Originally Posted on The Coaching Tools Company as Extrinsic Motivation That Actually Works: A New Way to Empower Your Clients | by Karen Lukanovich
As coaches, we’re there to assist and guide our clients along their journey toward achieving their goals and reaching successful outcomes.
Motivation becomes an important part of this process as we strive to empower our clients when the going gets tough. How often have you heard “I just need to get motivated!” or “How can I increase my motivation?”
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
Since the 1970s, scientists have been aware of the two types of motivation:
- Intrinsic motivation is when you’re doing something because it feels inherently enjoyable.
- Extrinsic motivation is when you’re doing something because of an external reward—like making money or winning a prize or competition.
Countless studies have shown that when we’re intrinsically motivated to do something, we’re more effective and energized by doing it. By contrast, extrinsic rewards can, in the long run, make us less motivated to do something for its own sake.
The case for identified extrinsic motivation
By 2017, many scientists had begun to suspect there are actually 3 discrete types of extrinsic motivation: external, introjected and identified.
Of these, identified extrinsic motivation is the interesting one because it is the most autonomous of the extrinsic motivators. With identified motivation, even though we might be doing something for the external reward associated with it, we personally value (or identify with) that reward or end goal. And crucially, that value is determined by us—not forced upon us by others.
Kennon Sheldon, a professor of psychology and researcher devoted to the study of motivation, self-determination theory and well-being, has carried out some fascinating research1 on hikers embarking on the Pacific Crest Trail.
Sheldon collected data on the hikers’ motivation, well-being and hike performance. He also asked each hiker about their mood on the hike, using a series of well-established tests for subjective well-being.
Anyone who embarked on the trail was pretty likely to experience a collapse in intrinsic motivation at some point. After all, a strenuous trek is bound to be physically, emotionally and psychologically taxing.
So, what was motivating them to continue? In simple terms, what Sheldon uncovered was the power of identified motivation.
Of the three types of extrinsic motivation, this was the only one that corresponded with greater happiness. The hikers who motivated themselves by aligning their actions with what they truly valued not only completed the trail but also felt happiest at the end of it.
Aligning actions and motivations can avoid burnout
Sheldon’s study points to a helpful insight into reducing our risk of misalignment burnout.
This is the sort of burnout that arises from working toward goals that don’t ultimately match up to our sense of self and our values. We feel worse—and so achieve less—because we’re not acting authentically. In these moments, when our behaviour is driven by external forces, there is a lack of alignment between who we are and what we’re doing.
Finding a deeper alignment is something that only intrinsic and identified motivation can offer.
How can we boost identified motivation?
Not much has been written about boosting our identified motivation. The key to doing that, broadly, is to (a) figure out what really matters to you, and (b) align your behaviour with it.
So as coaches, how can we use this to help our clients?
An exercise using the Wheel of Life
Dr. Ali Abdaal, author of Feel Good Productivity2, has found that a powerful tool, the “Wheel of Life,” can do exactly this for our clients as they work toward achieving their yearly, short-term goals. This framework splits up “life” into a number of different areas. And this exercise is simple, yet very effective for our clients.
Abdaal’s approach focuses on aligning actions with values. Because the people I coach are very goal focused, I’ve chosen to add “goals” into my process in addition to “actions” for a more complete picture of aligning goals to values and then actions to goals and values.
Here’s how it works:
- For each area of life, ask your clients to identify their key values.
- Then ask them to place their goal(s) in the corresponding life area.
- Ask them to rate, on a scale of 0–10, whether their goal(s) align with their stated values (with 0 being completely misaligned and 10 being completely aligned).
- Then ask them to rate how well the actions they are taking or plan to take to achieve their goal(s) align with their values (using the same scale of 0–10 as above)?
In just a few minutes, your coachees have done an audit of their goals and have identified the areas in which their goals and the actions they are taking do align with where they’d like to go—and, more importantly, the areas in which they don’t.
Putting the results into action
As coaches, what we really want is for our clients to reflect upon the extent to which their current goals and actions are aligned to their values and what really matters to them.
The final step to generating identified motivation is to help our clients use this newfound clarity to align their actions with where they want to go.
For example, if you have a client struggling to find the motivation to work out, they might say to themself, “I recognize that staying physically fit is important for my long-term health and happiness. Therefore, I’m not just working out to look good or because I feel I have to; I’m doing it because it aligns with my values and contributes to the life I want to lead.”
This mindset shift, from seeing exercise as a chore to viewing it as a vital part of living their values, can be incredibly motivating.
Wrap-up
There is a transformative power in aligning our actions with our values. It’s not about blindly pushing through tasks or adhering to external expectations. It’s about consciously choosing activities that reflect our deepest values and aspirations, which helps infuse our daily routine with a sense of purpose and direction.
This alignment is the essence of identified motivation—it turns routine actions into steps toward a fulfilling life, in line with our true selves.
I have started using this exercise to help empower and motivate the athletes and clients that I coach, and it has been very successful. I also used it in a recent presentation to several hundred participants and had great feedback on how this short exercise really helped them re-evaluate and transform their process moving forward. It was very rewarding!
I urge all coaches to try this effective approach to help motivate your clients, and to try it out yourselves too.
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