How We Confuse Agency and Motivation at Work

Ette Fidele

Source: Ette Fidele unsplash

When I hung up from the call, I realized that the person I was talking to had confused motivation with agency. I was talking about agency, but her response was, “Oh, yes, motivation.” Why would anyone confuse the two?

About Agency

Agency is about capability and permission. I am capable of conducting a meeting of 20 people and helping them make a decision. Here my agency comes from my skills, experience, and knowledge. While I have the capability to conduct meetings, I may not have the agency to conduct a meeting of 20 people in another organization unless I am given permission because of rank, position, or contractual agreement.

I may drive a car because I have permission to do so through having a driver’s license. I also happily have the skills, experience, and knowledge to do so, but it is the permission that grants me the agency. On the other hand, I am not capable of flying an aircraft as I have no skill, experience piloting, or license to pilot an airplane.

Capabilities can be developed. Permission is given. We may need to prove our capabilities in order to obtain the permission.

About Motivation

Motivation is about willingness. As chairperson of the committee, I may have the agency to conduct a meeting of 20 people, but I may not be motivated to do so. I may be motivated to drive to the store, but my driver’s license has expired and so I lack the permission aspect of agency to do so.

Like capabilities, motivation can be developed. We can take the time to assess the value of an activity against our goals and its consistency with our values. Motivation will be enhanced or diminished as a result of our assessment. Motivation is about the decision to say yes or no — our willingness. Unlike permission, motivation can’t be given. It can be inspired or enticed, but in the end, the choice is up to the individual whether they bring some level of enthusiasm/willingness to the task or not.

Leadership Implications

As a leader, it is important to assess the capabilities of staff. While this seems obvious, it is not always clear. For example, when the task involves using newly acquired capabilities or ones that have never been tested by the individual in their work, capabilities are uneven. To be motivated to stretch themselves, staff need to feel confident in themselves that they can learn sufficiently in time for the task or even within the task itself. Part of this confidence comes from the staff member feeling they have been given permission to make mistakes as they take on the risk. When a staff member feels they can make some mistakes as they learn the new task or use the new capabilities, it enhances their confidence and willingness to take it on. In other words, their motivation may increase as the threat of risk goes down.

Everett Harper[1] talks about this from the perspective of the business owner and leader who can set the tone so that staff members know the breadth of the agency that is permitted to them and the sense of protection for stepping out in response to their motivation. The company beliefs include “All people must have the ability and opportunity to do their best work…We cannot forget that we’re human.”

When working with individuals who lack the motivation to learn a new process, they confuse or hide the lack of motivation with a lack of agency. It’s easier for them to say they lack the skills or permission which tends to be externally driven, when the real lack is from a desire not to step into an uncomfortable place — uncomfortable for any number of reasons[2].

My work in resilience is about making the decision to choose a response to the unexpected that will move me forward. My responses are limited by my agency but energized by my motivation. The resilient leader is about helping staff build this capability and be more resilient. The good news for anyone is that we always have the agency to decide, at the least, how we will feel about the unexpected. Then our objective will be to examine and call upon our motivation to do the unlikely, the difficult, and even the uncomfortable.