Stop Playing to Strengths: Play to Preferences!

Management strategies have focused on “playing to strengths” to drive employee engagement and performance for decades. However, this approach has significant limitations in the current remote and hybrid work era. While identifying strengths can be helpful, the real drivers of success – motivations and preferences – run much deeper and are far more adaptable to changing environments.

Unlike strengths or personality traits, which are generally stable and resistant to change, motivations and preferences are dynamic and can shift in response to work circumstances and personal experiences. These factors shape day-to-day behaviour and ensure employees stay engaged and productive, especially when working remotely or in hybrid settings. This article explores why focusing on motivations and preferences is more effective than relying solely on personality traits or strengths, citing relevant research such as Dan Pink’s work in Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

The Layers of Workplace Behaviour: From Preferences to Personality

Behaviour, results, and outcomes are the most visible elements in any workplace. However, these are just surface-level expressions of deeper drivers. The following hierarchy, much like an iceberg, helps us understand how various internal factors shape behaviour:

1. Behaviour: The visible actions and decisions of employees.
2. Motivations and Preferences: The more fluid factors dictate how employees engage with tasks, collaborate with others, and respond to challenges.
3. Beliefs and Values: The ideals that guide an individual’s long-term decision-making.
4. Personality: Stable traits, such as introversion or agreeableness, that shape broad patterns of behaviour but are challenging to change.
5. Identity: The core sense of self, formed by life experiences, cultural background, and personal identity.

By focusing on the middle layers – motivations and preferences – leaders can address the drivers of behaviour that are adaptable and responsive to changes in the work environment, particularly in remote or hybrid settings.

Why Personality Assessments Aren’t Enough in Remote and Hybrid Work

Personality assessments, such as the Big Five, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and Thomas DiSC, provide valuable insights into an individual’s core traits. These tools categorise traits like introversion, conscientiousness, or dominance and are prevalent in recruitment and team-building.

However, while these assessments offer valuable baseline information, they must capture the dynamic nature of motivations and preferences. Personality traits remain relatively stable throughout adulthood. For instance, a naturally introverted employee is unlikely to become highly extroverted over time, even with coaching or changes in their work environment.

Remote and hybrid work demands a more flexible and nuanced approach. Personality tools like the DiSC profile provide a high-level understanding of an individual’s approach to tasks and communication. Still, they don’t address how interaction, autonomy, or collaboration preferences may change based on context.

As work environments shift, so do preferences and motivations. Understanding and responding to these shifts is vital to employee engagement in a remote setting.

The Importance of Motivations and Preferences in the Workplace

While personality assessments remain useful for long-term understanding of behavioural tendencies, motivations and preferences are more immediate and adaptable factors that influence behaviour in the workplace. These factors directly affect how employees interact with their work, communicate, and prefer to make decisions.

Motivations

Motivations, particularly intrinsic and extrinsic, drive employees to act. Intrinsic motivations—such as the desire for autonomy, mastery, or purpose – are internal drivers that keep employees engaged without external rewards. Extrinsic motivations, such as promotions, recognition, or salary increases, provide the external push to keep employees productive.

Dan Pink’s work in Drive explains that autonomy, mastery, and purpose are the primary intrinsic drivers for employees in today’s knowledge economy. These drivers become even more important in remote and hybrid work environments, where employees often have more control over how and when they complete tasks.

• Autonomy: The ability to make decisions about how work is done. In a remote environment, autonomy is often critical to maintaining motivation.
• Mastery: The desire to improve and develop skills. Remote employees may seek out opportunities for personal growth that align with their current preferences.
• Purpose: The need to feel that one’s work has meaning and contributes to a larger goal. Remote workers often benefit from knowing how their tasks connect to the company’s overall mission.

Preferences

Preferences dictate how an employee prefers to interact with colleagues, structure their workday, and communicate. These can include preferences for:

• Communication styles: Some employees prefer real-time communication (video meetings, phone calls), while others thrive on asynchronous communication (emails, messaging apps).
• Work structure: Some prefer flexible, self-directed tasks, while others need clear guidelines and regular check-ins from managers.
• Decision-making: Employees may prefer independent decision-making or feel more comfortable making decisions through collaboration.

Unlike personality traits, these preferences can be influenced by context and change based on workload, team dynamics, and even personal circumstances. Understanding preferences allows managers to create a more engaging and productive environment, even when team members are working remotely.

Dan Pink’s Insights: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose in Action

Dan Pink’s work on motivation provides critical insights into why focusing on motivations and preferences is more effective than relying on personality traits. Pink argues that the traditional carrot-and-stick approach, based on external rewards and punishments, is no longer enough to keep employees engaged—particularly in roles that require creativity and problem-solving.

Pink’s model of autonomy, mastery, and purpose aligns perfectly with the concept of playing to motivations and preferences:

1. Autonomy: Employees with autonomy over how and when they work are more likely to stay motivated in remote or hybrid settings. This is especially important for those who prefer flexibility in structuring their workday.
2. Mastery: Understanding what drives an employee’s desire to improve—whether through formal training, personal development, or new challenges—helps managers align work with an employee’s current motivations.
3. Purpose: Connecting tasks to a larger mission gives employees a sense of belonging and meaning, which is critical for engagement, especially when working remotely.

Why “Playing to Strengths” Isn’t Enough

“Playing to strengths” is not without merit – it encourages employees to leverage their talents and abilities. However, this approach often overlooks the dynamic nature of motivations and preferences.

For example:

• An employee who is skilled in problem-solving (a strength) may prefer autonomy when working remotely. However, if placed in a role that requires constant collaboration and check-ins, their productivity and motivation may suffer despite their strengths.
• Similarly, an employee who excels at communication (a strength) might feel disengaged in a remote setting if forced into tasks that don’t allow for meaningful interaction.

This is why playing to preferences is often more effective than playing to strengths. Preferences are dynamic, and when managers understand and accommodate these preferences, employees can better apply their strengths to keep them motivated and engaged.

Applying Motivations and Preferences in Hybrid and Remote Work

Understanding motivations and preferences is critical to maintaining engagement and productivity in remote and hybrid work environments. A study by Gallup found that employees whose preferences are respected and understood are 17% more productive than those whose preferences are ignored.

Leaders can foster engagement by:

• Providing flexibility: Offering employees autonomy in how they complete their work.
• Tailoring communication: Adapting communication styles to fit individual preferences.
• Supporting mastery: Providing opportunities for skill development based on an employee’s motivational drivers.

Conclusion: Focus on What Drives Employees, Not Just Who They Are

To engage employees in the evolving world of work, leaders must look beyond personality traits and strengths. By focusing on motivations and preferences, managers can create work environments that are adaptive, engaging, and aligned with what truly drives behaviour.

Tools like Sariio MAPS can help provide insights into employees’ motivations and preferences, offering practical solutions for aligning work environments with what drives engagement and productivity.

Sources

1. Gallup. “State of the Global Workplace: 2021 Report“. Gallup, 2021.
2. Pink, Daniel H. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Books, 2009.
3. McKinsey & Company. “The Hybrid Workplace: Making It Work“. McKinsey & Company, July 2020.
4. “Why Autonomy in the Workplace Leads to Higher Engagement.” Harvard Business Review, 2019.
5. DiSC. “What is DiSC?“. DiscProfile, 2022.