Internal or external motivation? The internal motivation comes from you, you do something because you want to (and you know why) and you can see the benefits for you. External motivation comes from for example external rewards, like prices, money or other benefits. It can be hard to tell what did motivate you most, but on the long term the internal motivation is the motivation that will help you most in your performance. Other sources for motivation might be:
– Task related motivation, comes from the teams goals and purpose, common efforts towards a common goal.
– Social related motivation comes from the social intercourse with the other team members
– Internal motivation comes from individual reward, goals and performance.
What is it that motivates us with a particular task. This may be some reasons:
– Social satisfaction
– Tournament moments
– Self-control
– Lifestyle
– Physical and mental wellbeing
– Success quest
– Money – survival – Luxury
– Status
– Competition
– (Nice view), See the Waterboy example in – For me, the team or why do I do it.
Rewards may increase motivation?
Yes answers, most people probably without thinking. So here’s a little story:
There was a group of boys who used to play football at a farmer’s field. The farmer himself did not like it and tried repeatedly to drive away those little football players, without success.
He decided to go for a new tactic. He walked up to the boys playing football and said that everyone would get 50 cents, each time they played football at his field. Next week, he gave them one Euro each. The week after he told the boys that he had short of money so they could only get 50 cents again. The next week he said he would only be able to pay 20 cents. The young football players were really upset, “Who do you think you are? How can you believe that anyone of us would play for you, for 20 cents?” So what the boys had done with joy and for fun (internal motivation), ended up as the farmer wanted, they quit playing after the external reward was minized or removed…
When a man comes home with flowers, the question might be “Okey, what have you done now, why do you bring me flowers? Or when you receive or are offered something for free, you immediately think “What do they want me to buy from them or what kind of subscription/contract is behind the gift”?
Rewards are good and fun, but you have to have the insight that people or your players perceive it very differently. Therefore, it is good to explain and justify carefully why you give the person something. Otherwise, some people get the feeling that the other person is trying to take control of me and tie me up by giving me something.
It’s good to have money, so you can buy things that can be bought with money. It’s although a lot better to not lose the things that cannot be bought with money. (It’s better to have internal than external motivation)
