Understanding your motivations

Understanding your motivations

Each of us looks at the environment through the lens of his/her own needs and values. Whether we realize it or not, we are driven from within to meet these personal needs. Our drives determine our life purpose, the direction we choose and spur us into action. The insight gives you an objective opportunity to get a grip on what really motivates us inside.

Clear insight

Swiss behavioral scientist Eduard Spranger classified six essential values after years of observations;

• Intellectual drive. Primary need: to know and gain knowledge. Here it is not necessarily about the degree of your intelligence but more about whether you have the need to know and understand things.
• Practical driver. Primary need: recoup investments. Return on investment. This need not always be related to money, but mainly to the effort you put into something. So you do want to make an effort for something or someone, but you also want to see something 'in return'. This can be in the result; like sharing the result or getting something else in return.
• Aesthetic drive. Primary need: beauty, harmony and balance. Finding and maintaining balance. When this is your strongest drive then you care that things 'make sense'. This may even be so that when you experience something sad or frustrating you always look for the 'message' behind it. So that it can still be a valuable experience.
• Social drive. Primary need: to help. Wanting to contribute something to the welfare of the world. People who have this drive high often do something in care or nursing or something similar. You are mainly on this earth to do something for others. To be able to help or improve.
• Individualistic drive. Primary need: to exercise power, self-assertion. To have control over one's own destiny and that of others. This drive may sound somewhat "negative" to many people because it would involve power. However, this need not always be so negative. It is mainly about being able to make decisions. Ensuring that you are in charge of a project gives a sense of freedom.
• Traditionalist drive. Primary need: to create order. Principles guide life. Here it is important to feel connected to people around you who share the same values or beliefs. You like to be among "like-minded people. Or you like to work in an environment where you recognize others as "equals.

Engine behind your behavior

These six values largely determine why we act. You proceed to act after determining whether it is worth acting on. The two or three that resonate most strongly with you will drive you to action.

Benefits of understanding what drives you

1 . Taking good care of yourself

If you learn to (re)know what you find important and know how to nurture this, you will succeed in taking good care of yourself. Even at times when things are not going so well for you. (Think of a stressful period.) An important part of this is to recognize that when one motivation gets more attention and space, it comes at the unnoticed expense of your other values. You learn the difference between getting energy in the short term and getting energy in the long term.

Drives work like "communicating vessels. One always comes at the expense of the other. It is therefore 'logical' that you can easily lose energy with something you 'think' is fun and enjoyable to do.

2 . Making the right choice

The insight provides important information in making important choices in your life. Like choosing the job that suits you. When our job is an extension of who and what we are, there is no need for external motivation. And there is sufficient reason to get up in the morning and enjoy going to work. The environment then provides the values needed to develop one's own potential to the maximum.

Suppose:

• You are someone who finds knowledge and research very important (Intellectual drive), would you become happy-let alone prosper-in a career where "development" and the demand for more knowledge is not a factor?
• If harmony, beauty, balance and equilibrium are very important to you (Aesthetic drive) can you thrive in a chaotic, barren and unsociable work environment?
• If you live by a certain system or belief with strongly developed principles (Traditionalist drive) could you work for a company selling something that goes against your principles?
• You have a strong preference for leading and directing others (Individualistic drive), would you feel at home in an organization where you are severely restricted in your freedom of movement and where you can have little influence on the course of events?
• You have a highly developed humanitarian drive and you want to go and help reduce suffering and pain in the world (Social drive), would you be energized in an organization where time and money play the most important role, and staff's appreciation and reward are made mainly dependent on the money they bring in(Practical drive)?

3 . Communicating effectively

When we get to know someone's motivations, we can focus directly on their needs and values in communication. And when we can see the world through their eyes and communicate with them from their point of view, the satisfaction and pleasure in contact increases.

4 . Motivated team

Understanding and harnessing each other's values and motivations gives greater enjoyment and effectiveness within a team. We know by now that people become happier when they have a job that calls on their talents.

However, for the longer term, a connection with the personal motivation is always needed as well. This keeps the employee intrinsically motivated even in the long term. Understanding your values and motivations can help you shape your life in such a way that you can put your passion into it. It is therefore interesting for yourself and your personal development, but certainly also for your immediate environment and/or colleagues.

Simple Check ; more than a Preventive Medical Exam!

Source: MDI manual Behavior and Drives

Eduard Spranger Six drives.

Understanding what drives your workforce is one of the components of sustainable HR policies. Are you an HR professional and would you like to receive more information, about increasing the sustainable employability of staff?