High Output Management – Motivation & Performance
Two inner forces can drive a person to use all of his/her capabilities. He/she can be:
- A. Competence-driven, or;
- B. Achievement-driven.
The former concerns itself with job or task mastery. A virtuoso […] who continues to practice day after day is obviously moved by something other than a need for esteem and recognition. He works to sharpen his own skill, trying to do a little bit better this time than the time before… He is relentless, driven by the self-actualization need, a need to get better that has no limit.
The achievement-driven path to self-actualization is not quite like this… Some people —not the majority—are moved by an abstract need to achieve in all that they do. These people work at the boundary of their capability... [they] test the limits of what they can do. [Achievers] simply must test themselves. By challenging themselves, these people are likely to miss a peg several times, but when they begin to ring the peg consistently, they gain satisfaction and a sense of achievement.
The point is that both competence and achievement-oriented people spontaneously try to test the outer limits of their abilities.
— Andrew S. Grove, Former CEO, Intel Corp.
Grove, A. S. High Output Management. Los Angeles, USA: Vintage Books, 1997.
Do you think the “competence-driven” individual is so based on the desire to be better, to be the best due to insecurity, merely takes a significant amount of pride in his/her accomplishments or all of the above?
My desire to achieve is based on childhood experiences, coming to the realization that I am not only directly responsible for my successes and failures, but that I am capable if I am willing.
Had I not grown up in such an impoverished environment, I wonder if I would be as driven as I am? Certainly childhood experiences impact our perceptions and even ideals as an adult. However, I wonder if it goes beyond that, deeper, more ingrained so to speak?
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of coordinating the efforts of people to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources.