AC4P with Dr. Scott Geller 008 | The Three C's

Dr. Scott Geller (00:24):
So let's understand. Self-motivation let's understand what it means to be self-motivated to be self-directed first. There's three kinds of behavior. There's habitual behavior. Now that's behavior. That's automatic. Reflexive is behavior. We do without even thinking, second kind of behavior is other-directed behavior. This is behavior we do when somebody else is holding us accountable, this is management. Managers hold us accountable and that's not a bad thing. That's a good thing. They hold us accountable. We get a salary. We get consequences that keep us going. That's management. That's other-directed behavior, but let's talk about self-directed behavior leaders inspire people to be self-directed or self-motivated. How do leaders do that? And by the way, we can all be a leader. We can all help people and ourselves, of course, be self-directed be self-motivated. It takes three C words, three C words. The first C word is choice.

Dr. Scott Geller (01:37):
When we believe we have some choice in the matter, not complete choice necessarily, but some choice now, DC and Ryan used the word autonomy. This is, by the way, this is research-based. When people believe they had some autonomy or I'm using a word choice, they're more likely to be self-motivated. Now, by the way, I say it's research-based. But as I teach this to you, you're saying to yourself, I knew that it becomes your common sense. Cause you've been there. The second C word is competence. Competence. You've been there. When you believe you're competent at doing worthwhile work, you're more likely to be self-motivated right. Okay. Now, how do we let people feel they're competent? What do leaders do to help us feel competent? You know what they do, they thank us. They recognize us. They give us positive consequence, words of approval for what we do.

Dr. Scott Geller (02:36):
Third word, third word is community. Now DC and Ryan used the word relatedness. I like community because it does fit with our three C words. But also because it's big, we're all in this together. Community means a sense of relatedness with other people. You know, we've been born to be independent, haven't we? You know, raised to be independent. Nice guys. Finish last, got to blow your own horn. This squeaky wheel gets the grease, you know, but the big word here is interdependent. And when we really feel that we're more likely to be self-motivated. I like to recite a poem called a cookie thief by Valerie Cox to get across this point about interdependence. This point about community. A woman was waiting at an airport one night with several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport. Shop bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

Dr. Scott Geller (03:43):
She was engrossed in her book and happened to see at the man beside her as bold as could be grabbed the cookie or two from the bag between which he tried to ignore to avoid a scene. She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock. As a gussy, cookie thief diminished her stock. She was getting more irritated the minutes tick by thinking if I wasn't so nice, I blacken his eye. With each cookie she took, he took one, two. When only one was left, she wondered what he'd do. with smile on his face and a nervous laugh. He took the last cookie and broke it in half. He offered her half as he ate the other. She snatched from him and thought, Oh brother, this guy has some nerve. And he's also rude. Why he didn't even show any gratitude. She had never known when she'd been so cold.

Dr. Scott Geller (04:43):
And she sighed with relief. When her flight was called, she gathered her belongings and headed for the gate, refusing to look back at the thieving Engrade she boarded the plane and sank on her seat. Then sought her book, which was almost complete. As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise. There was her bag of cookies in front of her eyes. If mine are here, she moaned with despair. Then the others were his and he tried to share. Too late to apologize, she realized with grief that she was the rude one, that he didn't grade the thief. Yeah. So where were you on that poem? Whose side were you on? I mean, were you thinking independent? Were you thinking self-serving when in fact he was interdependent, he was sharing, he had a sense of community, one of those three C words for self-motivation that we perceive some amount of choice. We perceive competence at doing worthwhile work and we have a sense of community. Leaders, you can inspire people to feel self-motivated and we can inspire ourselves to be more self-motivated by realizing by perceiving choice competence and community.