The performance of a self motivated employee is different than the employee who focus on the performance without sufficient motivation. Motivation is not an external force which comes to an employee as a choice. The grit and purpose behind every performance is what creates the motivation for employees to excel. It is extremely significant for a leader to build a motivating team and create a purpose that exudes Grit.
Angela Duckworth in her book named Grit states that indeed, the concepts of Grit and purpose might in principle seen to conflict. How is it possible to stay narrowly focused on your own top level goal while also having the peripheral vision to worry about anyone else? if Grit is about having a pyramid of goals that all serve a single personal objective, how do other people fit into the picture?
Angela explains ” Most people think self oriented and other oriented motivations are opposites ends of a continuum” says my colleague and Wharton Professor Adam Grant. Yet I have consistently found that they are completely independent. You can have neither, and you can have both. In other words, you can want to be a top dog and at the same time be driven to help others.
Adams research demonstrates that leaders and employees who keep both personal and pro-social interests in mind do better in the long run than those who are hundred percent selfishly motivated.
For instance Adam once asked municipal fire fighters, why are you motivated to do your work? He then tracked their over time hours over the next two months expecting fire fighters who were more motivated to help others to demonstrate the greatest Grit. But many of those who were driven to help others worked fewer overtime hours. Why?
The second motivation was missing. Interest in the work itself. Only when they enjoyed the work did the desire to help others result in more effort. Infant fire fighters who expressed pro social motives (because I want to help others through my work) and intrinsic interest in their work ( because I enjoy it) averaged more than 50% more overtime per week than others.
When Adam asked the same question why are you motivated to do your work of 140 fundraisers at a call centre at a public university, he found nearly identical results. Only the fund raisers who expressed stronger pro social motives and who found the work in intrinsically engaging made more call and in turn raised more money for the university.
