Why Most Motivational Techniques Won’t Help You. And What Will.

Business theorists and practitioners have been trying to find the perfect motivational techniques for a very long time. The behavioral management theory elaborates various motivational strategies that are supposed to offer a better understanding of workers’ behavior and improve their productivity in dealing with complicated assignments. Do you want to know a peculiar thing about these techniques? Most of them don’t work!
You can read several motivational books and feel inspired to do just about anything. When you try to implement the tips in practice, you notice that you’re not getting any more productive than usual. It gets worse: some of the most popular motivational techniques are counterproductive.

The most popular motivational techniques that DON’T work.

1. Think positive and visualize success
Great; all you need to do is visualize yourself how you get that task done successfully and impress everyone around you, right? Wrong! Although you should always believe in your competence, you should never undermine your success by believing that you can achieve it easily. Success happens when you go through loads of diligent planning, strategizing, effort and persistence. If you are incredibly positive all the time (which is often translated as careless in practice), you’ll find yourself surprised by all obstacles you’ll face. Remember: success doesn’t simply occur by visualizing.
Forget that nonsense about sending a message to the Universe and waiting for It to match things in your favor. Of course, you can cultivate an optimistic approach, but don’t forget to think about the possible obstacles and always do the work you need to do! That brings us to the next point.
2. Do the best work you can, and you’ll succeed!
This comforting sentence is promoted as one of the best motivators. In theory, it’s supposed to relieve you from pressure. You’ll do the work that’s up to you. If you don’t succeed, you can “delegate” the blame on others. Why doesn’t this work? — Because it doesn’t motivate you to do your best work! Instead, it allows you to be mediocre. Psychologists Gary P. Latham and Edwin A. Locke conducted a study that proved something we already know: people who set their expectations high have superior performance when compared to those who simply try to do their best. As it turns out in real life, your best is not always good enough. A healthy dose of self-criticism won’t do you harm.
3. Money is motivating.
Many managers do a common mistake: they offer advance payments to motivate employees to do better, faster work. In most cases, that’s counterproductive. Even the promise for a higher pay after the work is done doesn’t work for unmotivated employees. This is a traditional pattern of behavior in U.S. companies, whose managers think there is a universal solution to all problems — money. The financial reward is an extrinsic motivator that doesn’t result with a long-term enhancement of one’s skills and interest to do the job. Why is this the case? — Because business is not only about money. Financial incentives may work for a beginner, but they block people’s creativity on the long term. You know what truly works in terms of motivation? Recognition and status. If you don’t feel a sense of accomplishment after getting the job done, the money is irrelevant.
Are there motivational techniques that DO work?
Looking for a universal solution that would motivate everyone to do a better job is an oxymoron. When you are trying to motivate yourself, you need to think about your work. The analysis of your own work and your own obstacles will lead you to a solution. Everyone is dealing with problems caused by unique reasons. There are few things you need to remember when you’re trying to come up with a suitable motivational technique:
- Larger financial rewards do not lead you to better performance. Mechanical skill bonuses are not enough.
- The psychology of motivation works well in theory, but usually fails in business practice.
- Extrinsic motivation alone does not inspire you to do your absolute best.

There is one motivational technique that does work: reminding yourself why the work you are doing matters. Why did you start doing what you do? Is it part of something greater? How do you contribute towards an important cause? When you think outside your little box and see how your work impacts the people and environment around you, there is a great chance you’ll do better than your best.
There is a human resource management strategy called Results Only Work Environment (ROWE), according to which the employees are not paid by the number of hours worked, but by the results they achieve. The companies that have implemented this system don’t impose schedules to their employees. People show up to work whenever they want; all they need to do is get the work done. The results are surprising: the workers are more engaged, more satisfied, and more productive. This is so-called intrinsic motivation, whose goal is to achieve a sense of accomplishment.
What’s the difference? When you perform the activity with a purpose greater than some external reward (which is usually translated to money), you’ll find the real motivation.