“Maybe it’s time to let the old ways die…maybe it’s time to let the old ways die…it takes a lot to change a man…hell it takes a lot to try…maybe it’s time to let the old ways die.” -Bradley Cooper
This song from the movie, A Star is Born, resonates for me on many levels.1 It is HARD to change and as much as we’d like to “let our old ways die,” the reality is there are elements of our personality and our motives that are deeply engrained in us due to both nature and nurture.
According to one of the dominant theories on motivation, David McClelland’s acquired needs theory, humans have three core driving motives: achievement, affiliation or power.2
Achievement: desire to excel and succeed based on a set standard of performance
Affiliation: desire to establish, maintain or restore friendly and harmonious relations and a deep need to be liked and accepted
Power: desire to make an impact on others and influence others. Can also include an urge to change people
The degree to which each motive is present for us is determined by (or acquired during) our early life experiences and how we respond to those experiences. This is why it is called acquired needs theory. For example, if the presence of other people was seen as being helpful in relieving an individual from stress or a community was an important part of their identity, that individual's desire to affiliate is likely high.
While all three motives are present (to some degree) in everyone, McClelland argues that each individual has one primary motive.3
In fact studies have shown correlations between certain professions and dominant motives (scientists tend to spike on achievement motive…shocking I know).4
Understanding these motives has a wide range of relevance in the world of talent, teams and technology. While the theory emphasizes that we can’t change our primary motive (and I tend to agree with this), we can raise our awareness of how it affects us in different arenas of leadership.
One such arena is decision-making.
Why zero in on decision-making? Two reasons.
First, leaders who decide with speed and conviction are 7x’s more likely to achieve results.5
Second, while decision-making is a highly complex neuropsychological process (there is a whole field of study on decision-making), many of the leaders I work with underinvest in understanding how ‘who they are’ shapes their decision-making. In fact, our motives are one contributing factor as to why some of us can perceive the same reality differently.
Over the next couple weeks in my Friday Reflections, I’ll explore how different motive profiles can affect decision-making.
In the meantime, if you are curious to explore your own motive profile, there are free tools you can take (not necessarily statistically validated but still insightful). Here is one.6
While this exploration won’t necessarily help us in “letting the old ways die,” my hope is that it will help us notice when our ‘old ways’ arise and arm us with techniques to mitigate their dark sides. More to come next week…
Some questions I reflected on this week:
In what decision-making situations does my motive profile serve me well?
In what decision-making situations does my motive profile hold me back?
What specific techniques or tools can I use to be more effective in the situations where my motive profile can hold me back?
I’m generally a sucker for musicals and A Star is Born was right up my alley - but also totally heartrending. This particular song evoked all the feels when I saw the movie. I had it on repeat for several weeks and it still is on my Deep Feelings Spotify playlist ha!
“No model is right. Some models are useful.” When it comes to motivation, it’s important to understand a wide range of models, since something as complex as human motivation cannot be distilled so simply. That said, McClelland’s model is highly useful both in terms of self-awareness and in-terms of having a lens through which to look at our teams. If you want an extensive write-up on it, go here. Interestingly while McClelland gets a lot of credit for the application to the workplace, he stood on the shoulders of a giant - Henry Murray - who first identified underlying psychological human needs and motivational processes.
I’ve written several reflections on another theory of motivation, self-determination theory, which complements McClelland’s model well.
His theory is highly nuanced and I can’t do it justice in this short reflection. For the purists, he also argues that the relative level of each motive matters in addition to the primary motive. In this article, he makes the case for the effectiveness of the institutional manager who is high on power, low on affiliation and high on inhibition.
Credit to my colleagues Kim Powell and Elena Lytkina Botelho for their excellent work on the CEO Genome.
You might also find it instructive (and even fun) to have someone you know well (partner, spouse, close friend) fill it out and compare what they believe your profile is versus your own self-assessment.