3 leading human motives
In the 1970s, psychologist and researcher David McClelland was approached by a group of businessmen with the question, “Why do overbearing people become overbearing? McClelland began research and conducted them not only in America, but all over the world. He observed people, interviewed those who had reached a certain position in society: top managers, company founders, politicians. He processed this information for a long time, but found no answer, because the question was too vague.
A while later, another group of businessmen came to McBer, the company McClelland founded, and refined the survey, “How do people in power behave?”
Pulling from the archives and doing some additional research, the researchers came up with a theory of achievement motive.
Motive is a kind of underlying attitude, a personality phenomenon that determines a person’s thinking, behavior, and needs.
Researchers from McBer described 3 leading motives. Each of the motives is realized by relying on one of 4 themes.
The first leading motive is power.
And it’s not just politics.
The first theme in the motive of power is control, the need to control any process and generally everything that happens around a person.
The second kind of need is influence. The need to realize one’s goals with the help of others or at the hands of others.
A typical situation for a person with a power motive: he gives instructions, the other carries them out. Regardless of the hierarchy. It can even be colleagues on the same level within the company. But someone tells him what to do, and the other unquestioningly carries it out.
The third need is the impact, the ability and desire to manage the emotional state of the interlocutor. For example, a man walks into the office, just joking, and everyone starts laughing immediately. Or vice versa, all laughing, he walked in, did not even say a word, but the state in the room has changed, and people immediately began to do other things.
There is a rule for the motive of power: If I control the emotions of the interlocutor, then I control the system I am in.
For example, provocation is a claim to show who is in charge. Not stronger, but the one in charge. And if a person falls for the provocation, this means that the interlocutor controls him.
The fourth need in the motive of power is prestige. To show his social status, position in society. As a rule, a person with a motive of power takes all the victories. Achievement may be taken thanks to the efforts of other people, but all laurels go to the person with the power motive. Expensive resorts, brands, cars, etc. are a demonstration of power and prestige.
An interesting example: in the 60’s in America hippies were very popular. Children of rich people began to walk around in rags, there was the concept of the “California bum. These guys, ragged, with unwashed heads, but used to a certain level, would walk up to a restaurant and show a person at the entrance some attribute of power: an expensive ring or a watch or something like that. So they would say, “I’m mine, I can pay for this service, I’m just dressed like this.” The attributes of prestige show others that the wearer has already achieved something and is entitled to bonuses.
The second motive is belonging.
The main value in the motif of involvement is friendship and human relationships. This motive is built on three fundamental points:
The need to make friends. When people with the involvement motive come into a new society, they perceive each new person as a potential friend and strive to get to know everyone. In comparison, a person with a power motive gets to know only those who are beneficial to him.
Keeping friends. Such people in a company show up well in positions where they need to spread the word. They socialize, they make friends with everyone. They take on more than they should in those matters where it is necessary to create communication within the team. It is necessary to take into account that they come to work to communicate, not to work. But if a person with the motive of involvement knows that he is valuable, he is ready to undertake the work that the representatives of other motives refused. Such people usually do not quit, they cannot be tempted by a higher salary, because they believe that by leaving the team they betray their friends.
Participate in the life of the team – corporate parties, parties, etc. If you tell them: “Tomorrow we are celebrating the birthday of the company”, they will think of contests, make the decoration of the hall.
At Zappos, many work on the participatory motive. A great symbiosis is the collaboration of involvement and power, they help each other to fulfill needs. The person with the power motive takes responsibility, the person with the involvement motive does whatever needs to be done. Then the first one says, “I’m cool. And the second one is cool that he helped his friend. Win – Win.
The third motive is the achievement motive.
The first motive is to be better than yourself. This person is constantly competing with himself, every day he wants to improve on yesterday’s result.
The second is to be better than others. They peek at their competitors or rivals, it pisses them off wildly when they realize that someone has beaten them. A person with a power motive will calmly say, “Okay, you showed me by your example where I should go. A person with an achievement motive will be furious.
The third point is the need for interesting projects that will develop him. A person with the motive of achievement goes from one company to another, if he has a feeling that he stopped in his development. The salary will not keep him down. In addition a man with a motive for achievement must have all the necessary conditions for work, so he did not have to become a beggar or a thief in terms of begging for resources to work.
Another foundation of the achievement-motivated person’s mindset is the opportunity for a long-term and successful career. In contrast to the power-motivated person, by “career,” achieveers do not mean growing up the ladder, but rather that a person, while in his workplace, can become a better professional or expert in his subject.
There are many achievers in the Valley who want to become the best in their field. And one of the results of their lives is innovation. They are the inventors, the people through whom we have scientific and technological progress.
But it also has the opposite effect: demanding.
At Netflix, if you’re good at something, but you don’t have enough social skills, they won’t take you on the team. Achievement-motivated people are demanding not only of themselves, but also of others. Especially if they come across people with a power motive. For the power-motivated person it is a challenge, and for the accomplished person it is a personal affront.
If you want to make a sacramental person feel bad, criticize them. They need to be approached flexibly and gently. The achiever demands straightforward feedback from the interlocutor: “what do I need to improve?” And that’s how he communicates to others. He will say, “You did this part, improve that part!” And to the partaker it’s an insult, it makes a team breakdown. That’s why corporations in the Valley promote the idea: “You have to be not only a good specialist, but also have the skills to communicate, to interact with other people.
