The Link Between Motivation And Personality
Understanding David McClelland's theory based upon motivation and personality, we are able to look at workers and focus upon their personalities and see how personality does affect individual needs. While one person's personality is such that they need little encouragement to increase motivation, another person may have greater needs that must be addressed before they can be fully motivated on the job. By utilizing this theory, an employer has a tool with which he/she can motivate and encourage employees.
McClelland brought to light three types of needs which are related to motivation and personality. The first type is seen in a person when they seek achievement and attainment of challenging goals, and want to succeed on the job. There is not a great need for feedback to get these individuals to progress, as success will come naturally to these people as they strive for a sense of accomplishment. These people tend to have daily motivation to succeed, which is either connected to their personalities or has been learned when they were younger. It is easy enough to create opportunities for these individuals to move forward and be productive.
The second way that personality and motivation work together is in the form of affiliation. This simply means that a person with this type of personality needs and wants to be part of a group, and values relationships. To increase motivation for this type of person, it would be worth considering ways to use teamwork as the means of completing a task, but also as the end result of a task. Both of these approaches are likely to produce a higher level of interest in a person with this kind of need.
Personality and motivation work together in a different way when power is concerned. This is the third of McClelland's three needs, and a person with this kind of personality wants to be the controlling factor in making changes to the lives of others. It is easy to increase motivation for this type of person, because usually all that is required is the creation of more responsibility for them. While this could cause problems for the people they are in charge of, it is a simple enough technique to at least begin with or use to construct a more elaborate task.
Knowledge of motivation and personality and how they are connected is of great importance when an employer is working towards encouraging workers. Knowing the personality and needs of each individual helps the employer to place people in the right positions and is a motivation technique that works well with different individuals. Whether the workplace is based upon a team approach or a hierarchy approach, either will benefit from studying McClelland's work.
Next related article about Motivation and Personality
Strategies to Overcome a Lack of Motivation
Everyone has had those kinds of negative feelings that sometimes lead us to give up too soon. That surge of energy when you start a new endeavor fades away as your dreams turn into reality and you lose your confidence. You need to defeat these destructive feelings and the most effective way to accomplish that is to identify them, explore them and find out what triggered them. You lose motivation when you lose sight of your goal, your confidence fails, and your direction becomes uncertain. When you figure out how to gain power over these issues, you will be able to gain power over your life once again.
Self Motivation: Get Yourself on Track
Have you ever had a long vacation and just dreaded going back to work? Even if it was a long holiday weekend it can be hard to get yourself motivated back into the cycle of getting things accomplished at work. And in truth it is not just work scenarios that suffer from people having a lack of self motivation. Dieting, exercising and even spending more family time require a degree of motivation.
Motivation for Teachers: Helpful Articles
While most people in professions that involve the education of children keep up-to-date on important teaching skills, motivation for teachers is very much needed at this time. An instructor's role is to teach and also to enable their students to develop self motivation skills that will be useful throughout their time in school, but also when they are adults and out in the workforce. The key to success in either school or out in the workforce is through learning techniques of self motivation.