there is the use of words, and nonverbal which denotes communication through actions and behaviors. It can also denote, whether an event is formal or non-formal. The types of communication used indicate that some things can be described with the use of words or paragraphs. There are also things that words could not fully describe. Where only an action or gesture could express the real meaning that the speaker is trying to convey.

Knowing that there are many types of communication opens your mind to all the things that are happening daily in your surroundings. Imagine if a person knows only verbal communication and has no inkling that nonverbal communication is possible. Then, he is an alien in that realm of communication.

Without the existence of a variety of communication options, your life would be a less rich experience. Knowing only the verbal side or the nonverbal side may lead you to miss out on things that you want to do.

You must keep in mind that any conclusions you come to are by default, flawed. This is because all of your decisions about what things mean are filtered through your own experiences and beliefs. This is what Heisenberg described in his uncertainty principle. Just the mere act of observation will affect the outcome.

Learning the various types of communication available to you, enables you to enhance your communication skills, whether verbal or nonverbal. For instance, it is important for a child to learn the way that his or her parents speak so that they can also communicate in return. It has often been said that babies understand some verbal communication before birth.

However, research shows that a child you don't talk to, will, to a large extent, lost the ability to learn to speak after they reach a certain age.

To expound further on the types of communication is to make a direct inquiry into the heart of every known language. Isn't that because of the existence of the types of communication, a French man marries an American woman? Even without words from the very beginning, he just looked her way, she looked his way, and it ended in tying the knot. No words were used, just a look, and maybe a smile.

The types of communication also enable one to distinguish the differences between a simple meeting and the big meeting. It helps the person know when to make a "Morning!" and when to say "Good morning ma'am." In this case there are only two types of communication - formal and informal. Formal communication is done in cases where a formal tone is needed and adherence to certain formal rules or principles in communication must follow. These are seen in business meetings, business correspondence, memos, official letters, government related documents, and so on. Informal communication, on the other hand, can be used in communicating with friends, families, peers, etc. It has no standard format.

All types of communication present in this world are unique and it makes everyone special and different from one another. It creates harmony, and enables the expression of thoughts and emotions so together we can all fully understand what it is to be human.

Taken from Typesof-communication.com