What motivates you? What makes you want to get up in the morning and go to work with the desire to “give it all you’ve got” and accomplish great things? What moves you to do things that, at one time in your life, you would have never dreamed you’d be able to do? When it gets really hard at work, what stops you from throwing in the towel and saying, “I can’t do this!”?

In addition to keeping yourself motivated, how do you, as the leader, motivate others to “give it all they’ve got” every day, when they may not yet be aware that their “all” is even more than they had imagined or even desired?

In working directly with school leaders across this nation, a typical coaching conversation will at one point or another come to, “How do I best motivate others to do things differently so that we can get stronger results?”

While motivation drivers are unique to each person, we now know from neuroscience that motivation is influenced by both our thinking and feeling, and that those feelings have a much stronger influence on motivation than we may have previously thought.

Jonathon Haidt, in The Happiness Hypothesis, provides a metaphor to help us understand about motivation. He says that our brain is not of one mind, but rather has two parts – a Rider and an Elephant – that at times are in conflict. The Rider represents our rational thinking, the part of us that solves problems, is reflective and organized. The Elephant is our emotional mind and the part of us that is instinctive and feels pain and pleasure.

Positioned atop the Elephant, the Rider holds the reins and appears to be in control, but in reality he’s no match for the Elephant’s strength. Anytime a six-ton Elephant and the Rider disagree about which direction to go, you know who’s going to give in to the other. No Rider is going to win a tug-of-war with an Elephant.

When change efforts fail, it’s usually the Elephant’s fault since the kinds of change we want typically involve short-term sacrifices for long-term payoffs. You say you’re going to give up eating between meals and then you pass by a plate of cookies, and before you know it, you’ve eaten two or three. The Elephant wants instant gratification, which is the opposite of the Rider’s strength, the ability to think long-term and to plan beyond the moment.

Interestingly, the Elephant has huge strengths and the Rider big weaknesses. Emotions reside with the Elephant. Love, compassion, sympathy, the desire to overcome great odds or protect the underdog, anger over what feels like an injustice – that’s the Elephant.

And, when you’re contemplating a change, it’s the Elephant that gets things done. To move toward a goal requires the energy and drive of the Elephant. The weakness of the Rider is that he can spin his wheels, overanalyze and overthink things. When you fret over a simple decision, like what to wear to the meeting, or when you think and think about how best to solve a problem but can’t seem to move forward with solving it – that’s the Rider spinning his wheels.

If you want to motivate yourself or others to change, you’ve got to appeal to both the Rider and the Elephant. If you reach the Riders of your Team but not their Elephants, they’ll have understanding without motivation. If you reach their Elephants but not their Riders, they’ll have passion without direction. When Elephants and Riders move together, change comes more easily.

So what are you to do to motivate and influence change? Consider these three points.

1. Direct the Rider. Show him where to go so that he doesn’t spin his wheels. Provide clear directions (specific standards and expectations) and a specific destination to pursue (goals).
2. Motivate the Elephant. What looks like laziness is often exhaustion. Since the Rider can’t get his way for long, it’s critical to engage people’s emotional sides to get the Elephant on the path and cooperative.  Have those personal conversations that build trust and encourage even small steps toward the goal. Get to the feelings!
3. Shape the Path. What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. The situation is the “Path.” Begin team meetings by sharing successes that are connected specifically to the goals and expectations of the work.  Highlight examples of behaviors that are aligned with the expectations. Rally the team to create ways together to move toward the desired goals. When you shape the Path, you make the change more likely, no matter what’s happening with the Rider and Elephant.

So, what do you think? How is the Rider and Elephant metaphor helpful in reminding you about what is needed to motivate change for yourself and others?

References

Haidt, Johathon (2006) The Happiness Hypothesis. New York: Basic Books Publishers

Heath, Chip and Heath, Dan (2010) Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard. New York: Broadway Books

Vicky Dearing is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC), certified through the International Coach Federation and has over 30 years of experience working in public education. She is a former teacher, central office administrator and principal of two Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence. She brings a corporate perspective to her coaching, having served as a Senior Vice President of Training and Implementation for a national education company. Vicky currently serves as the Chief Officer of Marketing for Coaching School Results and is a co- author of Results Coaching, The New Essential for School Leaders. To find out more about Vicky and all of our coaches, go to www.coachingforresultsglobal.com and click on “coaches.”