What helps you contribute?
Think about a piece of work you enjoyed doing well. What was happening around you? Perhaps you had time to consider the question, freedom to explore an idea or a clear procedure that let you concentrate on delivery.
“We do our best work when we can play to our preferences” is an invitation to explore those conditions. It opens a conversation about the person and their work, without assuming that everyone needs the same arrangement.
What does playing to a preference mean?
It might mean receiving context before detail, having space to think before a discussion or understanding the sequence of a task. For another person, talking through the possibilities may be part of how they work out what they think.
These inclinations can be discussed without judging one approach as inherently better. What matters is the task, the contribution required and the arrangements the people involved can make. Skills, experience and resources remain part of that picture.
What does motivation research add?
Ryan and Deci’s account of self-determination theory discusses autonomy, competence and relatedness in human motivation. It provides a research context for considering how people experience their work and the conditions supporting their participation.
Autonomy involves a sense of volition, rather than the removal of all boundaries. People can understand and endorse a requirement while having choices about how to meet it. Preferences are a useful subject for discussion within those practical boundaries.
How much flexibility is needed?
Every role includes tasks that ask people to work beyond their preferred approach. A customer may need a different explanation. A deadline may require a quick decision. Someone developing a new skill may choose to practise something unfamiliar.
Discuss where adaptation is needed and what would support it. A person who prefers an outline may need to produce detailed instructions for someone else. That does not make their preference wrong; it makes the working relationship and its requirements worth understanding.
What could you try?
Choose one real task and ask what would help the person contribute. Agree a change that is reasonable for everyone affected. It could concern a brief, a meeting or the way a responsibility is handed over.
Review what happened rather than assuming the change helped. Ask the person and the colleagues involved what they noticed. Keep the arrangements that support the work, adjust the others and continue the conversation as the role or circumstances develop. That is how a preference discussion can become part of everyday leadership.
Sources and further reading
What would you like to explore?
If this relates to work in your organisation, we can begin with a conversation about your situation and what you want to achieve.
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