If your goal is to influence others, the best possible strategy is to understand and then tailor your message to the motivational priorities of your audience.  This is true whether you are trying to close a deal with one person or to increase performance and productivity across an organization.

For example, to increase performance a company might set up competition between its sales men and women and attempt to tap into these individual’s need for achievement.  Or an executive might emphasize internal cooperation to tap into employees’ need for affiliation or positive reciprocal relationships.

In each case, it is advantageous to know the motivation of the audience.  Individuals who prioritize achievement will respond to competition while individuals who prioritize affiliation will not.

Two factors complicate the formula of matching a message to an audience’s motivational priorities.  The first is that motivational priorities are almost always multi-determined.  This means that it is rare for a single motivational factor to be at work.  Usually there is a blend of motivational factors and the more that you can address in your message, the greater your influence.  For example, in addition to frank competition, a sales director might include bonuses for peer-to-peer cooperation to tap into his sales staff’s need for both competition and cooperation.  He or she might also announce enhanced sales training to emphasize tuning into customer’s motivational priorities (for achievement, power, affiliation, consistency, reciprocity, etc.)–giving the staff better tools to achieve.

The second complicating factor is that motivational priorities will typically change over time.  What motivates a 24 year-old may not be motivating when the same individual is 34 or 54. The change in motivational priorities must also be accounted for to maximize influence.

We offer a broad range of assessment tools to help identify motivational priorities among employees and throughout an organization.  We help you identify, tailor, and present a motivational scheme that makes sense for your organization and employees.

We help accomplish the goal of increased influence in a conscious and thoughtful way.  Please contact us for more information.