Suprising Truths about Motivation Published January 12, 2012 | By  rose 

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

“ Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it”. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Nurse leaders at every level report that one of their greatest challenges is simply to get their staff to

come to work and meet their job expectations. I am often asked– how can I motivate my staff and keep them engaged ? Quint

Studer, an expert in employee engagement, made the important observation that “If a nurse can hold a dying baby and sit with the

distraught family on one day, and then return to do it again another day; is there any doubt that this is a motivated person? The

 problem is not motivation; it is the unintentional “de-motivation” of nurses that we need to worry about.”  

There are some surprising truths about motivation that are emerging from the research that may seem counter intuitive to what you

currently believe about what motivates others. In his internationally acclaimed work reviewing the research on motivation, Daniel

Pink makes the point that many of the traditional reward systems ,such as increased salary, benefits, bonuses and other perks

thought to be strong motivators of performance, in fact often have the opposite effect.

This traditional carrot and stick approach to motivation worked well during an industrial age. Researchers are finding that it is

ineffective for motivating the creative, complex and conceptual work expected of professionals in health care and other settings

today.

 As a leader, you cannot force anyone to be motivated as this is an intrinsic quality. What you can do is to create an environment that

 will inspire and engage your staff to awaken their motivation. Pink advises that employees need to see the following three key 

elements in their environments to promote their motivation:

1. Autonomy  

 Autonomy is our urge to direct our own lives. The motivation research indicates that to engage staff they must feel truly involved

and valued in their work. Well designed and implemented shared governance models have been shown to increase nursing staff 

engagement but and this is a big but…..they must be real shared governance. Giving up control and allowing staff more autonomy in

their work is a challenge for some leaders. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great , offers four good suggestions on how to do this:

  Lead with questions not answers.

  Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion.

  Conduct autopsies without blame.

  Make it easy for staff to talk about problems they see and solutions they recommend.

2. Mastery  

Mastery is our desire to get better and better at something that matters. This requires opportunities to learn, practice and make

mistakes. Nurse leaders can create learning environments on their own units. They should actively promote the idea that staff 

regardless of their level of experience or position can and should develop mastery in some aspect of their knowledge work. New 

graduates should be reassured that mastery comes with deliberate practice, repetition and feedback.

3. Purpose 

Purpose is our yearning to connect to something larger than ourselves. Pink suggests that an interesting exercise for leaders is to ask 

staff to write down one sentence that describes the purpose of the work that you are doing. Talk about the results at a meeting. You

 

may find that not everyone is on the same page about your work, mission and goals. Listen carefully to how your staff describe your

unit or department – do they use the pronoun we or they.

 You want to create an environment where every staff member feels a connection and talks about we when describing their work 

environment and unit accomplishments.

 Will there be situations where despite your best efforts, a staff member will still be unmotivated? The answer to this is a definitive

 yes because the decision to become more motivated and engaged is a personal one. Even the best leaders quickly learn that their

 best efforts don’t work in every situation and some emplo yees are not a good fit for the organization.

Read to Lead 

Daniel Pink speaking on Motivation Ted Conference Video 

Pink, D. (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. Riverhead Books.

Studer, Q. (2003). Hardwiring excellence: Purpose, worthwhile work, making a difference. Firestarter Publishing, Gulf 

Breeze,Florida.

© emergingrnleader.com 2012