- One idea that is considered far too rarely in thinking about motivation is the role that goals play in motivation at work. So in this video, we'll Look at Edwin Locke's goal setting theory.

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Our intention to achieve a goal is an important component of workplace motivation. People strive to achieve the goals that they set themselves, and this was the idea that Edwin Locke had in the 1960s.

His basic idea was a chain of motivation that started with our personal values, and then led to our emotions and our desires. That led to a setting goals, things that we wanted to achieve, intentions, if you like.

These goals then lead us, or motivate us to take action. And it's those actions that manifest in our workplace performance. That has consequences, and it leads to feedback. And the feedback loop then leads to further enhanced or diminished motivation.

There's been a lot of research into goal setting, but one thing seems to come out, which is that goal setting does actually work. However, in a famous set of experiments by Albert Bandura and Daniel Cervone, they found that goal setting works, but it works even better if it is supported by constant accurate feedback about our performance.

So if goal setting does work, what are the features of effective goal setting? As far as motivation is concerned, for motivating goals the first feature that's really important is that they are specific general goals, like to do your best or to improve your performance, tend not to produce high levels of motivation because our brain, it's not really sure what it is we're aiming at. And so the motivation diminishes if we don't get absolutely clear evidence that we're doing really well. But since the goal is fluffy and fuzzy, we're almost certainly not going to get that evidence.

And the second thing is the goals need not only to be specific, but also challenging, stretching us to the limits of our capabilities, or close to them, not so far beyond that we end up anxious but not so close that there's nothing really to motivate us, because lots of other motivational theorists, from David McClelland to Ryan [INAUDIBLE] to Daniel Pink have shown us that actually achieving something worthwhile is highly motivating.

The third important characteristic of effective motivational goals is that they must be supported by a commitment from the owner to achieve them. It's no good being given goals and not committing to them. If you're setting goals, look the person in the eye and ask them, are they committed to achieving them? And if you get an answer that is anything other than an unambiguous yes, then there's a real chance that those goals won't be motivating.

The best way to achieve commitment is to seek participation from the owner of the goal in goal setting. And of course, the ideal is that we set our own goals. But of course, there is a spectrum from autonomous self generated goals from a member of staff all the way to managed imposed goals, which are not going to be successful unless supported by effective extrinsic motivation or rewards, or indeed punishments.

So if you can get someone to participate in setting their own goals and making sure that they are stretching but realistic, you'll give yourself a good chance of setting motivating goals, too. There are three other things to consider. It tends to be the case that goals are more motivating when we make them public, and there are a number of apps now which help us to achieve our goals, particularly habit change goals, like exercise or diet related goals, that work by making your goals public.

The more you commit to your goals in public and share them with people around you, the more motivating they are, because of course loss of face and being seen to break your commitment are important demotivating factors, and therefore, we're motivated to avoid them.

Next, it is important in setting effective goals that the owner of the goal has a high measure of control over the outcome. If you set yourself a goal or you are set a goal where you don't feel in control of the outcome, and Victor Vroom showed this with his expectancy theory. Then you can hardly be motivated. There's nothing that you can do or little that you can do to influence the outcome, and therefore why should you put in the effort?

And the final factor is timely and accurate feedback. The results of the experiment that Bandura and Shiavone conducted. If you get good quality feedback, if you can generate your own feedback rather than have it handed to you by your manager, then you will find that more motivating and the goal more effective.

Before we wrap up on Locke's goal setting theory, it's important to note the part that culture plays. Locke's theory seems to work very well in North American, Northern European, Anglophone cultures where achievement is considered to be valuable, and high performance at work is highly valued and the rewards that come from it are highly valued. And to a large extent, where workplace and social cultures create a measure of distance between managers and their staff, in the sense that staff have high levels of autonomy.

It seems that goal setting as a motivator works less well in cultures where these things aren't true, where workers feel very much dependent on their managers and supervisors for direction, and where personal achievement, high levels of performance are not valued so highly in society.

So in places like South America, Latin European countries, middle eastern countries, you may find that goal setting is less of a motivator than it is in north American, northern European Anglophone countries so to end this short video on Locke's goal setting theory of motivation I'd like to give you a quote from Edwin Locke himself which sums up the way that he sees this theory Locke said that goal setting is more appropriately viewed as a motivational technique rather than as a formal theory of motivation.

So it's a technique. It cannot hurt to apply it, set people goals, conform those goals to the six criteria I've given you, and it will add to the level of motivation in many cases. But one thing is sure. If you do set realistic goals and give people control over the outcomes, it is likely that it will never inhibit motivation. So goal setting is a powerful tool in your motivational toolkit.

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