Page 186 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

WHAT CHALLENGES INTEREST ME? (PERSONALIZED CONTRIBUTIONS)

find what they love and manage the anxiety associated with
growth and potential failure.
Work that is intrinsically motivating will generally be rel-
atively easy, energizing, and enjoyable for that individual.

Easy

Easy does not mean without effort, but rather consistent
with the employee’s abilities and interests. As we mentioned
earlier, Dave learned early on that his desires to be a pro-
fessional basketball player were not matched by his abilities.
No matter how hard he worked out, practiced shooting, or
did basketball drills, he did not have the natural ability to
become a professional basketball player. For him to play pro
ball would be like running up a sand dune: the effort to get
to the top of the hill would simply be too great. Leaders who
have honest dialogues with employees about what work falls
within the employee’s zone of opportunity help the employee
avoid sand dunes.
On the other hand, Dave had some natural talent as a
teacher, and teaching came more easily to him than to
others. Still, he spent (and still spends) hours observing,
thinking about, and experimenting with how to better pre-
sent materials when he teaches. Dave may be a “natural” at
teaching, but this natural ability is supported by enormous
effort. He still has to expend great effort to get to the top of
his teaching game, but this is a mountain he can reasonably
expect to climb.

Energizing

Intrinsically motivating work will generally be energiz-
ing. What energizes one employee may vary (insight versus

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