Motivation ABC

Cooperation of Motivation and Personality

Motivation and personality work together to define personality traits in McClellands Three Needs Theory. This theory states that all individuals are motivated by certain needs, but those needs, and the level of motivation, varies. For example, one individual may be more motivated by recognition, while another individual may be more motivated by the satisfaction of getting a job done. It all comes down to motivation and personality traits. McClellans Three Needs Theory defines three personality traits and how they relate to motivation.

nACH Need for Achievement

Individuals with this personality trait have a need to achieve. They want to follow the rules necessary in order to succeed. These individuals do not like to gamble, and do not like very easy tasks or very difficult tasks. They see the road that needs to be taken to success, and they follow it. If there is a high possibility of losing, this personality type will choose to sit out rather than lose. Motivation and personality work well together for this individual when he/she is able to shine as an individual, such as in a salesperson position. This individual would not enjoy working on a team.

nPOW Need for Power

This personality type wants to demonstrate the ability to make others behave in an atypical way. For example, this individual wants to see the cool, level-headed guy get frustrated and hot-headed over a competition. This individual wants to be the leader and likes the feeling of power more than the feeling of accomplishment. This individual wants to feel in control of all situations. Motivation and personality work well together for this individual when in a leadership position. However, be careful that the individual does not become too overpowering.

nAFF Need for Affiliation

The individual with this personality trait craves close relationships. This individual values friendships and wants to cooperate rather than compete. An activity that connects individuals in a group is more desirable to this individual than an activity where an individual wins. Motivation and personality work well together when this individual is a part of a team environment. However, supervision is required to keep these individuals driven.

A Mixture of Personality

An individuals motivation and personality rarely work together in such a way that the individual falls into just one of the above categories. Usually a mixture of these personality traits form an individuals personality to create a more well-rounded individual.

McClellands Three Needs Theory in Business

McClellands Three Needs Theory is commonly used in the business world as a way to determine how an individuals motivation and personality will work together in the office. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is often given to employees to determine how motivation and personality work together to form personality traits and therefore test how an individual may perform in different office situations. For example, an employee with a strong aACH personality would theoretically make a good leader or salesperson. An employee with a strong nAFF personality would make a good member of a team. A test that shows strongly in all three categories may indicate a well-rounded employee. Employers sometimes give this test to applicants as a way to get to know the candidates personality before hiring. This enables the employer to find the best personality for the job. Employers may have current employees take this test to determine how to best use the employee. If an employees performance is slipping, this test may help the employer better understand the employees motivation and personality to redirect the employees efforts. Employers must understand, however, that this test is meant as a guide, and may not truly tell you everything you need to know about the employee. Written tests can only indicate so much about human motivation and personality.

Motivation and Emotion

There is a strong link between motivation and emotion that runs through our lives. This is link can work either by being able to motivate ourselves into feeling a different emotion, or by our emotions dictating how much motivation we have for a specific task. For example, if you are feeling tired, you wont be feeling motivated to do something, even if its urgent or something you usually enjoy. Alternatively, if you want to do something but are feeling unwell or unhappy, you can usually convince yourself that you should do it; the motivation pulls you along and erodes the feeling that youre not up to it.

Once you accept this link that exists between motivation and emotion, you can use it to help you achieve more with your time as it can help you overcome such things as procrastination or fatigue. Determination could be another word for motivation in the case of fatigue as it is your determination to do a task or activity even though you arent feeling 100% able to do it but you want to do it, so you motivate yourself into the right frame of mind and go do it.

If theres something that you dont want to do, then you need to convince yourself that you do want to do it, or youll procrastinate the time available away until theres no time to do it. Convincing yourself isnt always an easy skill, but acknowledging that once you change your frame of mind, then youll find it easier to carry out the task you dont want to do, then you find ways of being able to tempt yourself into the right mindset and thats basically what combining motivation and emotion is all about.

Offering yourself rewards for doing things you dont like doing often helps with the motivation and emotion equation. For example, many women dont like ironing but they reward themselves by watching a movie on TV as they work rather then just stand and iron. As they watch, they become more emotionally involved in the movie and the ironing gets done because the resistance to doing the task is removed by diverting the negative emotion and motivation to get the job done takes over. At work, you may have a task you hate doing, such as balancing your mileage or filing some paperwork, but the thought of bribing yourself with lunch at a favorite restaurant, or a new magazine, can help to change your attitude towards doing the task and bring together your motivation and emotion so that you can get through the task in half the time youd take without the motivation to get it done.

Sometimes youre just in the wrong frame of mind for doing something, for example if youve had bad news just before youre due to go to a party, and the last thing you feel like doing is putting on a happy face and socializing with other people. With motivation and emotion going hand-in-hand you know that once you make the effort to go out as planned, you will cope with the initial impact of the bad news better as youll have to put it on the back burner for a while then you can take it off later and look at it with a more balanced viewpoint this is far better than just staying home and dwelling on the news alone.

Once you understand that there is a link between motivation and emotion it makes find the energy to do things you dont like much easier because you know that if you can put yourself into the right frame of mind, that youll get the task done and it wont be half as bad as youd thought it was going to be!