What motivates us to work?

"Ignoring the performance of people is almost as bad as shredding their effort in front of their eyes."

Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology & Behavioral Economics, is dedicated to answering questions such as "why do we so often fail to act in our own best interest?",  "why do we promise to skip the chocolate cake, only to find ourselves drooling our way into temptation when the dessert tray rolls around?" or "why do we overvalue things that we’ve worked to put together?".

Aimed at helping people live more sensible – if not rational – lives, his interests span a wide range of behaviors, and his sometimes unusual experiments are consistently interesting, amusing and informative, demonstrating profound ideas that fly in the face of common wisdom.

What motivates us to work? Contrary to conventional wisdom, it is not just MONEY !
But it's not exactly joy either.
Seems that most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose. Simply beeing looked at something that you have done and even only receiving a "uh huh," as feedback, seems to be quite sufficient to dramatically improve people's motivations.
So, the good news is that adding motivation doesn't seem to be so difficult.
The bad news is that eliminating motivations seems to be incredibly easy, and, if one does not think think about it carefully, it might overdo it.

In the knowledge economy, one of the key questions is if efficiency is still more important than meaning?  Dan Dan Ariely thinks the answer is no - he believes is even more a no, as we move to situations in which people have to decide on their own about how much effort, attention, caring, how connected they feel, etc.  When we think about labor, we usually think about motivation and payment as the same thing, but the reality is that we should probably add all kinds of things to it -- meaning, creation, challenges, ownership, identity, pride, etc. As all of those components and thought about them have been put together, how do we create our own meaning, pride, motivation, and how do we do it in our workplace and for the employees, it would make possible to get people to both be more productive and happier.

Learn more at
http://danariely.com/

Cognitive science as toolkit to better understand the nature of the human mind

Cognitive science can be a toolkit to better understand the nature of the human mind, why we do what we do and how we can do it better. The study of the human mind and its functions particularly looks at behaviour in a given context - why people act as they do and how is it possible to predicte behaviors.


It crosses fields such as Psychology (studying human mind and its functions particularly looking at behavior in a given context), Neuroscience (understanding the structure and functioning of the nervous system and human brain), Anthropology  (understanding humankind, human societies and cultures), Philosophy  (understanding the nature of knowledge, reality, human nature and existence), Linguistics (understanding the communication tools that enable speakers to communicate with each other, to express ideas, hypotheses, emotions, desires).

Visit the Cognitive Science Society website, that brings together researchers from around the world who hold a common goal: understanding the nature of the human mind. 
http://cognitivesciencesociety.org/index.html

The power of believing you can improve (By Carol Dweck)

Carol Dweck researches “growth mindset” — the idea that we can grow our brain's capacity to learn and to solve problems.

In this TED talk, she describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve. Are you not smart enough to solve it … or have you just not solved it yet?

A great introduction to this influential field.


https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve

Embodiment; thoughts, feelings and behaviors grounded in the interaction of the body with the environment

Embodied cognition has become a topic of research in social and cognitive psychology having as base arguments for the theory that the motor system influences our cognition just as the mind influences our body actions.

An example is a study that showing that participants holding a pencil in their teeth and thus engaging their muscles in a smile, show to comprehend pleasant sentences faster than unpleasant ones. On the other hand, while holding a pencil between the nose and upper lip and thus engaging muscles in a shows the reverse effect. (Source: te uses deprecated parameters (help)Glenberg, A.; Havas, D.; Becker, R.; & Rinck, M. (2010) - Grounding language in bodily states: the case for emotion. )
 

An exciting hypothesis for this theory that cognition is embodied, when the most common definition refers to the straight-forward claim that the states of the body modify states of the case for emotion. (Source: Borghi, A. M.; Cimatti, F. (2010) - Embodied cognition and beyond: Acting and sensing the body. )

In such case, this theory becomes increasingly interested - embodiment based on the assumption that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are grounded in bodily interaction with the environment. 

Antonio Damasio: The quest to understand consciousness

Antonio Damasio's research in neuroscience has shown that emotions play a central role in social cognition and decision-making. His work has had a major influence on current understanding of the neural systems, which underlie memory, language, consciousness.

“A mind is so closely shaped by the body and destined to serve it that only one mind could possibly arise in it. No body, never mind.” — Antonio Damasio in "The Feeling of What Happens"

Antonio Damasio: The quest to understand consciousness
https://www.ted.com/talks/antonio_damasio_the_quest_to_understand_consciousness

Mindsight, The New Science of Personal Transformation (book by Dr. Daniel Siegel)

Coaching is the partnership between coach and client  aimed at engaging in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires the client to maximise their personal and professional potential.

Put another way, the practice of coaching takes individuals on a process of personal discovery and development to enhance the individual’s capability and effectiveness within the context of their personal lives, professional lives, or both.

The way humans learn and how coaching can further enhance such learning processes can been seen around the bases of neuroscience. Daniel Siegel defines the mind as “the embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information”.  This means the mind uses the brain just as software uses hardware. This image from Siegel refers to the ‘brain’ in terms of the nervous system, nerves, tissuesand physiological components within the human body and to the ‘mind’ in terms of each individual process of cognition, interpretation, and action.

In the book Mindsight, The New Science of Personal Transformation, Dr. Daniel Siegel  describes the triangular relationship and interplay between mind, brain and our relationships in an in-depth exploration of the power of the mind to integrate the brain and promote well-being.

A deeper look available via
www.drdansiegel.com/books/mindsight/

 

Executive Presence... a must have!

Executive (or Leadership) Presence can be defined as an intangible quality that makes one person distinctive or attractive in such a way that make heads turn as they enter a room. Something makes people pay attention to every word and everybody on the audience wants "to be like this". 

So, is this some kind of talent you are born with, or can you develop your own irresistable presence?

Some say it takes only 30 seconds to make a first impression; if so, you better start to learn because it involves appearance, body language, posture, expression, voice, vocabular and whole lot more; good news is that any person can improve and learn how to increase impact and presence.

Appearance is usually the first filter and the way someone dresses plays an important role; this means that dressing properly is a part of your personal brand alongside with having strong communication skills. But is not just that; having leadership presence is about being adaptable and catering to each specific situation one finds itself.

Do not "mime" leaders you admire or fake it; you need to find a way of being authentic without changing who you are. It’s about broadening your repertoire on three main aspects of your executive presence: the assumptions that you bring to every situation, the communication skills that you use and the physical aspects of your presence.

Read more in this article from Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2013/07/01/how-to-develop-your-presence-as-a-leader/