Otieno, a Kisumu-based operations analyst, began Monday morning with a stack of reports to get through before the end of day but instead caught himself repeatedly on social media each time that he tried to open his spreadsheet. He kept waiting for inspiration to strike of its own accord.
Hours and hours passed as deadlines loomed closer and closer, slowly and then more rapidly anxiety started to suffocate his enthusiasm.
His slow progress was observed by colleagues during his inactive waiting time, and his team leader later questioned his dedication to the firm.
That same afternoon illustrated how poorly established organisational goals, and a lack of rewards serve to sap energy from workers and immobilise production toward entity priorities.
Aisha, a civil engineer in Nakuru, also confronted her own equally challenging design review in a completely different way. She imagined herself finishing a perfect draft and submitted it prior to lunchtime. But she did not rely on pure motivation like Otieno, which can prove hard to sustain.
Instead, Aisha broke the task down into three quantifiable phases. Then she coupled each phase with a brief walk outdoors listening in her earphones to her favourite music. Further, she incorporated informal progress reporting to a close friend at the workplace so that she could utilise it as a motivational feedback loop upon the completion of each and every milestone.
Also, her friend was to follow-up if Aisha missed any self-imposed deadlines. As her structured momentum built up in the morning, her commensurate completed submission arrived on the technical committee’s email comfortably ahead of schedule.
Researcher Ayelet Fishbach's work helps unlock some of the mysteries of the ever-illusive workplace motivation. The research illustrates that concrete, intrinsically motivating objectives can drive persistent striving. While, on the other hand, non-specific or merely extrinsic instructions result in half-hearted compliance that is hard to sustain.
Studies identify four strategic clusters: reflective goal setting, thoughtful reward choosing, progress framing that shortens middles, and supportive social influence harnessing peer momentum.
People who inject positive features into their disliked aversive tasks, then set rewards in favour of goal attainment, followed by tracking their progress through delineated sub-goals, and are also regulated by other high performers on a continuous basis then wind up consistently outperforming their less deliberate team counterparts.
Performance differences become even greater when taking into consideration that the human brain focuses of attention away from completed tasks to ongoing activities beyond the midpoint of the overall goal. In essence, harness and guide your mind intentionally, do not let subconscious emotions guide your workflow.
The researchers derived the interesting findings from an impressive two decades of laboratory experiments, longitudinal surveys, and field interventions that spanned topics from personal finance to corporate project management.
Research participants worked toward specified goals while researchers varied how they did goal framing, incentive structures, and peer exposure. The researchers then assessed the participants’ persistence along with the quality of tasks completed.
All this mountain of data was then statistically tested repeatedly to establish that intrinsic motivation forecasted better accomplishments, uncertain or loss-framed incentives increased effort, and midpoint reframing avoided plateaus getting stuck.
Cross-cultural replications lent solidity, and the findings became tremendously applicable to professionals at large around the world.
What does that mean for professionals here in Kenya? Those of us who require a slightly higher level of motivation ought to have clear goals that are appealing to us, split big tasks into brief cycles, and interpose small rewards that reinforce and do not conflict with our final outcomes.
As an example, an accountant can schedule a weekend nature escape after five ideal audit milestones.
But that alone is not enough. We have often heard of self-imposed rewards and punishments on the way towards professional task completion. But the essence centres on also layering in and maintaining a daily progress journal and also diverting focus away from achieved checkpoints and instead to the subsequent ones when the halfway mark is attained.
Then exchanging tips with workplace and other professional peers also boosts task confidence and demystifies the needed next steps and avoids task paralysis based on confusion. Also incorporating consistent routines can build momentum that can withstand the typical fatigue and distraction that comes with work tasks.
Organisations can actually cultivate self-motivation cultures by educating managers to motivate their groups to intrinsically attractive goals, hosting gamified contingent rewards, and making progress dashboards that are clear. Human resource departments need to reward reflective peer mentoring not just make it a talking point.
Then HR can include midpoint check-ins within project templates that they create and downplay and reward scheme suggestions that would harm task quality.
Recognition programmes that encourage employees to mentor newer staff cause bidirectional reciprocal inspiration, while loss-framed team pledges focus collective team accountability on group goals. Having these supportive environments reduces procrastination, improves productivity, and enhances retention.
In summary, durable success sadly almost never comes from bare willpower based on emotional motivation. Instead, it originates from carefully crafted goals, exactly calibrated rewards, conscientious tracking of outcomes, and appealing social connections.
Research gives businesspersons a straightforward guidebook for traversing motivational traps. Kenyan businesses that implement these principles will enjoy better focus, shorter project duration, and higher staff morale. As a Business Daily reader, you are encouraged to adopt one of the above strategies today.
Have a management or leadership issue, question, or challenge? Reach out to Dr. Scott through @ScottProfessor on X or on email [email protected]
