Several years ago I had an interesting conversation with one of the Special Education teachers at my school concerning two of my band members.
“Do they even play a note?” she asked.
“Yes,” I answered. “Not only do they play all of their music in concert band, they also play their music and march a challenging show in marching band. On the field they play and march just as well as their peers.”
She wasn’t prepared for my answer. In fact, it quickly became apparent that she almost didn’t believe me.
“I don’t know how that could be true,” she replied. “Their I.Q. test scores have dropped each time we test them. When we test them they just sit there and say ‘I don’t get this.’ I have to bribe them with candy just to get them to take the test.”
After that meeting I couldn’t stop wondering why those students, who were a valuable part of our band program, struggled so much in the resource room. Over time I developed some theories. Perhaps musical intelligence was a strong point for them. Maybe they performed better because they felt more comfortable in a group environment as opposed to the pressure of sitting by themselves taking a test. The vain part of me even surmised that I was just a better teacher! But today, after many years of speculation, I got the answer.
In his book How Will You Measure Your Life, Clayton Christensen wrote about what motivates people in the workplace. When he said that incentives are not the same thing as motivation, my mind immediately jumped back to that conversation. What incentive did that resource teacher use? She bribed them with candy!
Christensen went on to say this: “True motivation is getting people to do something because they want to do it.”
It has been staring me in the face for years, but it took reading this book to see the light. Those students didn’t need candy. They needed to feel like they belonged to something, and we provided that for them. They loved band. They loved the feeling of normalcy as they engaged with their peers. They loved the emotions that stemmed from successful performances. Motivated by those factors, they would do just about anything to succeed.
Those students demonstrated the dramatic difference between incentive and motivation. No incentive could convince them to give their best performance taking an intelligence measurement test because that activity didn’t appeal to them. Conversely, no incentive was needed to get them performing on level with their peers in band because they wanted to do it.
The leadership lesson here is obvious. If you want to get the most out of those you lead, they must want the same thing you do. It doesn’t matter how motivated you are, it matters how motivated they are. Invite them to share your vision, and help them realize the intrinsic rewards that await.
