Personal Goals and Organizational Goals

I studied high performing leaders who worked for corporations that espoused a higher purpose vision. I found that leaders were able to articulate their purpose or meaning and they were able to express alignment of their purpose or personal goals with that of the organization. One of the key discoveries was that personal purpose and goals do appear to play a role in a symbiotic relationship with a company vision and one's articulation of how they are motivated and engaged - but in different ways depending on whether a person is primarily socio-emotional driven or task driven. It was observed that some of these executives had a deep and far reaching sense of purpose which seemed tied to driving the intent of the organization's higher purpose vision. When alignment was felt through the sense of the greater purpose, there was a symbiotic nature to this alignment; a deep, almost spiritual, commitment to deploying all aspects of their life, e.g., work and home, to making the world a better place and helping the organization be a contributing part of their personal purpose. Others had a task oriented way of describing their purpose which appeared more instrumental in helping move the organization toward its overall purpose through the achievement of goals and objectives. When alignment was felt through the organization's support of one's personal goals, there was a great sense of commitment, but a clear delineation between work and life ambitions.

This difference was found to influence how high-performing leaders were motivated to act and engage. Task-driven individuals were found to be more self-referent; motivated by the actual accomplishment of goals/milestones; more likely to make decisions based on being able to see the completion of the task in the near future; and clear that life and work were separate. Individuals who were socio-emotional in nature were found to be more other-oriented; more likely to focus on the greater purpose of an activity; more likely to make decisions with a long term, big picture in mind; and more likely to see their work as an integral vs. separate part of their life.

It is important to note that both groups spoke of the importance of connecting with others and relationships with people. Half of the task positive group made references to team identity whereas no one in the socio-emotional group spoke about the personal connections to a team. There is an opportunity to explore this deeper in future research.

Reference Context

The senior leaders interviewed gravitated toward either a self-referent or other-referent perspective which aligned with having task positive tendencies or socio-emotional tendencies, respectively. This primary reference appeared to impact their decisions around whether to act on and stay engaged in an activity. The tendency to gravitate toward a self-referent or an other-referent position may indicate that there are two different categorical perspectives of, or possibly a continuum from, a task to socio-emotional orientation that correlates to an individual's reference. Individuals that are more self-referent appear to frame their decisions and determine their desire to act and engage based on how it impacts, affects or connects to them, personally. Other-referent individuals appear to be more motivated to act or commit if the decision or objective is framed in relation to its impact on others.

Self-determination theory distinguishes autonomous and controlled motivation, both of which include extrinsic motivation. Autonomous motivation combines extrinsic and intrinsic factors that impact the identification of the activities value whereas controlled motivation is driven by extrinsic rewards or punishment; in both cases, they are in relation to one's sense of self. Deci and Ryan propose that self-determination is a basic need. This need is interpreted as a universal motivator such that by encouraging rewards and independent action, leaders can transfer control to followers and increase their self-determination and feelings of efficacy. My research opens the possibility that while increasing one's self determination through value and rewards that are meaningful to the individual may be very motivating for some, not all high performing senior leaders are motivated by self-rewards and self-value. The same company vision may be internalized differently based on one's primary reference. Self-determination theory is supported by the task positive group who appear to connect with personal value and rewards. Yet some people, as indicated by the socio-emotional group, may actually be more motivated if the message is put into the perspective of the greater good, or how they could inspire others, taking it out of a reward and self-value perspective.

Primary Motivational Driver

Individuals that are inclined to be more task oriented appear to be more motivated by the actual goal or milestone, whereas socio-emotional individuals appear to focus on the purpose of the activity and the tasks or goals are only a means to a bigger objective. The task positive leaders appeared to analyze the measurable result or impact of the accomplishment of the goal to make their decisions regarding whether or not to proceed. The socio-emotional group seemed to focus on the impact it had on the more holistic, far reaching purpose.

In the task-positive network vs. the default mode network theory, Boyatzis et al., discovered a pull different than the traditional intrinsic and extrinsic tension. Their research points to an empathetic vs. analytical tension, indicating people are driven by emotional or cognitive reasoning. My second finding of a noticeable segregation of motivation between being task driven and socio-emotionally driven may support this theory; possibly adding an additional dimension. Some leaders appear to analytically evaluate the objective to determine their ability to accomplish the task at hand, whereas others emotionally evaluate their ability to inspire others to achieve a greater good. Individuals who are driven by the task appear to review the goal analytically, to determine the degree to which tangible acknowledgement of their accomplishments will come through via a sense of productivity or validation. Socio-emotional individuals appear to be passionate about the overarching purpose and motivated by something bigger than themselves, often other focused, which may not provide tangible or immediate results. For them, it is personal and they are motivated and engaged when they are able to inspire others to help make a difference in the overarching objective. It may be that this desire to help or inspire others to join a cause is motivated by empathy, in which case this task driver vs. purpose driver tendency supports the framework of the empathetic and analytical tensions. If the motivation is determined to be because of an alignment to a greater purpose - a goal with a longer perspective with measurements for success, albeit less obvious - this group may be processing their decisions through both an analytical and empathetic lens, possibly extending the framework of the empathetic and analytical tension theory. This data supports the need to have additional dimensions beyond the intrinsic and extrinsic tension such as the tensions proposed by Boyatzis et al., but more research would be require to understand if it also extends the framework.

Temporal Perspective

There appears to be a noticeable difference in the temporal perspective of the decisions being made by people who are task positive vs. socio-emotional. Decisions appear to be made based on either the immediate task (transaction) or because the decision is foundational to transforming or achieving a greater, longer term objective. This theme seems to impact why one makes the decisions he or she makes based on the locus of time used in reference to the goal or objective, e.g., one-off, task specific or a greater, longer term purpose orientation. This speaks to the time element that impacts the thought process behind the creation of goals referenced previously. From the work on self-efficacy done by Bandura, people are motivated by the level of personal satisfaction they have around their ability to perform. This intrinsic motivation is sustained through the achievement of sub goals that connect to larger future goals. Bandura is also referencing the temporal element and how it impacts the desire to accomplish tasks or sub goals in order to achieve the bigger objective.

The transactional vs. transformational leadership model has been used by practitioners to understand how to move their employees beyond a state of self-interest to a shared vision by providing meaning and purpose to their work. The underpinning is that a transformational leadership style uses inspiration through the connection to a higher purpose to motivate and engage followers to achieve a desired performance. The interpretation of my research indicates that this transformational leadership style may not always be better. The style of leadership best deployed may depend on where the individual falls on the continuum between being transactional or transformational. This supports the assertions summarized by Kowal Smith of Bass, Walden et al., and Lowe et al. that the best leaders use both styles. Our possible contribution to this body of work is that a person who appears to be more transactional would prefer the aspirational vision to be translated into milestones, tasks or goals that, upon completion, would move the individual toward the desired end state. A transactional perspective's preference would be to clearly see the end goal on the horizon. A more transformational person would flourish under an inspirational approach of aligning around a meaningful purpose, and being given flexibility to work around, through or even without specific goals.

Life Work Integration vs. Separation

Task-positive and socio-emotional people seem to look at the integration or separation of work and life differently which appears to be connected to how they process decisions to act or engage. This finding seems to speak to the role their personal purpose or personal goals plays in creating alignment with that of the organization and how integrated their work is with the other aspects of their life. Dik and Duffy established the construct calling as including an external summons to a higher purpose and an alignment to a personal purpose that is other focused, or an advancement of a greater good. "A calling is a transcendent summons, experienced as originating beyond the self, to approach a particular life role in a manner oriented toward demonstrating or deriving a sense of purpose or meaningfulness and that holds other-oriented values and goals as primary sources of motivation". One implication of their view is that individuals connect their work activity to their overall sense of purpose and meaning, or pursue careers that allow their work to be their calling. In either case, this implies an integration of work and life as one's vocation becomes a tool to accomplish their aspirational purpose. This desire to achieve a personal purpose creates motivation that extends beyond the office.

My research indicates that alignment to visions may exist in two very different ways, either as an alignment to a vision, or purpose, or support of personal goals. It may not be necessary to inspire people to see the greater good, or to stretch beyond themselves to be motivated, engaged and aligned with a higher purpose vision. Some people can have a personal purpose that is best described in a goal oriented fashion that is very instrumental in helping a company achieve its higher purpose vision, with a comfortable separation between work and life. At the end of the day, they will help the organization achieve its goal because they feel aligned to the company's vision even though they have a deep desire to keep their personal ambitions and the goals of the company separate.