Promotion-focused people play to win and seek opportunities, while prevention-focused people play not to lose and focus on safety. Understanding these motivational focuses can help maximize performance. Managers should adapt their style to match each employee's focus, sharing inspirational stories with promotion-focused staff but constructive feedback with prevention-focused employees. The key is embracing different personality types to bring out the best in each.

1. Do you play to win
- or to not loose?
By
Heidi Grant Halvorson and E. Tory Higgins
Harvard Business Review
MARCH 2013
T.R.VISHAL (2T3-37)

2. Outline
• Introduction
• Objective
• Main Theme
• Authors View
• Learnings
• Conclusion

3. Introduction
•In what kinds of situations are you most effective? What factors strengthen or
undermine your motivation? (Answers may vary)
•One size-fits-all principles don’t work…personality matters!
•Personality can be identified by Myers-Briggs Type Indicator but the problem
with this and many other assessment tools is that they actually don’t predict
performance.
•Fortunately there is a way of grouping people which DOES predict personality
attributes on the basis of performance:
•"promotion" focus or "prevention" focus.
Promotion focus
Prevention
focus

4. "promotion" focus
or "prevention" focus
Promotion-focused people Prevention-focused people
• Play to win
• Brainstorm
• Work quickly
• Are open to new opportunities
• Feel depressed when things go wrong
• Are optimists
• Seek positive feedback and lose steam
without it.
• Plan only for the best case scenarios
• Play to not lose
• Work slowly and deliberately
• Tend to be accurate
• Prepared for the worst
• Are stressed by short deadlines
• Stick to tried-and-true ways of doing things
• Are uncomfortable with praise and optimism
• feel worried or anxious when things go
wrong

5. Objective
•To know what really motivates people
•To create motivational fit among people in order to reach their full potential.
•Motivational fit enhances and sustains both the eagerness of the promotion-minded
and the vigilance of the prevention-minded, making work seem more
valuable and thus boosting both performance and enjoyment.

6. Focus
PROMOTION FOCUSED PREVENTION FOCUSED
Copywriters
Inventors
Consultants
Musician
DYNAMIC INDUSTRIES
Administrators
Bookkeepers
Accountants
Technicians
STABLE INDUSTRIES

7. Main Theme
•Although everyone is concerned at various times with both types, most of us have a dominant
motivational focus.
•Once you know your focus, you can choose role models, frame goals, seek or give feedback and
provide incentives to strengthen your motivation or your team’s.
•Promotion focused are engaged by inspirational role models, the prevention focused by
cautionary tales.
•Framing the goal: sometimes minor tweaks in how you think about a goal or the language you
use to describe can make a difference.
•Seek or giving feedback: promotion minded, can look for people who will give you positive
inspirational message you need. And prevention minded people should routinely ask colleagues
for constructive feedback.

8. When Personalities Don’t Match (By Andrew
Kakabadse and Nada k. Kakabadse)
PROMOTION BOSS PROMOTION EMPLOYEE PROMOTION BOSS PREVENTION BOSS
+ + + +
PREVENTION EMPLOYEE PREVENTION EMPLOYEE PREVENTION BOSS PROMOTION EMPLOYEE
= = = =
UNDERPERFORMANCE TENSION POWER STRUGGLE POWER PLAY

9. Authors View
•Promotion focus and Prevention Focus are the two legitimate ways of looking at the
same goal.
•Promotion focused and Prevention focused people are crucial for every
organization’s success, despite the potential for infighting and poor communication.
•Business need to excel at innovation and at maintaining what works, at speed and
at accuracy.
•The key is to understand and embrace ones personality types and those of their
colleagues, and to bring out the best in each of them.
•Promotion – prevention Hybrids – some people seem to wear both hats equally
often, but no one can wear both hats at the same time.

10. Learnings
•When motivational strategies we use don’t align with our dominant
focus, we are less likely to achieve our goals.
•A manager must adapt his style to suite each employee’s focus.
•As a colleague or a boss one should think about whether the
motivational stories he shares with others are motivational for them.
•A manager should always give honest feedback, but can adjust their
emphasis to maximize motivation.

11. Conclusion
One way of grouping people into types is based on an attribute that does predict performance:
"promotion" focus or "prevention" focus. The main objective is to know what really motivates
people as an individual, create motivational fit among people in order to reach their full
potential. Promotion focus and Prevention Focus are the two legitimate ways of looking at the
same goal.

12. Questions

13. Thank You!