The motivational predispositions we possess inform the way we experience the world – and they are with us through good times and bad. Developing a deeper awareness of our motivational drivers can help us with the essential and difficult work of self-regulation: making conscious choices to manage our emotional impulses and respond more objectively (and productively) to life’s challenges. In this webinar, we explore: The fundamentals of motivation: recognizing our drivers, as well as their complexities and contradictions How motivation can manifest in our lives - in ways that may help us or challenge us The cycles of reaction: identifying what our sensitivities are, how we react, and what we can do to mitigate their impact

1. Motivation and Self-Regulation:
How Self-Awareness and
Observation can Increase our Inner
Resilience
David Ringwood
VP of Client Development, EMEA
MRG

2. Host
Lucy Sullivan
Head of Marketing, MRG
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3. Management Research Group is a global leader in designing
assessments that foster a deep self-awareness and impact
people in profound and meaningful ways with solutions for
Leadership, Personal Development, Sales and Service.
MRG conducts extensive research on effective leadership
behaviour, leveraging a database of more than 1.2 million
assessment participants.
David Ringwood
VP of Client Development, EMEA | MRG

4. A BRIEF FOREWORD

5. Individual Directions Inventory™
The IDI explores motivational drivers and sources of
energy, connecting motivation and behavior in
innovative new ways to empower individuals and
organizations to make unprecedented progress toward
their goals.
• Surfaces subtle drivers to reignite individual energy and
illuminate opportunities for growth
• Highlights aspects of an individual’s ideal environment and
strengthens team Dynamics
• Builds a roadmap for channeling motivational energy to
support organizational objectives
• Supports organizational change, coaching, executive
transition and candidate selection

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Motivation &
Predispositions

7. Understanding our deeper drivers
Motivational factors originate from the
formative years and evolve slowly over time.
While we may recognize our own
behavior quite easily, some people
are less in touch with these deeper
underlying drivers.

8. Understanding our deeper drivers
Many people will be surprised by a few of
their IDI scores.
It is truly difficult to have a fully
objective view of ourselves.

9. Understanding our deeper drivers
People with extreme scores are very likely to
underestimate this extremity.
They may have normalized it to the
extent that it becomes less evident to
them.

10. Understanding our deeper drivers
Motivation can conflict with itself.
We often have mixed feelings or
have drivers which interfere with
each other.

11. Motivational Predispositions
How our motivational makeups lead us to have a tendency or an
inclination to react to stimuli in particular ways
Predispose definition
To give an inclination or tendency
beforehand; make susceptible “John has a predisposition
to exaggerate”
Motivational Predispositions definition

12. Motivational Predispositions
Revealing motivation using the
Individual Directions Inventory™
The IDI profile represents an
individual’s motivational makeup:
What are they attracted toward?
What do they move away from?

13. Motivational Predispositions
Why do I…
…think the way I
think? …make
decisions the
way I make
decisions?
…behave the way I
behave?
…feel the way I
feel?
What is my awareness around these
motivations and how they impact me?

14. Motivational Predispositions
Protective, helpful, sensitive to others’ needs
Motivated to provide
comfort & support
More challenging to say “no”, may feel
selfish if this happens

15. Motivational Predispositions
Be socially adept & aware, understand their
impact on others
Motivated to gain
recognition & respect
Feeling forced, making decisions influenced
by external expectations

16. Motivational Predispositions
Try alternatives, be “easy going”
Less motivated to be
persistent & tenacious
Become bored easily, give up too easily

17. Possible IDI Dimension Bias Effects
Potential Mindset Effects
Winning - Oppositional mindset (me versus you)
Excelling – “Never good enough” mindset
Potential Interpretive Biases
Independence – Support equals Interference/Control
Winning - Everything is a competition
Potential Assumption-based Thinking
Gaining Stature (Low) – people don’t really need recognition
Maneuvering (High) – there’s always a hidden agenda
Giving – People actually want my help
Potential Estimation Errors
Receiving (Low) – underestimation of the support needs of others
Winning (High) – underestimation of other people’s sensitivity to conflict
Potential Attribution Errors
Maneuvering (High) – attributing negative intent to others, projecting

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Self-Reinforcing
Patterns

19. The story we tell ourselves
Remember, the IDI doesn’t tell us how we’re behaving, but…
THOUGHTS
What we think affects
how we feel and act
BEHAVIORS
What we do affects
how we think and feel
EMOTIONS
What we feel affects
how we think and act

20. Self-Reinforcing Pattern in one driver: High Giving
THOUGHTS
Responsibility to care for others & people value this
DISSONANT EMOTIONS
Valuable when helping, selfish when not
Resentment, but attracted to continuing to provide support
ATTRIBUTIONS
Unhelpful, selfish, emotionally distant
BEHAVIORS
Prioritize others’ needs over my own
Be viewed as a resource, or useful to have around
Self-Regulation

21. Self-Reinforcing Pattern between drivers:
High Excelling & High Stability
High Excelling
“Push hard for bigger and better, never good enough”
EMOTIONAL CONSEQUENCE
Fluctuating between urgency and nervousness
BEHAVIORS
Dilemma-based thinking
Reluctance to make a leap of faith
Self-Regulation
High Stability
“Stick to what you know, don’t take risk”

22. Questions

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Attentional Bias

24. Be aware of the Von Restorff Effect

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Cycles of Reaction
We have to see them to control them

26. Driving positive outcomes
Thoughts & beliefs
• People only like me because I’m helpful.
• I am less important than others.
Emotional associations & consequences
• I resent people using me but I feel compelled to allow it
• I feel rejected when no one wants my support
• I have mixed feelings about relationships
Behavioural implications
• I risk sustaining unhealthy or one-sided relationships
• I might fail to use resources and support available to me
• I ignore the ultimate emotional cost to myself until it’s too late

27. Driving positive outcomes
You can’t control what you don’t understand.
• When do we raise the stakes or react
out of proportion?
• How much insight do we have into our
cycles of reaction?
• How much of this is driven by my
innate predispositions?
• Where do I even begin?

28. Winning the cycle of reaction
Strong initial reaction, quickly
dissipates
Moderate reaction, lingers
much longer
vs.

29. Poll: a reflection on ourselves
What percentage of stress and anxiety during your
life has been largely self-inflicted?
1. More than 90%
2. 75 - 90%
3. 50 - 75%
4. Less than 50%

30. Winning the cycle of reaction
Are there times when I react out of proportion?
Are my reactions based on fact or based on less regulated
thoughts or emotions?
How can I better understand my cycles of reaction?
vs.

31. Winning the cycle of reaction
What triggers the strongest or most disproportionate reactions?
What role might my predispositions and biases play?
• Does my “never good enough” mindset make it harder for me to
be kind to myself?
• Does my desire to support others make it harder to put myself first?
• Does my need for predictability increase the fear factor?
vs.
Bear in mind the self-reinforcing patterns
that can also embed these cycles.

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Harnessing
Self-Awareness for
Self-Regulation

33. Mitigating reactive cycles
Step 1: What am I most sensitive to?
How much of this is how we feel and
what we believe about our world?
How much has any basis in fact?
Uncertainty?
Feeling
unsupported?
Feeling
excluded?
Feeling out of
the loop?
Feeling
unappreciated?
Criticism?

34. Mitigating reactive cycles
Step 2: How do I react?
When does this happen most?
Keep a diary.
Physical tension? Lack of sleep?
Loss of
appetite?
Increasingly
emotional?
Mental turmoil?
What helps me to dissipate these
effects as quickly as possible?

35. Mitigating reactive cycles
Step 3: What actions alleviate these effects?
Talk to that
version of you
one week
ahead.
Evaluate:
rationalization
or distraction?
Learn from the
lessons of the
past: be more
evidence-based.

36. Achievement vs. Happiness
?
Excelling?
Gaining
Stature?
Creating, Independence?
Stability?
Life line: key events, achievements, highs & lows

37. Overarching objectives and life goals
What is really important to me?
My career?
My family?
My health?
Do my natural drivers work in service
of my overarching objectives, or do
they simply serve themselves?

38. Overarching objectives and life goals
Positive indicators
Objective
self-observation
Powerful internal
narrative
Winning back
perspective
Stronger
commitment to
self-value

39. Our overarching objectives, sense of bigger purpose
or our life philosophy is often the best approach of
putting our motivations into perspective.
If not, our motivations might control us more than we
control them.

40. Questions

41. Upcoming Events with MRG
Certifications Workshops
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Starts June 10
Using the LEA & IDI in Combination
Choose a session: March 30-April 1
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Choose a session: April 13-15
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Choose a session: April 26-29
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Registration open now:
MRG.com/calendar

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Thank you.
Stay in touch.
research@mrg.com