All Articles, Toolkit 4 - Developing Young Women's Leadership Through Youth Work

UNDERSTANDING AND DEVELOPING YOUNG WOMEN’S MOTIVATIONS

In our African cultures, we often find that people expect there to be one path only, the good path, the path to success. Succeeding and pleasing our parents is often seen as motivation enough for young women. And yet we know this isn’t true, especially for the young generation, who have their own goals and ambitions. With this in mind, we have to be aware that different young women and girls are motivated by different things, and in different ways, and it is important to help them to understand this if they are going to find the momentum to overcome challenges and reach their goals: 

REWARD

  • For many people, the reward motivates them to do a task. 
  • There are many tasks people would not do if there were no reward involved. A reward could be a trophy (e.g. winning a competition), or financial (e.g. money for completing a task).

INDEPENDENCE

  • Does working for yourself sound interesting? Many people work for themselves as entrepreneurs and are motivated by not having a boss to answer to. 
  • You may also work as a manager in a company and be able to explore your own ideas.

CHALLENGE & LEARNING NEW THINGS

  • For some people who enjoy a complex challenge, a reward (of money or something else that the person wants) can be distracting. It can stop them from being able to think properly about the task, and actually make you less likely to complete it successfully. This is called the ‘distraction effect’. For these people, it is achieving the challenge that is most important.

SENSE OF ENJOYMENT AND FULFILMENT

  • A sense of fun can be a strong motivation for the successful completion of a task. If we enjoy doing something, we are much more likely to continue doing it. 
  • Additionally, doing something that fulfils you because you believe it is the right thing to do can also be a strong motivator e.g. working for a charity or as a lawyer.

A MIXTURE OF EVERYTHING

  • A mixed approach provides balance. It’s very unlikely someone’s motivation for completing a task will be just one of these. It requires accepting a little bit of everything to find what motivates you daily to do a task.
  • Realising what this is, is one part of self-awareness. Exploring the factors that motivate you is really important. 
  • Remember, what motivates you will be different to what motivates someone else. We are all different, and that’s ok!

Here is another exercise that you can use to help your mentee to identify her own motivations

REWARD

  • How important is a reward to motivate you to do a task?
  • What kind of rewards do you like?

INDEPENDENCE

  • How do you like to work on new ideas?

CHALLENGE & LEARNING NEW THINGS

  • What challenges do you love completing?
  • Is there a subject or activity you enjoy progressing in?

SENSE OF ENJOYMENT AND FULFILMENT

  • What do you really enjoy doing?

A MIXTURE OF EVERYTHING

  • Try mixing some of the ideas above together to work out what motivates you.

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