SCOAP in Business and Leadership

​A comprehensive theory of human motivation, behaviour, and wellbeing

There are many models and theories of leadership. And many of these can be easily, and insightfully, related to SCOAP (see this article for the basics).

For our purposes now, let’s focus on two aspects. Leading yourself and leading others at the level of the team and the organisation.

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1. Leading Yourself

To lead yourself, you must first understand what you are driven and motivated by. Therefore, understanding your SCOAP model will give you the insight to understand your drivers and therefore your way of engaging with the world and your role.

For example, I have outlined previously my personal model of SCOAP as Self-Esteem, Orientation, and combined with some other Facets such as the Greater Good.

This has the motivational benefits of: striving to be good, striving for learning, striving to help others and do the right thing for society.

This has potential risk of: being dissatisfied if I don’t reach my high standards, constantly being distracted by learning new things (and going off on interesting tangents, a feature of my conversations for those who know me), committing time and energy for charitable causes which can distract me from other things.

Over the years I have learnt to set myself realistic goals. To try to structure my learning, for example in certain limited time periods in my daily writing on Medium. And limiting my charitable engagements (but still doing this – just making sure I don’t overcommit). These are also aligned with my personal business goals.

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2. Leading Others

To lead others effectively i.e., by tapping into their internal motivation and therefore getting the most focused energy from them.

Enabling fulfilment of SCOAP will energise and motivate employees. Obviously, this has to be aligned with corporate, functional, and team goals. Across an organisation, the organisation should set up processes, structures, and develop leaders that can enable employees to fulfil their SCOAP. This will enable fulfilment of SCOAP on average. At an individual level leaders should engage with individual employees and enable individuals to fulfil their SCOAP as much as possible.

For example:

Self-Esteem, by showing appreciation and giving praise (where praise is due).