How To Motivate People Using Attribution Theory

Join the Wily Managers guys this week, when they talk about how to use Attribution Theory to help improve the performance of your people.

Monday’s Tip: Be Aware of Attributions.  Listen carefully to your people for cues as to how they may explain things – both good and bad.

Tuesday’s Tip: Focus on Internal Attributions.  People need to feel they have influence or control over their performance.  Leaders can encourage this through positive reinforcement, and by addressing External Attributions like “victim mentality”.

Wednesday’s Tip: Sequence tasks to create confidence.  Success breeds more success, and if people can feel successful at increasingly difficult tasks, they are more likely to feel they can control the outcome – an attribution you want to encourage.

Thursday’s Tip: Allow some External Attributions.  If someone has been working very hard at something, but has not yet been successful, it can be helpful to allow them to attribute this to external factors – just don’t let them completely avoid responsibility for too long.

Friday’s Tip: Use Positive Reinforcement as often as possible.  The best way to influence improved performance, is to look for opportunities to positively reinforce people’s efforts.