Coaching Motivation

Motivation Theories

There are three basic groups of motivation theory:  

Biological theories suggest that animals are “hard-wired” to demonstrate specific behaviours in response to stimuli. This covers simple actions, like motivation to drink when thirsty, and complex behaviours (“fixed action patterns”). An example is egg retrieval from outside the nest by geese (Lorenz, 1970). Humans are motivated to respond in this way to simple stimuli like hunger.  

Behaviourist theories suggest that motivation can be learnt. For example, Skinner (1933) demonstrated that rats can learn to be motivated to press a lever to receive food. Again, we can see that behavioural motivation can influence humans (only a modest leap of imagination is required to compare gamblers repetitively pulling fruit machine handles to lever-pressing rats!)      

Cognitive theories suggest that motivation depends on higher brain functions, including ability to perceive, reason, and imagine. Motivation results from conscious or unconscious processing of information and its integration with the individual’s characteristics, like beliefs and expectations. Whereas biological and behavioural theories are essentially acognitive, applying to a wide range of animals, cognitive theories most robustly apply to humans. There is a wide range of cognitive motivation theories. For example, Locke (1968) assumes that the goal is the key to motivation and therefore performance, suggesting that attainment depends on goal difficulty, and on the individual’s commitment to it.  

These three groups of theories overlap and each explains some elements of behaviour. Deci & Ryan’s (1985) Self Determination Theory (SDT) can be seen as integrating all three areas and explaining the full range of human motivation. 

SDT postulates that human motivation depends on the satisfaction of three innate psychological needs:

Competence – ability to reach a goal
Autonomy – freedom of choice
Relatedness –feeling connected to others

Deci and Ryan define these needs as innate, psychological nutriments that are essential for ongoing psychological growth, integrity and well-being (2000, p229).

Organismic Integration Theory (OIT) is a sub-theory of SDT, which explains the regulatory process governing motivation. OIT suggests that motivation becomes more intrinsic and so more powerful as the three psychological needs are satisfied.

The Impact of Executive Coaching on Motivation

Does effective coaching positively influence motivation? Most of the published evidence, and feedback from Create the Future’s clients, suggests that executive coaching improves motivation.  
 
Executive coaching improves motivation generally

Yoder (1995) found that coaching in particular was valuable for increasing the job satisfaction (a partial proxy for motivation) of a large sample of army nurses. Gaskill & Sibley (1990) studied mentoring of female workers in retailing. They found that women receiving mentoring reported higher motivation than their non-mentored colleagues. In 2004, Day and Allen found that career mentoring directly enhanced performance, via improvements in motivation. Create the Future’s experience supports this view. In one assignment, four clients in a manufacturing business received coaching. Three of the clients were motivated before the programme began, whilst one was unenthusiastic. After several sessions the unenthusiastic client’s motivation improved not only for the coaching, but also back in the workplace. Her feedback was that she had become much more positively focused, showing improved motivation as a result of the programme.

Executive coaching strengthens feelings of competence, autonomy and relatedness

A lot of published work shows that the coach can improve the client’s feelings of competence, autonomy and relatedness, resulting in improved motivation too, in line with SDT.
 
In a study of mentoring of fourth grade students by college students, Westerman (2002) found that the “clients” felt more competent as a result of the mentoring. Remedios & Boreham (2004) found that empowered employees, who were allowed to work independently to solve problems, for example, experienced more internalised motivation, as a result primarily of enhanced feelings of competence. As executive coaching is primarily empowering, it is a clear route to enhance feelings of competence. One of Create the Future’s clients now feels much more competent to deal with a difficult team member and is much more motivated to “grasp the nettle” following the coaching.
 
La Pelle (1998) found that supervisors using a less directive (coaching) approach had staff with greater feelings of autonomy and consequently more intrinsic motivation. A more direct linkage was established in the field of education by Veenman & Denessen (2001). They found that coaching of novice teachers by giving feedback and facilitating reflection and analysis generated a significant improvement in the development of autonomy. One of Create the Future’s clients was stuck in the mindset of his previous role, which had substantially less autonomy. Our non-directive executive coaching programme resulted in his feeling much more autonomous and being motivated to lead company-wide programmes.        

A recent Create the Future client is a senior manager in a large financial services business. He ran a team that was scattered around the UK and a key goal for the programme was to strengthen the team’s cohesiveness, enhancing feelings of relatedness between the manager and the rest of the team and between individual team members. The programme met this aim with feedback from the team and the manager confirming much greater feelings of motivation as a result.

Hollembeak & Amorose (2005) found that non-directive coaching behaviours increase perceptions of competence, autonomy and relatedness in athletes.

Summary

A range of robust research evidence and Create the Future’s own work confirms th executive coaching enhances not only general motivation, but also the satisfaction of psychological needs - competence, autonomy and relatedness - which in turn improve motivation through increased internalisation. 

References

Day, R. & Allen, T.D. (2004), “The relationship between career motivation and self efficacy with protégé career success”, Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 64 (1), 72 – 91.
 
Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (1985), Intrinsic Motivation and Self Determination in Human Behaviour, New York: Plenum. 

Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (2000), “The “What” and “Why” of Goal Pursuits: Human Needs and the Self – Determination of Behaviour”, Psychological Inquiry, 11, 4, 227-268. 

Gaskill, L.R. & Sibley, L.R. (1990), “Mentoring relationships for women in retailing: prevalence, perceived importance, and characteristics”, Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 9(1), 1-10.

Hollembeak, J. & Amorose, A.J. (2005), “Perceived coaching behaviors and college athletes' intrinsic motivation: a test of self-determination theory” , Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 17(1), 20-36.

La Pelle, N.R. (1998) “Thriving on performance evaluation in organisations”, Dissertation Abstracts, International Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, 58 (11B) 6265.

Locke, E.A. (1968), “Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives”, Organization Behavior and Human Performance, 3, 157-189.

Lorenz, K.Z (1970), translated by Martin, R., Studies in Animal and Human Behaviour, London: Methuen, 1, 316 – 350.

Remedios, R. & Boreham, N. (2004), “Organisational learning and employees’ intrinsic motivation”, Journal of Education and Work, 17 (2), 219 – 235.
 
Skinner, B.F. (1933), “On the rate of extinction of a conditioned reflex”, Journal of General Psychology, 8, 114-29.

Veenman, S. & Denessen, E. (2001), “The coaching of teachers: results of five training studies”, Educational Research and Evaluation, 7(4), 385-417.

Westerman, J.J. (2002), “Mentoring and cross-age mentoring: improving academic achievement through a unique partnership”, Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities and Social Sciences, 63(3-A), 864.

Yoder, L.H. (1995), “Staff nurses' career development relationships and self-reports of professionalism, job satisfaction, and intent to stay”, Nursing-Research, 44(5), 290-297.