Nigel 
November 11th, 2009
Some things we do because we're told to, some because we want to.
I taught in secondary (high) schools for over thirty years. In that time I was sometimes well and enthusiasm came easily, but often I was mildly or seriously depressed. I was lucky. The first time a school applied any serious pressure was a couple of months before I put in for ill-health early retirement, and in that case the pressure needed to be applied. I was no longer capable of fulfilling my duties as a teacher because of worsening depression.
Most of my career I was able to motivate myself to work as hard at the job as my illness would allow. I enjoy teaching (though not marking, writing reports, supervising, etc). I believe strongly in the importance of having good teachers. I care about people and find almost everybody interesting. The challenge of trying to figure out how to communicate Maths in an effective way is stimulating. It was a privilege to be allowed to help youngsters grow as people, and move towards being effective and fulfilled members of society.
All of this motivation was coming from inside me, and all of it was directed towards things I wished to achieve (see previous post). When things got really tough I was able to add some ‘away-from’ motivation by becoming scared of what would happen if I lost my job, but that also came from within me.
Things I’ve found hardest are stuff like filling in tax returns and marking exams (which become seriously tedious after the first fifty scripts). These were not things I wanted to do. In fact when depressed I’d find them almost unbearably painful even once started. This was stuff that ‘they’ were telling me I had to do. And ‘they’ were giving me a deadline - which was necessary to make me do it but felt unpleasant, like being punished.
There are two possible sources for motivation: from within (internal) and from someone else (external). Guess which one is the most pleasant.
No, actually you don’t need to guess. You’ve experienced both. Internal motivation not only feels better, but is highly effective.
External motivation, someone else telling us to achieve something for reasons they have created, is typically unpleasant. It antagonises us and can easily sap energy and enthusiasm. It can cause us to lose sight of what matters to us about the job. It can and often does have undesirable side-effects. Sometimes it is necessary, as in requiring a teacher to have a set of school exams marked on time, but sometimes it is not. For other examples see this earlier post.
If you need to motivate someone else you have quite a lot of thinking to do first, and it would be great if you consulted the people you need to motivate.
Any fool can use threats to motivate people badly. It takes knowledge and effort to motivate them well.
Nobody likes a boss but the whole world is screaming out for good leaders.
This article is #8 in the effective goal-setting series. The first in the series is here.
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