How To Improve Through Motivation, Skills, and Feedback

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill

As a mentor put it to me a long time ago, “without the skills, you’re a motivated idiot.”

His point was simple: motivation + skills = results.

Is it a Motivation or Ability Issue?

Whenever I need to improve myself or help somebody with a change, I first figure out whether it’s a motivation or a skills issue. Interestingly, many times a motivation issue is a skills issue in disguise.

I also use this motivation and skills lens to evaluate any advice. Is the advice offering any actionable insight, skills, and techniques … or just motivation and inspiration … or both?

This simple frame helps me cut to the chase to get to what I need and ignore the rest.

The Motivation, Skills, and Feedback Framework

While I was giving a talk to our Microsoft Learning and Development group, I drew a very simple table on the whiteboard.

It included motivation, skills, and feedback.

I referred to this as the Motivation, Skills, and Feedback framework:

Category	Questions
Motivation	Do you have any heroes or roles models that inspire you here? Do you have a compelling reason that you believe in? How important is this in your grand scheme of things? Is there a way you can enjoy the process? Is there a way you can link this to good feelings?
Skills	Do you have 3 models of success to learn from? Is there a mentor or coach that can show you the short-cuts and proven practices? Do you know the proven practices for getting results here? Is there a way to setup an experiment to test your results? Is there a routine you can use for deliberate practice?
Feedback	Do you know how to measure effectiveness? Do you know the tests for success and what good looks like? Are you getting timely, relevant, actionable feedback? Is there anybody who can give you more effective feedback?