What drives you? PROCESS, Pressure, Perfection, or Play? (Part 1)

Motivation differs for all of us. PROCESS driven people love a detailed plan, to tick things off a list, and to know their purpose within the team.

Drive. Motivation. Inspiration.

Where does yours come from? As an athlete I get asked this a LOT. I used to give everyone the same advice - because I simply assumed that everyone was like me. 

That’s (obviously!) not true. And it took the patience of some incredible beach volleyball partners to show me that we’re all wired a little differently.

What drives us varies along 4 dimensions:

1. Process

2. Pressure

3. Perfection

4. Play

This is a 4 part blog series diving into each one. Noting that you can be driven by more than one (I’m driven strongly by both Pressure and Perfection).

Knowing your own code means that training or work feels more effortless and enjoyable. You drop into the zone more often. You look forward to more of your day. You have drive.

So what lights you up? 

We’re starting with Process. 

Driven by the PROCESS

When I first started playing beach volleyball, I sucked. Sure, I looked athletic. I’d just retired from elite trampolining so I could jump high, run fast, and had 6-pack abs.

But I had never played a ball sport. Hand-eye coordination was not a strength.

I would leap in the air, swing my arm at the ball… and miss completely.

I would get my arms out early to pass the ball, move my feet to get there… and ricochet the ball in completely the wrong direction.

Sange on the other hand seemed like a master. Her hits had beautiful topspin, her arm-swing technique looked natural, and most importantly – the ball went where she wanted it to go. My balls only went where I wanted by sheer accident.

After just a couple of months of training in this sport, she asked me to be her partner for the following summer. I was shocked. Stoked. And immediately said ‘hell yes’. It was a giant bet from Sange that athleticism + work ethic + 6 months of time could turn me into a half-decent player.

We trained 5-6 times during the week with coaches and other players. But Sundays were special and the programming was all Sange. 

On Sundays, we’d show up and do 1000 passes,1000 high line shots, and 1000 cut shots. If you missed a shot, you couldn’t add it to the tally. And at the beginning of my career I missed A LOT of shots. Then we’d finish the session with 1000 reps of abs. We had a trade – she’d teach me to play volleyball, and I’d help her get a 6-pack.

It took hours. And we never skipped a rep. And never skipped a Sunday.

People think being an athlete is glamorous, the reality is that it’s mostly grinding away at reps day after day, week after week, year after year.

When summer arrived, and with it the first tournaments, Sange had a plan for every opponent. She knew their tendencies - how they liked to hit the ball if the set fell inside, or outside, or drifted off the net. She knew how to break each team at the end of a game - with a middle serve if their communication was faltering, or a switch up to a cross-block when the score was tied at the end of a set. 

And I noticed that even if we won a point, or a match, Sange always cared just as much about the technique of her hit as the outcome. We’d celebrate every point won, but I knew she was only completely happy when the point and the match went to plan. 

And the plan extended to everything off court as well. This was the most organized season I’ve ever played - Sange set the standard. Flights were booked well in advance. Sponsored were locked in. She mapped out our draw for each tournament, including all our potential opponents based on likely win-loss outcomes. We knew our roles within the team down to the last detail. And we knew who’s couch we were sleeping on for each event as we tried to make every dollar stretch. 

A decade later I now enjoy saying to her partner with complete seriousness – ‘I’ve slept with your wife.’

Sange was my first beach volleyball partner, the first to take a chance on me, and the first one to call me once I announced my retirement. She’s one of my closest friends. 

To this day, she’s an inspiration to me to look for the potential in people. And she taught me the value of a drive for process. 

Step by step. Rep by rep. Week by week. Ticking off the skills we needed to master. Measuring our consistency. Tracking our progress. Making a plan. 

Driven by the process. 

What matters to PROCESS driven people

For a Process driven person, these things light them up. For someone not driven by Process… these things can suck all of the joy and motivation out of a task. 

1) Routines and systems

• Starting the day with a series of habits to get going

• A pre-performance routine

• Regularity in your calendar

• Starting the way you intend to finish (if your routine is derailed at the beginning of the day, it can feel pointless to start)

‘Rituals are the formula by which harmony is restored.’ ~ Terry Tempest Williams

2) A detailed plan of action

• Doing tasks in order

• Breaking down goals into manageable chunks

• Seeing how your personal plan is part of the larger plan

‘The more detailed the plan, the easier the trip.’ ~ Henry Ford

3) Progress in small increments

• Ticking things off, and finishing a list

• Completing a daily routine or habit

• Tracking (even tiny) improvements in writing or visually

‘What gets measured gets improved.’ ~ Peter Drucker

4) Enough resources

• Plenty of time to do a task properly, well before a deadline

• Enough resources / budget / people to complete the project properly

• A heads up in advance - no last minute surprise tasks that eat into resources

‘You can’t finish what you don’t start, and you should never start what you’re not committed to finish.’ ~ Gary Ryan Blair

5) Alignment to the team

• Clear expectations for each team member

• Everyone in your team agrees to the same plan

• Knowing how your role contributes to the team

• Building a legacy - seeing your work matter over time

‘A team is not a bunch of people with job titles, but a congregation of individuals, each of whom has a role that is understood by other members.’ ~Meredith Belbin

Designing your life for more drive

Think of a product manager who has mapped out the release schedule for the next 12 months. Everyone in her team has a clear idea of exactly what they need to deliver by when. She’s already had the budget approved by the CFO. And she loves daily standups and hearing about the progress made each day. In fact, she’s got a chart on the wall and while she lets her team move the action cards from ‘doing’ to ‘done’, you can tell she takes a secret joy in getting to do it herself. When the company strategy was being crafted, she worked with the consultant to make sure her team’s plan fit neatly into the overall strategy. She’s known as an incredibly organised person, and the only time you see her frustrated is when last minute tasks are dropped on her plate without warning and there isn’t much time to get them done. 

You don’t need to be driven by Process to make a good Product Manager. But she’s designed her role to work for her Process drive. Can you do the same for your role?

Ask yourself…

• Do I have a routine to get my day started well?

• What part of my calendar is within my control - can I add more consistency?

• Could I break this project down into smaller steps?

• How can I track my progress, no matter how tiny the milestone?

• Can I add buffer time or resources to make sure I have what I need to finish?

• How does my work fit into what my team is trying to achieve?

Ultimately, process driven people love to finish things. Breaking down tasks into smaller steps means there are more things you can tick off - more things to finish!

Drive. Motivation. Inspiration. 

We all want more of it. And if you’re driven by PROCESS, this blog is your cheat sheet to having it.

And if Process is definitely not what drives you, stay tuned for some of my other beach volleyball partners who taught me the other drives: PRESSURE, PERFECTION and PLAY.