Autonomy-Mastery-Purpose

There have been numerous studies that highlight the importance of building intrinsic motivation on top of external rewards. Daniel Pink’s book titled Drive discusses that while carrots and sticks worked successfully in the 20th century, that’s the wrong way to motivate people for today’s challenges. In this book he highlights 3 purposeful pieces to high performance and satisfaction: Autonomy-Mastery-Purpose.

• Autonomy — Our desire to be self directed.
• Mastery — The urge to get better skills.
• Purpose — The desire to do something that has meaning and is important.

As a high school cross country and distance track coach, what does this look like?

Autonomy — Giving athletes a sense of control with what they are doing and how it affects their future.

Examples:

• Choices A-B-C for different workouts based on current fitness level, experience, and goal race distances
• Talking to athletes and personalizing a workout based on how they are feeling and how the workout is going
• Choice of goal race distances

Mastery — Athletes being able to see progress with training and racing is essential. This involves being able to connect the progress back to the hard work and dedication they put in.

Example:

• Using evidence (pace, distance, heart rate, perceived exertion, etc.) to illustrate to athletes that they are getting stronger and faster because of their hard work and dedication. This could be just as much mental evidence and progress as it is physical.

Purpose — As an athlete, having a purpose encompasses a lot- purpose for the interval, purpose for the workout, purpose for your goals, purpose for doing the sport! This boils down to being both physically and mentally present at training (completing your training with purpose) and to having goals (your purpose for completing the workout).

Example:

• Goal setting, specifically with the Goals-Targets-Outcome Template
• Emphasizing the life skills that distance running requires and how it will serve athletes well, no matter where life takes them
• Racing for the Team, not just yourself

In similar terms, the 3 ingredients for a great season:

1. Athletes know that you care about them- not just as athletes but as people.

How?

• Servant Leadership: Athletes know that you are their rock and they can count on you, no matter what.
• Purposefully incorporating and highlighting how life lessons learned during training and competition will help athletes above and beyond the world of running.
• Building relationships with athletes- They know that you are there to help them be their best. They know they have your full positive energy and attention.

2. Athletes are excited to be there.

How?

• Giving athletes your positive energy- you have built a relationship with them.
• Giving athletes something to look forward: post-practice food, fun runs, challenging workouts, post-practice games, Pasta Parties, etc.
• Purposefully incorporating Autonomy-Mastery-Purpose into each session
• Knowing what motivates your athletes and purposefully incorporating this through both words and actions.
• Highlighting and Reinforcing the Team aspect of the sport. Athletes know that they are apart of something bigger than themselves. The Whole is greater than the sum of its Parts.

3. Athletes have and know the purpose for the interval, the practice/race, and the season.

How?

• Purposeful goal setting with the Goals-Targets-Outcome Template
• Clearly explaining why they are doing what they are doing. Explain how this training/race connects back to previous training/races, how they have progressed to this moment in time, and why they are ready for this workout/race. Explain how this moment will prepare athletes for future events.
• Athletes recognize that the future generation is looking up to them and that they are setting the example and standard for these future athletes. They recognize that they are the torch carriers for the Tradition of Excellence.

This boils down to showing athletes that they have to tools to compete, reliving how you have seen them use these tools in practices and races with success, and explaining how everything has been purposefully planned for this moment in time.