The 3Ps that provide the key to long-term motivation

There are two sisters who between them have won more than 122 professional titles during careers that have spanned 30 and 27 years respectively. One of the sisters has lifted a trophy 73 times, the other 98 times. Who are they? Venus and Serena Williams, with the sport in question being, of course, tennis.

I have always been fascinated by how they managed to sustain their motivation across such lengthy careers, especially in what can often be a brutal sport.

Through the success they have achieved, what is it that has kept them putting in the hours when others fell by the wayside?

And what about when things go wrong? Alongside their successes, both sisters have experienced defeat more times than they care to remember. This is the case for every elite athlete, no matter how successful they are. As is injury and enforced periods out of the game.

What keeps them going through losses, disappointments and challenging times? And what lessons can those in leadership and business learn from this?

Why it’s all about the three Ps

Former tennis player and now TV pundit Martina Navratilova once said: “The moment of victory is too short to live for that and nothing else.”

I love this quote as it shines a light on one of the three Ps that drive long-term, sustained motivation; the type of motivation that can help us and our teams continue to work hard and strive through hardship, challenges, setbacks and even through success.

While having a specific and compelling goal or outcome in mind can motivate people to work hard and perform, this only works up to a point. What happens when you achieve that goal or suffer a setback which then makes that goal unattainable? How then can you maintain and sustain your motivation?

Both elite sport, and research and insight from the world of work more generally, demonstrate clearly that while there is some merit in a focus on shorter-term, concrete and tangible goals, something more is needed to drive long-term performance.

1. Process

Imagine you have a bin in your office that is five metres away from your chair. Your goal could be to throw your apple core into the bin. But imagine if your goal is to master the technique of throwing your apple core into the bin? To come up with the best method to land the apple core in the bin.

Which of these is going to drive the more sustained effort? Not the former – once you’ve got the apple core in the bin, why continue? However, the latter will have you carrying out multiple attempts – at least until someone comes into your office and asks you why you’re not working instead.

The latter is of course a focus on process, the former a focus on outcome. We have huge amounts of evidence, both from sport and from business, to support the fact that a focus on process and the aim for “mastery” that goes with it is much more likely to lead to sustained motivation.

This is summed up brilliantly by the swimmer and cyclist Dame Sarah Storey, who will be competing in her ninth Paralympic Games this summer. Storey consistently talks about her focus on a process-driven approach: finding the peak of her physical capabilities, which allows her to keep adding different stimuli and trying different approaches alongside her tried-and-tested methods.

As the saying goes, focus on the process and the outcome will take care of itself.

2. Purpose

The Williams sisters haven’t just wanted to win a few tournaments and be world number ones. They are driven by a much bigger purpose: showing that women can be resilient, strong and beautiful at the same time. They also want to be role models for young black athletes in their sport. As Serena has often said, she is a black woman in a sport that wasn’t really made for black people.

Developing and articulating your higher purpose is key to sustaining motivation. Driving towards something that’s too goal-focused and short-term will likely mean that you come up for air and wonder what it was all for.

While these can act as the scaffold, supporting and motivating you on the journey, you are much more likely to thrive and achieve in the long term if you are working towards a higher purpose.

I was once privileged to be in a room of successful CEOs, all of whom had been in the world of work for a very long time. They had all achieved so many of their goals already. So, what was it that helped them maintain their motivation – and reignite their enthusiasm – for the next period of their working lives? All agreed: identifying and working hard towards a higher purpose. What’s yours?

3. Perspective

Many believe that to succeed in elite sport, you must be totally focused and single-minded, with a commitment to your sport that transcends everything else. Yet the vast amount of anecdotal evidence would suggest this is not the case – and research is emerging that supports this. As in sport, so in the world of work.

Work and leadership can be relentless and all-consuming. There’s always something else to do, some other task to fill your time. But if you let it take over, to the exclusion of everything else, you are unlikely to be able to maintain your motivation.

That means you need to keep an eye on other areas of your life. One senior recruitment consultant said that he measured CEOs and their ability to keep perspective by hearing accounts of how they spend their weekends. So, how do you spend yours?

Catherine Baker is the founder and director at Sport and Beyond, and the author of Staying the Distance: The Lessons from Sport that Business Leaders Have Been Missing