Learn The 2 Paths To Winning In Business Coaching

What Is Your Goal Orientation?

What matters most to you- doing your best or being the best? Which would you find more fulfilling? The type of goal you want to pursue depends on your goal orientation. That is, either you are task- oriented or ego oriented in the pursuit of your goals.

Task Orientation

What is task orientation? Here, the primary motivation is to learn and gain mastery of a skill or task. One's action is driven by self- improvement. How do you measure the success of a task- oriented goal?

• How well you mastered the task
• How much self- improvement you experienced
• How proficient your skills and abilities were

Being task oriented means you are intrinsically motivated. Even in the face of failure, you are persistent. Should difficulties and challenge beset you, you persevere. Fulfillment of task orientation comes from gaining mastery of a task and personal growth and improvement. It's being happy for having expressed your ability. To a task- oriented person, having done their best is all. Whether he or she won first place or last place in a race or won or lost in a competition is irrelevant. It's not about winning, but doing your best and learning.

Ego Orientation

What about ego orientation? What does it mean if someone is ego- oriented? The goal here is proving that one is better than others. Competition fuels the ego- oriented person. How is the success of an ego- oriented goal measured?

• Exceeding the performance of others, even if it is achieved by doing less effort or with insufficient skills
• Being the best instead of doing one's best
• Demonstrating a higher and superior ability compared to others

Ego orientation is propelled by extrinsic motivation to achieve one's desired outcomes.

To a task oriented athlete, performing to the best of his or her ability provides a deep level of satisfaction- regardless of whether they won the game or not. On the other hand, an ego- oriented athlete tends to lose their motivation in a (perceived) impending failure or when actually having failed. In fact, having failed, such athlete might even pull back and give up.

Who maintains a high level of motivation then? The task oriented person, or the goal oriented person?

One whose primarily aim is to learn and improve is likely to be consistently motivated, because for them, even failure is an avenue of learning and it is a path to improvement, in the same way that winning is.