Leadership and strategy both hinge on accurate understanding, shaping and leveraging human motivations. What people say they want and what they actually do are often very different. Leaders must understand and manage this as enablers of progress and performance. But the first step is to start with the leader themself.

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What motivates people can be very difficult to determine. But it’s especially important for leaders to understand.

Some people are transparent, communicating their emotions and desires for all the see. Others are opaque, concealing their motivations or even deceiving others to their true intent.

And then there’s everything in between.

Some desires may be clearly communicated and outward behaviours directed toward them. But it’s not as easy to explain what lies behind other actions. Especially if they’re counter to the expectations someone has set by things they’ve said.

For example, I say I like lemon gelato. It’s a clean, fresh flavour. But whenever I get to the counter I almost always choose the caramel yoghurt ice cream instead. (Try it, you won’t regret it).

Or, something else I’m usually thinking when buying gelato: I want to get/be fit and I don’t want to feel sick after a rich ice cream. But I buy it anyway. (Ok, sometimes I do regret it).

“Every human being is a puzzle of need. You must become the missing piece and they will tell you anything.”

Charlotte Rampling as Matron, Red Sparrow

Since Adam Smith, economists create models of the world with a rational actor at the core. Rational choice theory assumes that people are rational and will make decisions that have the best cost-benefit and are in their self interest.

But, just as people do things they say they don’t want, they also do things these general models don’t expect, too.

Payoffs and benefits

At CSIRO’s Data61 we often worked with governments to model different futures. Our behavioural economists would research to understand what was possible, probable and desirable. They would explore different scenarios and try to provide insights into motivations.

There’s something in behavioural economics I find fascinating. There is often a big difference between declared preferences and revealed preferences.

(what people say they want) vs (what people actually want, based on behaviours)

And what makes it harder to explain is the payoffs or benefits from what people say they want are usually different from what they end up doing.

Understanding motivations and decision processes is essential for leadership and strategy. In general, it’s key to:

• Design – government policy, product, services, places, spaces, buildings, interfaces, experiences, processes and systems
• Communication – marketing and narratives, communicating benefits, which words to use (or avoid)
• Negotiation – which choices are presented, how they are presented, how payoffs are calculated, how options are evaluated
• Time – how quickly decisions must be made, when to force quick decisions or let things take time
• Action – where and when to offer choices, whether to intervene or not

Designers have always grappled with this, particularly in urban design. Despite literally best-laid-plans based on ethnographic studies, people still show preferences for using spaces in ways different to the design. For example, design paths are short cuts through an environment that people take, revealing true preferences.

Understanding motivations and decision processes

The discrepancy between declared and revealed preferences, like my gelato choices, shows that people don’t always conform to models or the rational actor theory. Well, at least not exactly as that theory expects, anyway.

Why? There are a few reasons, and several have been explored by behavioural economist, Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast, and Slow.

1. People are not simply rational actors. They are instead irrationally rational. Where decisions are made that seem inconsistent with what’s on the surface or different to expectations, it’s because there is another hidden motivation that’s part of the cost-benefit analysis going on inside their heads. People often make decisions that look irrational but are actually rational if you could see the calculus.
2. People are unaware of all of their actual motivations. Many decisions are made on an autonomous or subconscious level.
3. People are not objective (but they think they are). Decisions are subjectively made with the use of heuristics and via lenses and cognitive biases. But, they may not be aware of this, either.
4. Emotion is a key part of decision making processes. But it’s difficult for most people to separate and allow for. I think people are emotionally logical. Or maybe it’s logically emotional…

While each of the four are important, I think the last one – emotion – plays a much larger part than people realise.

Decisions are made through the lens of emotions, not just the logic of thinking patterns that are both intrinsic (nature) and developed through experience (nurture).

In other words, emotion is a powerful motivator. But which one/s? That’s a challenge in leadership and strategy.

The leader must understand their own motivations and decision processes

We all think we’re rational. Even when our emotions are on the surface for all to see, we often think the emotion is justified. And so: rational.

But we’re not. We’re all irrationally rational and emotionally logical.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Pogo

We’re all different in our own way. Every person is their own puzzle of need. All of us, whether leader or follower.

For leaders, however, the implications are far greater. The leader’s job is to help enable others to progress toward a shared and motivating purpose. Understanding the motivations and decision processes of team members and externals is a requirement of leaders.

And because the role of leader requires influence of others, it’s impossible to separate the leader’s own motivations and decision processes.

Knowing others is useful, but self-knowledge is power.

How to Be.

Self knowledge is power

Leaders must first work on self leadership. It is a fundamental responsibility owed by the leader to those being led.

The leader’s emotions, biases and worldview heavily influence perceptions and decisions. The same as for anyone. But we find it easier to interrogate motivations and be critical of others than we do of ourselves. It’s a matter of perspective. We’re too close to ourselves to see things clearly. And, sometimes it hurts us to recognise we have flaws that we don’t like to see in others.

Understanding one’s own motivations and behaviours can take a lifetime, but self knowledge is a key to effective leadership. It’s also essential to improving outcomes you enjoy in life, in general.

How to understand your own motivations and decision processes

1. Be responsible. Don’t immediately blame others. Recognise that as leader you are responsible for making the changes needed to help the team progress.
2. Look to yourself, first. When things don’t go as you expect, first try to understand your role in the process that led to the outcomes you’re seeing. Ask what you could have done differently.
3. Check your emotions. Pause before “emoting” to others. The leader has a role to provide stability for the team so they can focus and perform. Emotions are contagious. Work to understand your emotions and pause before sharing them with your team. Recognise your emotional state before making a decision and the lens you’re looking through.
4. Review messages and outcomes. Explore what you say you want, then compare with what you actually do. Find the differences and ask why there’s a difference. What are your true underlying emotions and motivations? What do you really care about? (This one can be tricky – we might lie to ourselves to protect our self image, so…)
5. Find a mentor or coach. This is someone you can trust to explore how you’re thinking, the actions you’re taking and the outcomes you’re enjoying.
6. Check your perspective. When making decisions, ask the question: what lenses are we looking at this through? How do the lenses change what we see and think? Is the decision consistent with what we truly want? The value is in diversity of perspectives, so borrow someone else’s.

And be kind to yourself. Show yourself patience and compassion, and do the same for others.