How can you begin to understand what motivates your team if you don’t deeply understand what motivates you?
Self-awareness takes on many forms. Your values and motivators are just one, but a very critical one.
If you had to identify your one driving value (as a professional) what would it be? I’m not talking about your life values (love, family, faith, etc) I’m speaking specifically of the values that drive your professional decisions.
A word of warning: don’t default to the driving value provided by the most recent personality test or strengths assessment you’ve taken. That’s too easy and may lead you down to wrong path – or worse. Defaulting to assessment results could influence your behaviors and decisions causing incongruence with your true value. That incongruence leads to a false life – of being a fraud. So many speakers and writers are talking about being authentic. Well, this is how you start.
Take the time to dig deeply and know your true driving value. There is an exercise in the Everyday Storytelling Workbook to help.
Knowing your driving value will help you make decisions, keep yourself motivated, and of course it helps you to better understand what it takes to know and live by that driving value. Know yourself first. Lead by example. Then guide your team through the same process.
That is what you need to motivate your team.
