According to Daniel H. Pink in his latest book "Drive", the motivation for people in the workplace has changed over time as our workplace has changed. Thousands of years ago when people were primarily hunters and gathers, Pink asserts that people relied on Motivation 1.0 technology. This consisted of being motivated enough to keep oneself alive. The drive to find food and shelter was satisfying enough to be the primary motivator for most people.

Things changed during the industrial revolution and Motivation 1.0 was replaced by Motivation 2.0 technology. Motivation 2.0 technology is more commonly referred to as "carrot and stick" motivation or "if-then" motivation or" extrinsic" motivation. Essentially, if you do X you will get Y in return. This sort of extrinsic motivation does not take into account what really drives the person from a personal perspective but rather assumes that the average person can be manipulated into a certain set of behaviours by rewarding those behaviours.

This system is still common in the marketplace today but according to Pink it needs to be upgraded to Motivation 3.0 technology because the majority of workers in today's society are considered to be Knowledge Workers. Knowledge Workers are not motivated by the external or carrot and stick approach. Rather they are motivated by an intrinsic motivation. Using a Motivation 2.0 approach with a Knowledge Worker can; extinguish their intrinsic motivation, diminish performance, crush creativity, crowd out good behaviour, encourage unethical behaviour, become addicting and foster short term thinking.

Motivation 3.0 or intrinsic motivation is composed of three main components;

1) Autonomy - Ability for an individual to work and make decisions on their own without constant supervision or overburdening rules. People take personal accountability for their work.

2) Mastery - Ability to work in an area of expertise to the point of becoming a master or renowned expert in this area. The activity itself becomes the reward. The state of mastery is also called a state of flow. Pink defined it as follows;

3) Purpose - Ability to attach yourself to a cause larger than yourself. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defined it this way "One cannot lead a life that is truly excellent without feeling that one belongs to something greater and more permanent than oneself."

So, what does this have to do with your Strength Zone?

Knowledge and understanding of your Strength Zone is an absolute requirement of Motivation 3.0. In order for anyone to become a master in any area, they first need to understand and leverage their Strength Zone in this area. You can never become a master of anything unless you are already maximizing your strengths.

If you are a knowledge worker, make sure that you are operating within the Motivation 3.0 framework as this is critical to your success in all of your endeavours. Discover your Strength Zone and strive towards Mastery!

Over the last number of weeks we have re-introduced the Strength Zone basics and have defined a process of identifying your top six values, your personality profile and your top five talents…..so, what now? How do you combine this information to define your overall Strength Zone and what does this mean once you do and how do you use this information anyway?



Well…..lets try to take these questions one at a time.



How do you combine this information to define your overall Strength Zone?



I would suggest making three lists, side by side, of your Values, Personality traits and Talents, like this.



Values - Faith, Family, Courage, Achievement, Integrity, Wisdom

Personality - Creative, Dominant, Challenge, Competitive, Problem Solver, Driver, Change Oriented, Planner, Achiever

Talents - Achiever, Ideation, Learner, Maximizer, Belief



Note that the Personality traits should come from your Personality profile. Just pick some (6 to 10) of the key words from your profile that seem to best describe you. If you haven’t taken a DISC personality profile, click on the "Store" button at the top of this screen and purchase a copy of Strength Zone as it comes complete with a DISC profile.



Once your list is complete, begin to look for an overlap between these three areas. The list shown above is my list. There are some obvious overlaps. First, Achiever or Achievement is common across Values, Personality and Talents. Secondly, Learner and Creative seem to be a second theme. This is not an exact science and sometimes you must really spend some time reviewing your Values, Personality and Talents to find the overlap.



So based on my information shown above, I would say that my Strength Zone® is Achievement and Learner/Creative.



So now what …..what does this mean and how do you use this information?



You can only answer this question through reflection and asking yourself some tough questions. Take a look at the different roles that you have in life both at work and at home and ask yourself the following questions;



1) Am I already applying my strengths in my roles?

2) How am I doing this?

3) Is it effective?

4) If I am not applying my strengths to my roles how can I start?

5) What new things do I need to learn to improve in my areas of strength?

6) What things should I stop doing because I am no good at them?

7) What activities am I involved with that energize me?

8) What activities am I involved with that seem to suck the life out of me?

9) How can I leverage my Strength Zone into each of my roles more effectively?



The following examples illustrate the some of the results of this reflection process for me and how I was able to leverage my Strength Zone to make myself more productive.



Achiever –I must have a system in place to measure my progress against preset goals. I have to make progress against these goals. My goals are balanced between personal, spiritual, relationships, health, career, fun and financial. I have to measure progress in each of these areas each week, and I review these goals daily. It is not good enough to achieve one thing per month. I have to achieve something daily. This does not have to be a major accomplishment, but it does have to be something that takes me a step closer toward a major accomplishment. Making progress yesterday is not good enough. I need to accomplish something each and every day. This energizes me to do even more and allows me to be very productive. I do need to make sure I have a balance between personal, spiritual, relationships, health, career, fun and financial or the achievement may result in negative behaviors. When I don’t structure my roles in this fashion I experience some level of frustration which then causes me to be a lot less productive than I should be.



Creative/Learner – I am always striving to learn something new. Learning energizes me and when I am able to take something that I have learned and see it productively applied in a role that I have, it is very gratifying. I love to read, take courses, attend seminars, listen to books on CD or podcasts about all kinds of topics and then “cross-pollinate” these learnings into the roles that I have. Not everything that I learn can be applied and not everything that I apply is successful although the majority of what is applied is successful. The process of learning and applying is energizing and the productivity gains can be huge.



Take the time to define your Strength Zone and then take this knowledge and reflect on how you can best apply it to maximize your effectiveness in every role you have in life