It’s not always obvious what is holding me or a team member back. There is a cool matrix in the book, How Learning Works, 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, that can help.
One of the core principles in the book is that motivation effects outcomes. Not a shocker. However, the authors drill into what kind of parameters effect motivation. They identified three key dimensions:
- Do you see the value?
- Do you feel supported?
- Do you believe you can do it?
All of this is work is done in the context of college students, but it feels pretty universal to me. The authors argue you need all three to feel motivated. If you don’t see the value, you will likely either reject or evade. If you do see value and don’t have the support you need, people tend toward feelings of hopelessness or defiance. Finally, if you see value, feel the support but don’t believe you can do it, you can find yourself feeling fragile or needy. It’s only when all three of these dimensions come together that motivation happens.
| Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | |
| Don’t see value | See value | Don’t see value | See Value | |
| Low Efficacy | Reject | Hopeless | Reject | Fragile |
| High Efficacy | Evade | Defiant | Evade | Motivated |
Unstick yourself
Recently, I found myself feeling fragile and needy, but I couldn’t figure out why. It wasn’t until I hit this chapter that realization struck. I was in the middle of project where I saw tremendous value. I had lots of support. In fact, I have worked very hard over the years to build a solid support system around me. However, I didn’t have faith in myself that I could do it (imposter syndrome, anyone?).
Of course, I had no idea about any of this. I just felt stuck, fragile, needy, and uncomfortable. This matrix helped me unpack where all that was coming from. It made me realize that something like this could be a great diagnostic tool for when things aren’t going well either with myself or a team member.
Unstick your teammates
I played back times in my career as a business leader and coach when I or my team members surfaced these feelings. As a business owner, I’ve seen the rejecting and evading more times than I can count. Most of the time, I’d agree with Ambrose et. al. that it is because I haven’t done a good enough job of selling the value of the opportunity. In the business world, I’d flip the defiance and evading categories. If someone has high efficacy, feels supported, and is confident, but doesn’t see the value, they’re more likely to outright reject whatever it is that I’m proposing. At least, that’s what I hope for! If they are less secure and/or uncertain (low efficacy), and/or feel less supported, then they’re more likely to avoid the conversation with me and find excuses to not get started, i.e., evade.
In either case, I think this is a super useful tool even outside of the classroom to help diagnose issues with yourself, your team members, or your culture.
Thanks to Simon Gibson for the photo of the leaf stuck in the fence.