What motivates you?
What keeps you motivated in your personal and career life?
What motivates you in your daily life?
People can be motivated by monetary rewards, mentorship/mentors, potential consequences, ambition, motivational quotes and speeches, and/or emotions
Albeit, one of my biggest motivations, as an adult, is arguably Peer Influence which is the focus of this post.
I know peer pressure and peer influence carry a negative connotation because of its linkages with drug and substance abuse and other vices among teenagers and adolescents. But the form of its effect lies in the kind of friends you keep and the foundations of the friendship.
This article marks a better impression by elucidating the positive effects of Peer influence and highlighting several reasons you might want to leverage it.
Peer Pressure and Emotional Intelligence.
According to Daniel Goleman’s Mixed Model of EI, ‘Motivation’ is one of the key aspects of Emotional Intelligence. Emotional intelligent people are aware of what motivates them and others.
If a core aspect of leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire others toward set goals, then complete leaders ought to be strong in this area. Fortunately, motivation, along with other emotional competencies, can be learned.
Peer pressure, an agent of motivation, can be useful in motivating oneself in the practice of Self-leadership and motivating others during leadership.
Individuals or members of a group can be encouraged to follow a person who they want to be like and change their attitudes, behaviors, and values to pattern after the influencer.
Daniel Goleman in his book, Working with Emotional Intelligence, includes Social skills as another construct in the trait model of Emotional intelligence. ‘Social skills’ simply involve the proper handling of interpersonal, intragroup, and community-level relationships. It entails artfully navigating social environments such as your circle of influence or sphere of influence.
Gaining social acceptance, a sense of belonging, and avoiding social rejection in these social groups depend a great deal on peer influence; conformity to both explicit and tacitly upheld standards of living or norms.
Unlike material incentives, peer influence is one of the most readily available forms of motivation.
Peer influence in teamwork.
Galvanizing a team toward the prompt accomplishment of a target will require a significant amount of undertaken teamwork.
Teamwork is crucial to the expedient and effective accomplishment of group tasks, or organizational goals. It is a direct determinant of a leader’s efficacy (number of recorded successes over a span of time.)
One of the ingredients in the recipe of teamwork is trust. There ought to be a degree of trustworthiness (mix of competence and good value system) amongst members of the team—leader included.
In an experiment on the neural mechanism behind group conformity, 24 subjects all belonged to one group but were made to believe there was an “out-group” while they were the “in-group”. The experiment required them to determine the number of dots on a screen. While they judged, they were given information on the estimations from a member of the in-group and out-group. Participants conformed more often to in-group judgments than to out-group judgments. Findings are that this group conformity is mediated with an emotional reward and perspective taking which correlated with participants’ scores on the trustworthiness of in-group members
Positive peer influence paves the way for teamwork.
Positive Peer influence and ministry.
As a believer, you’ve been given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19).
Every disciple has been called into the Great Commission(Matthew 28:19).
If two different persons are both believers and disciples, then, by definition, they are peers because they share similar interests and belong to the family of God.
The great commission instructs us to bring more people into this family. In other words, he says to the disciples, “Replicate after your kind” and leaves us information on how to do it. (Hint: part of it involves influence)
Peer Influence within the Church.
The life of a true Christian is extraordinary.
As a result, you a person who attends church, or is interested in its activities and people, is likely to be motivated to do ministry.
Paul’s narrative in Phillipian 1:12-14 further buttresses this point.
Paul’s colleagues, motivated by his boldness and God’s ability to make things work for good, set out courageously to do ministry once again.
Not only does Peer influence give you a reason to do a task, but it also shows you it’s possible and demonstrates how to replicate results.
Peer influence outside the Church.
One doesn’t have to belong to a group to be influenced by peer pressure. On a day-to-day basis, social interactions occur within real-life situations that cause negative stresses.
In obedience to the instructions in Rom 12:2, we ought to be wary of worldly standards and intentionally turn the tides in our favor by influencing people with the life of God in us.
Motivate others to do ministry.
Discipling people who will be followers or adherents of the Christian faith will undoubtedly involve your demonstration of Godly living; a lifestyle based on the standards of God’s word.
Positive Peer/Group influence is one of the vehicles that drive the Great Commission.
What a way to make an impact on a global scale.
Positive Peer influence and personal productivity.
Peer influence can motivate you in your daily life.
A core aspect of emotional intelligence is the ability to use emotions positively. Whether it is to facilitate thought processes or to work during certain moods, you’re handling your emotions and managing yourself well.
Self-motivation is that side of self-management that involves you taking the initiative to start tasks, make forward progress, and eventually finish work.
One way to get motivated to do work is through positive peer influence.
Best part? You get to influence or be influenced either on a conscious or subconscious level.
What motivates you to do your best work? If it’s not peer influence. Consider adding it to your motivation engine because it just works.
It works for me.
One day, I was in the office with a colleague of mine. He kept raving about how he came to work earlier than a second colleague. It turned out they were in a competition. I decided to join in and get more motivated to come early to work. Joining that competition helped me work on my tardiness issue.
It works for others as well.
Below is an example of how I was able to motivate a coworker, and peers in a team.
Sometime in 2022, I was privileged to be the team leader in an educational organization. During that time, I noticed a colleague of mine was really struggling with showing up for work. Every weekday she would watch me leave for work while she stayed back. I had to take the bold step of having that difficult conversation with her. I peaceably and seriously communicated my view on the matter. Then, she mentioned a few issues she was struggling with and I shared, with her, how I manage those issues myself. After our discussion, she began to show up for work and to enjoy it. Later on, when I mentioned this to her, she said;
Something in me changed after our conversation.
So profound. Since then, I’ve learned to draw lots of strength from people. After all, we are social beings.
Final Word.
Peer influence can provide the motivation that aids task accomplishment and self-fulfillment. Add it to your motivation engine, Mention it in your interviews
Your peers can inspire you. They can motivate you.
So what do you do when Nissi steps out of her comfort zone, in courage and obedience, to host a worship picnic; when Sapphire is promoting the hell out of her Youtube video; when Emmanuel is headed to the library to study; when Alex starts a new start-up; when Alexandra is sharing her data science journey and expertise on social media?
You get off your ass and do what would move you closer to fulfilling your purpose, accomplishing an assignment, and hitting goals.
Your friends, too, are young, probably scared, and most likely dealing with the same stuff as you.
Now, You know what to do when you have no motivation. Look at your peers getting at it. Then become somebody that is a source of inspiration and motivation.
What keeps you motivated to work hard on achieving your dreams?
