Leadskill

Three Ways to See Myself Better

Ron Oltmanns — Sat, 23 May 2026 00:26:38 +0000

As a leadership coach I’m committed to continually grow my self and keep pressing against my limits and blind spots. I found myself last night writing this in my personal journal: What is the question to ask myself everyday to grow deeper, to press higher?

Here’s one of the answers: “Who am I really?”

Another possible question to put me through my paces: “What is the difference between I and me?”

These questions get at identity. How do I see myself, and how will I manage myself over time so that I make sure I stay on course?

I have come to see that there is a fundamental difference between “I” and “Me”. In fact, I have many “Me’s”.

I think of the Me of last year who faced a new situation in life after my wife and I saw our younger adult son move to another city. Soon after that we sold our house and started traveling as a lifestyle. We kept working, but instead of putting our energy into keeping up an aging suburban house we took up a nomadic life and stayed nowhere more than a month or two. That is a very recent version of Me that is on the back side of mid-life and suddenly more mobile.

It reminds me of a younger version of Me before I had children when my wife and I made a series of moves in the span of several years for both education and career growth. There’s a still younger version of Me when I was quite young and before I ever went to school, learning about the world, and seeing the world through a child’s eyes.

These, and many more versions of Me, are all objects of my memory and observation. So who is doing the observing? I am, of course. I only have one I, and I don’t have all the limits of my Me’s: the physical body, the time and space that my Me occupies. As the I, I get to time travel and go to earlier points in the past. I also get to project forward into the possible future. I get to connect with loved ones, both those who are now living and those who have passed from this life. These connections transcend time and space.

This I is actually more real and lasting than all my Me’s, though they are certainly real too. This I is the one who acts. Philosophers would say I have agency and I get to decide how to spend my days and what to do with this life of mine.

I ask myself, “What is it I live for?” This is another one of the questions to challenge myself like I mentioned at the beginning. What is my life work, my vocation?

The Me’s have jobs or roles or functions that they fulfill. Only I have a life to live, one that gives my self the most meaning.

These are fairly new thoughts for me. I’ve grown into them and I have found my self awareness deepening. There’s a lot of value in distinguishing I from all the Me’s. As I do it more, I find my self becoming more transparent, clearer and less of a problem.

I’ve had plenty of problems in the past trying to figure out my purpose and confusing some version of Me with who I really am. Like a muddy pond constantly stirred up and made murky by busy feet, my self hasn’t been very transparent. As I stop stirring and let the mud settle, I start seeing with greater clarity. I can say I’m a lot less preoccupied with Me these days. I’m learning that I, the Observer, Agent, and Chooser, is here for a purpose and it’s better to pursue it.

It’s a beautiful, clean and clear insight. I wish I’d had it earlier. I don’t see it fully with perfect clarity, but it’s enough. At least I know to let the mud settle and things will get clearer.

So here are three questions to ask and challenge myself to grow:

“Who am I really?”

“What is the difference between I and Me?”

“What is it I live for?”

So what about you? I hope something in this makes sense to your I. Have you thought much about any of your Me’s and what you’re grateful for in each one?

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Talent Management System – Think Again

Ron Oltmanns — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 20:39:23 +0000

Going on a Leadership Talent Journey

Talent management system. I’m wondering what that evokes for you.

Assuming it’s something besides a question mark (“What is that?”), I’m guessing that most people think of software or some sort of computer program or cloud app that helps a company manage people or talent.

And you wouldn’t be wrong either. Talent management systems (as software) make up a $10 billion market in 2024 and it’s expected to keep growing at a 12% annual compounded rate each year through the end of the decade. That’s serious money.

You might think that only big companies use such things as a talent management system but the fact is that small, medium and large companies are all customers of these products/services.

You’ve already taken my bait. It’s not that we can’t code a system for managing people in an organization and package it as a talent management system (TMS). Of course we can.

But once you start thinking of it as a product, service or Saas, you stop thinking of what it should really do and why you might need it in the first place.

A Question for the Leader

The basic question to ask is “What’s your vision for your business?” Where will you be in 3 years or ten years, and what will it look like?

The vision question is fundamental. If you don’t know where you’re headed, how can you effectively plan and set goals to get to an undisclosed location?

Most everyone has a vision, but it may not be clear nor inspiring to others—or even ourselves if we’re honest.

A leader tackles the vision question and they have an answer to it, even if it’s not the final or ultimate answer. A non-leader shrinks from articulating a vision.

From Vision to Victory in One Leap?

Your vision doesn’t come about in one great push. It only happens in single steps made repeatedly and consistently like in a long journey.

There are many things that can distract or divert you on the journey toward vision. One of those is losing sight of the vision itself. Another is the many small and sometimes seriously big problems.

A weak leader thinks they have to face the problems alone. They don’t share the burden with anyone. A leader finds people to journey with them, to solve problems together, to share faith in the vision.

Again, it’s a weak leader who believes that money alone is enough to keep people focused on the job. People certainly want money for their troubles, but they want more as well.

Talented people want to grow and learn. They want to do meaningful things that matter. Talented people want to share a journey that gives them purpose even if they don’t complete the journey with you.

Leaders face their problems with talented people instead of seeing people as the problem. Many people have more talent than we realize. They are creative and capable of rising to the occasion. But you have to treat them as people. You also have to be a good manager of their talent.

The Talent Management System

This is where we need a system. When the team is small and sees each other almost daily, you can manage without formalizing your system. Yet even for a small team a system helps you to be consistent and conscientious and not let things fall through the cracks.

As the team grows and the complexity mounts, you need to give some thought to your system. How do we keep our vision in view? How do we focus on our goals and the small set of actions that move us closer to the vision every day?

There’s also the reality of growth. In order for revenue to grow, we have to grow. To serve more customers, we’ll probably need more staff. To create new products and services, we need talented people to create them, to sell them, to take care of customers. We need skilled people to manage the systems that allow us to do it at scale.

All of this growth creates complexity. A good system allows you to manage complexity. Bad systems add to the complexity or allow it to overwhelm you. An excellent system not only gives order to complexity, it also reminds you of your vision, purpose and the talented people who make it all happen.

Whether your system is coded into software or is coded into a strong culture that makes you distinctive, you need some kind of system. You need practices and processes that work. You need rituals and values that resonate with the real people who make things hum.

This is what I mean by a talent management system. It’s more than software or a platform. A TMS is a particular know-how and a way of doing things that is effective in producing results and honoring people. It’s a way of being that makes everyone feel more alive and human, not dead and machine-like.

You’ve already got a TMS. Are you aware of what it is? Is it working for you and helping you produce better results and taking care of people?

The Bottom Line

Good leaders know these are the right questions. They have some answers to the questions as well and they’re working on producing better answers to the questions that they stumble on.

At Leadskill, this is the work we do every day. We work with leaders to raise and answer the questions that matter. We tackle the issues that are tough but worth working on. It starts with a conversation, and we’re honored to make time for that with you.

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3 Surprising Benefits of the TriMetrix EQ Assessment

Ron Oltmanns — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 20:30:00 +0000

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) continues to show up as one the most highly desired job skills. The World Economic Forum predicted this back in 2020 when they projected that EQ would be one of the top skills needed in the workplace in 2025. I have found there are some surprising benefits of using the TriMetrix EQ report with leaders.

When I start coaching a leader, I always address EQ early on. Many leaders think they have a better than average amount of EQ. My goal is to demonstrate that developing greater EQ benefits them and everyone else regardless of their current level of emotional intelligence.

Why is that? Let me share with you a few surprising benefits of raising emotional intelligence and how the TriMetrix EQ report can help in this process.

Mind the Gaps

First, no matter what your current EQ is, you probably have gaps you don’t know about. These blindspots are part of being human. A trained coach working with the TriMetrix EQ report can help a leader look deeper than most are able to see.

Second, the two main categories—awareness and regulation—that the EQ report is built on are based on sound science. In 1954, Dr. Julian Rotter pioneered the “locus of control” idea: some people are more internally guided while others are more externally driven.

Steven Covey popularized the idea in his 1989 bestseller The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He talked about things you can control, what you can influence, and things you are merely concerned about or aware of.

You need awareness in order to gain control or to effectively manage a situation. This applies to your own emotions or influencing a social situation like a team of people at work. I find that emphasizing this difference between awareness and control (or regulation) has wide ranging applications far beyond the TriMetrix EQ report.

Which Kind of Motivation?

A third surprising insight from the TriMetrix EQ report is the distinction it makes about motivation. The strength of a person’s intrinsic motivation comes from the EQ portion of the report. The external drivers or extrinsic motivation shows up in the 12 Driving Forces.

Again, coaching a leader to make those motivational distinctions in the context of their organization gives them a huge advantage. They have a greater ability to show empathy and also create greater engagement. That skill is a muscle you can grow with practice and it multiplies a person’s leadership effectiveness.

Emotional intelligence is a powerful blend of skills. Working with the TriMetrix EQ report helps people gain personal effectiveness and drive better results in their organization and community.

Ron Oltmanns is the founder of Leadskill, a consulting and training firm focused on leadership development. Ron created a popular emotions wheel that many coaches, consultants and therapists have used in their work with clients.

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What We Get Wrong about Emotional Intelligence

Ron Oltmanns — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 13:00:00 +0000

The discovery that understanding and managing emotions is its own kind of intelligence is a genuine breakthrough of the last three decades. There are still debates worth having about how emotional intelligence works, but the insight behind it is here to stay.

Two flawed assumptions often repeated by proponents of emotional intelligence do more harm than good however. Let’s briefly introduce them and then suggest some alternatives.

I Can Read Any Face

The first error is that emotional expressions are hardwired and universal. Therefore, we can learn to read other people’s emotional reactions accurately, whether their facial expressions or body language.

The fact is that emotional expressions are highly contextual. Wide eyes can express fear, surprise or joy. The only thing those three emotions share is the intensity of feeling. Slumped shoulders could mean depression, relaxation or a physical impairment, but which one? We need more information and context.

Emotional expressions can be widely shared, but we’re often guessing and predicting, not accurately reading the emotions of others.

Thinking is Superior to Feeling

A second assumption that has wide acceptance is that our thoughts and feelings are battling each other. The way to win the battle is to use rational thought to manage our emotions.

The truth is that sometimes our emotions do get the better of us. We need to keep them in check at times. We often ignore the opposite truth, though. Sometimes our thinking overrides our emotions, especially when we need to be more empathetic or self-aware or willing to take risks.

If we see thinking and feeling as constantly at battle and thinking needs to prevail, we’ll miss the valuable role that emotion plays and also overlook the times that rational thought needs the balance of grounded feeling.

Name Your Emotions

These two flawed assumptions (emotional expressions are universal and thinking is superior to feeling) need us to challenge them. One solid practice to build emotional intelligence that is backed by neuroscience is naming your emotions.

When we distinguish between our emotions or get more specific about a feeling, we actually gain the ability to regulate or manage it better. Research shows that learning to use a wider emotional vocabulary with greater fluency helps us to manage our feelings. That’s pretty smart, right?

Are You Sure about That?

One of the really valuable contributions of emotional intelligence is challenging our assumptions about how human brains and emotions work. We operate on predictions much more than we realize. Our brains take in a huge amount of information from different sources, most of which we are not conscious of, and prepare us for instantaneous response.

Research in neuroscience and emotional intelligence shows us that we have choices in our response. We can operate on automatic or we can challenge our assumptions. We can go with what our brain is predicting or we can construct other ways to interpret and respond to a situation. People with greater emotional intelligence can deal better with nuance and challenge what seems certain or piece together what confuses us.

“…we have choices in our response”

The point of gaining emotional intelligence is to give us more options, including understanding and managing our emotions, not fighting or suppressing them. It also makes us smarter about using rational thought at the right time and in the right ways and not misusing or overusing it. That seems to be an intelligent use of the full range of our abilities.

Want to try our emotional intelligence assessment? Get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to set that up!

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Learn Your Blindspots

Ron Oltmanns — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 13:00:00 +0000

I’m 55 years old and I’m still learning my blindspots. Some I can freely admit, others I don’t want to believe they’re there, and still others I have yet to learn.

But be clear: these are important areas to become aware of, because if we ignore them, we will get blindsided.

What’s a “Real” Blindspot?

It’s important to distinguish blindspots from simple areas of unawareness. There are MANY things I’m not aware of, but most of them don’t really affect me.

Blindspots are things you don’t see—and they’re not easy to see—but the result of not seeing them is we cause problems for ourselves and others and there’s a cost or consequence involved.

Maybe it’s You; I Don’t Have Blindspots

I taught both of my sons how to drive. One of the early lessons you have to learn is putting the car in motion as well as changing lanes. Anytime you start moving the car, you should check around you to make sure you don’t hit anything. Every vehicle has blindspots. If you ignore them, you’re going to have an accident sooner or later.

Here’s the problem: much of the time your blindspots aren’t hiding any unseen danger. It’s easy to overlook checking the blindspot because there’s no immediate consequence.

This can lead to a dangerous attitude that minimizes or totally ignores the blindspots. “I don’t have blindspots…maybe other people do.”

Drivers who act this way are reckless. Leaders who act this way can appear bold or fearless. It’s a game that works…until it doesn’t. No one can say if there’s danger in your blindspot the first or the hundredth time, but sooner or later you’ll get blindsided.

Learn Your Blindspots

Just like a beginning driver, you need to learn your blindspots. You might have a blindspot in your behavior, your knowledge or your feelings.

You also might have blindspots when it comes to certain people (or types of people). It’s possible we miss important actions or habits (like checking your blindspots when driving a car!). Some people don’t see systems or believe that rules apply to them, so they ignore them or are actually blind to them.

There are multiple possible blindspots. It’s crucial to learn which of your blindspots are giving you the most trouble.

Start listening to what people are telling you about your behavior and actions. Also, pay attention to where you see or feel pain. That can be a clear signal of a persistent blindspot.

The point is, blindspots aren’t so difficult to identify, but we have to care about them. Sometimes we just need to listen to the person pointing them out to us.

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Why a Leader Should Write their Own Story

Ron Oltmanns — Tue, 05 Dec 2023 13:00:00 +0000

If you’re famous enough, someone is going to write an article or a book about you. Even if you’re not famous, someone might write a short story about you called an obituary. I’m not a famous person. But here’s why I write my own story and why every leader should write their own story too.

First, it’s already being written

Your story is already written. It’s not necessarily finished, but it’s in progress.

Just do a Google search on your name. Go ahead, just do it. Click on the first few links that come up. That’s the current story about you.

Do you like the results? When I did this exercise, I realized that the message I most care about and the ways I want to add value aren’t getting the focus. I need to do something about this.

If you’re going to be in public or on camera, give a little thought to what message is getting out and how you want it shared.

I do care how I’m remembered. I would like it to be for something I said or did that made people think. I want people to be clear about their own purpose in life.

Who Else is There?

Is there anyone else who can tell your story better than you?

I look around and I don’t see anyone else who has been around for all of my significant life events. My parents were there for the early years. They have a very good recall of my early life.

My wife has been a witness to my last thirty or so years. It spans most of my adult life. She can certainly tell stories. But in some ways, that’s putting a burden on her. Afterall, she has her own story to tell.

Personal branding or self authoring?

I recently saw a video by Chris Do talking about personal branding. He asked if I saw personal branding as a way to sell more stuff. (Maybe. A little). He doesn’t.

Chris sees his personal brand reminding him who he is supposed to be in this life.

I like that. If I can be more fully just who I am and show up with integrity and authenticity and call that my personal brand, I’m down for that.

If I get to write the story of my own life as I’m living it, that’s self authoring. It puts me in the driver’s seat.

I Want to Meet this Stranger

The details of my own life are familiar to me, but by themselves they aren’t a story. Most obituaries don’t make highly interesting reading. That’s not the fault of the deceased person or the writer. It’s more a matter of the consequences: there’s not a lot of time, and the obituary writer doesn’t have a lot of material to work with.

I have a little time, and I have a lot of material to work on. I’m eager to meet this character who will emerge from my own life story. I also want to get a little ahead of things. I hope to write the script before the action happens.

If I write my own life story, I can do it twice. First, I get to dream the story and then I get to live out the dream.

Stephen Covey talked about this in his classic The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit two says “begin with the end in mind.” You create things first mentally then you create them in physical reality.

Leaders Own Their Story

Others can take a crack at writing my story, but only I get to author it first in my mind and then in real life. To own my story means I’m fully living it. When I’m gone, I hope my story is interesting enough to help others want to write their own life story.

If you want to get started writing your own story, our ebook The Year Ahead helps you get started doing that. If you see value in working with a coach to start and continue this conversation on a regular basis, get in touch about a coaching engagement that works for you.

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How to Have a Conversation about What Matters

Ron Oltmanns — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 13:00:00 +0000

“What matters to you? Can we talk about it?” The answer to both questions depends first on whether I think you are a “friendly” or if there is a level of danger for me to open up to you. If we have a basic level of trust, we can have a good conversation about matters.

I Know the Answer Already

Every manager has a theory of human behavior and motivation, even if they can’t explain it in words. Have you ever worked for a manager who had a too simple explanation for what drives people?

Here’s a common one: “People are driven by money, plain and simple.” Or how about this one: “We’re all looking out for ourselves at the end of the day.”

Is there truth in these beliefs? Of course.

Is that all the truth? Of course not, but if we haven’t really examined our beliefs and challenged these assumptions, we will keep operating from our personal theory of human behavior and motivation.

We’re talking about what really matters to another person

What Really Matters?

Let’s be clear. We aren’t having a conversation about ultimate or universal truth. We’re talking about what matters to an individual.

We may share some overlapping concerns, but assuming that what matters most to me is also what matters to you is foolish.

One of the challenges leaders face is tapping into the magical force of what motivates or drives people they manage. How do you discover that?

The answer is disarmingly simple, but also tricky. Have a conversation about it, that’s the simple part. What makes it tricky is making sure there is enough trust to have a real conversation.

Having the Conversation about What Matters-Topics

You might have to work on trust-building before you can have this conversation. That’s okay. Assuming you have a level of trust, what do you do next?

Share something personal first—open up. Be vulnerable yourself, and invite the other person to be open. Sharing a brief personal story can be a powerful way to connect.

Ask some questions that make exploration okay. “What are you driven by?” is direct, but might not be the first question to raise. Explore free-time pursuits or interests outside of work. If there are no current free-time pursuits, what did they once enjoy doing before they started working? Alternatively, what do they hope to do after the busy part of their career is past?

What we’re looking for is the answer to the question “What seems to attract your interest, energy and/or time?”

Having the Conversation about What Matters-Timing

The right time to have these conversations often seems like the worst time.

Here’s what I mean. When we have to make tough choices, or when situations are really challenging, what really matters to us often comes to the surface.

But we also feel vulnerable at these times. And the press of the situation makes deep conversation difficult or impossible.

That might be the signal that this is exactly the right time to have a conversation that really matters.

One tool that really helps with these conversations is the 12 Driving Forces assessment. You can find out more about it here.

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The Master Mindset for Learners

Ron Oltmanns — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Is there a master mindset for learners? Graduates often throw their hats in the air at their graduation ceremony, glad that their school is over. But is their learning really over? Lifelong learners keep on learning while others see learning as something they had to do while they were in school. The difference is in your mindset.

More Than What's in Your Mind

It’s definitely more than what you think, your opinion or what’s in your mind.

Mindset is what you believe or assume to be true, your attitude toward learning in this case.

Many Possible Mindsets that Learners Have

Here are a few that I’ve seen:

Discomfort “I don’t want to change my way of thinking”

Expectancy “I can’t wait to learn more!”

Resistance “I don’t like how this makes me feel”

Lazy “I don’t want to work at learning this”

Curious “I’m really interested to know how ____”

The Master Mindset of Learners: Growth

Carol Dweck has made a career out of studying mindsets since the 70’s. In 2006 she wrote a book called … “Mindset: the New Psychology of Success”. She found that some people see intelligence as something fixed and limited. When learning gets really difficult or they face failure, they think they have reached their limit and stop trying. This is the fixed mindset.

With a growth mindset, individuals think their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching, and persistence. They don’t think everyone is the same or that just anyone can be an Einstein, but they believe everyone can get (a little) smarter if they work at it.

Mindset Shows Up in Actions and Internal Speech

I imagine most people reading this would want to identify themselves with the growth mindset. The curious thing is that mindset is demonstrated more in action than in what we say we believe.

Example: you attend a training session at work and after the first day you get a barely passing grade on the end of day quiz. How do you feel?

If you say, “I feel dumb”, “Like an idiot” or “I’m in the wrong line of work”, you are showing a fixed mindset. It will stop you from trying again or giving it much more effort. If you thought “I need to try harder” or “This is tougher than I thought, I need to pay more attention tomorrow”, and you follow through on that, you’re showing a growth mindset.

The most important thing is whether you see yourself as a learner able to bounce back and learn more, or as an otherwise capable person who just isn’t cut out for this sort of thing. If your mindset is fixed you don’t see much point in trying, while the other sees growth potential and is ready to work at it. The mindset for learners is focused on growth and bouncing back from failure. A fixed mindset is locked in and less willing to change ideas, habits or expectations about learning.

There are more than just two mindsets. In fact, we have a mindset compass that helps you identify nine different mindsets and name your current attitude. It works much like a feelings wheel which helps you name your current emotion. You can check it out in our online store here.

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Why EQ is Not a Passing Fad

Ron Oltmanns — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 23:29:04 +0000

Is EQ just a fad? In 1995 Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence changed our thinking about the importance of being smart and how to define it in a new way.

The relevance of this soft skill has only grown since then and become mainstream. Now you’ll often find emotional intelligence listed as a required or desirable quality in job descriptions. But is it time to move on from emotional intelligence and focus on other things?

Being Smart (IQ) is Overrated

The traditional view of intelligence emphasizes memory, logic, reasoning and a dash of creativity. IQ tests try to measure and quantify these things. Sort of.

If you look around you at successful people, many times the most successful are not the smartest. Universities and even world-class companies have realized that we need something more than raw intelligence to thrive.

What Really Is Emotional Intelligence (EQ)?

Howard Gardner first challenged the idea of one single intelligence in the 1970’s. His argument was that people can be smart in several different ways.

Emotional intelligence is being aware of and able to manage emotions effectively, both in ourselves and in working with other people. People who can tune in to themselves and others as well as manage their own emotions and influence others are going to be more successful at life than those who don’t.

Is EQ a Fad? Emotions Are Not Going Away

Over 2300 years ago Aristotle wrote in the Nichomachean Ethics about emotions like anger and how to control them. In over two millenia humans have not gotten a lot better at managing their emotions or directing them powerfully with their minds.

Even with the attention we’ve given to emotional intelligence in the last 25+ years, progress is slow for society. The bright spot is that individuals can learn and grow faster than society as a whole. If you want to get ahead and also enjoy your relationships more, become a student of emotional intelligence. Don’t stop learning until you can pass the lessons along to others.

Did you know we can measure and develop emotional intelligence? Leadskill uses a scientific assessment for quantifying a person’s EQ and offers training and certification in emotional intelligence. Get in touch with us to learn more!

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Three Kinds of Motivation – and which works best

Ron Oltmanns — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 22:03:00 +0000

We eat food everyday. What kind of food you eat directly impacts how you experience your day and ultimately your life. Motivation is like food, and the kind you use to fuel you also impacts each day and your overall life.

Food as Fuel

There are many kinds of food, but just to make our point let’s look at three kinds.

Average food
Healthy food
Indulgent food

What you eat determines your enjoyment (while eating and afterwards) and also your energy level in any given day and over a longer period of time.

In a similar way, there are three kinds of motivation:

External rewards
Intrinsic motivation
Value motivation

You can think of motivation as what fuels you; what gets you going and keeps you going!

Three Kinds of Motivation

Maybe you heard about extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Something is intrinsically motivating if doing the activity is its own reward or you enjoy doing something for the sake of doing it. Extrinsic or external motivation is more goal oriented: you get your reward outside of or after the activity.

At Leadskill we have personal and organizational assessments that allow us to measure these types of motivation. The Driving Forces assessment details the extrinsic or external motivators of an individual or an organization. We can measure the intensity and development of intrinsic motivation using the EQ assessment.

Are there other types of motivation? Sure, just like there are many different kinds of food. You could be motivated by guilt or shame (introjected is the technical term), but we’ll leave that to the side for now.

You can also find motivation because of a higher value (not guilt, shame or fear) that doesn’t reward you but which you see as beneficial. Volunteering at an Earth day event could be one example (there may be no personal benefit in it for you). Attending a religious service out of conviction but not for personal enjoyment or out of guilt, shame or pressure is another. Call it value motivation. It can be powerful even if it’s less common.

We can measure value motivation partly through some driving forces and also through using the science of acumen.

Which Type of Motivation is Best?

Just like the question “Which kind of food is best?” has more than one answer, the same goes for motivation. Intrinsic motivation is very personally satisfying. External motivation may be the only thing that gets a specific job done. Value motivation elevates what you do.

The bottom line is that the best motivation is the one that helps you get worthwhile things done.

Ready to have a conversation with us about motivators and how they impact your leadership or your organization? Reach out to us–we welcome the opportunity to explore your interest and see how we can help.

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