Motivation & Refereeing | What Are The Sources?

Extrinsic Motivation

Are you (or your colleagues) motivated by getting your name in the media (for the right reasons)? Are you motivated by receiving the ‘Referee of the Year’ award at the end of the-season?

These sources of motivation are called extrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation describes actions that are driven by external rewards such as money, medals, acclaim, gifts, praise & awards. While extrinsic rewards can initially increase motivation, over time, the exclusive use of extrinsic rewards has been shown to decrease motivation. When your motivation is reliant upon awards, medals and accolades, once those rewards are no longer received, motivation will decrease.

A great example of this is the young swimmer who gets their name in the media each week and collects first place medals for almost every event they enter. Eventually, teammates start beating this swimmer to the point they no longer reach the podium in events or receive medals or trophies. Quickly, this swimmer may lose their motivation to keep training five days a week and to put in all of the hours of effort. They may think, “Why even swim if I am not longer winning at competitions?”

Intrinsic motivation 

Another source of motivation is intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is defined as participating because you enjoy the sport itself or the challenges of your sport. Intrinsic sources of motivation to referees include: love of a officiating, being part of a team, learning new skills, improving your standard of officiating & enjoyment. If you are refereeing a sport that you are passionate about and find intrinsically rewarding, you are more likely to persist when faced with challenges, of which there are plenty for officials.

If we think back to the swimmer, if they were primarily motivated by achieving personal bests, following a few poor performances, they may look for new ways to improve their times, such as; applying themselves more in practice, looking to improve technique or learn to relax prior the start.

A mixture of both sources of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic, is often the best method to keep a referee progressing up the ladder. Of course, from an extrinsic point view, officials are aided by the match fees they receive but other material rewards can be few and far between. Referees require greater levels of intrinsic, as opposed to extrinsic, motivation to get them through the difficult Sunday morning games and the long journeys on midweek nights in winter after a long day at work. An official’s love of football and refereeing is what keeps them going through those moments, as well as the company of colleagues and the learning which takes place in those periods.

Even at a professional level, those involved need to feed their motivation.

In the United States, Los Angeles Lakers, Power Forward, Kyle Kuzma uses both intrinsic and extrinsic sources to maintain his motivation and drive his performance. Kuzma was selected with the 27th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft and had a great first season. Kuzma was chosen to play in the Rising Stars Challenge during All-Star weekend and he shared his motivation to win. Each member of the winning team in the Rising Stars received a $25,000 bonus. That source of extrinsic motivation helped Kuzma score 35 points contributing to the USA’s victory over the rest of the world.

“I think it was the second timeout, and I broke the huddle by saying, ‘Bonus-1-2-3.’ So there you go. I played last year and was lackadaisical, so I didn’t want to do that again… There was a lot of great players out there, All-Stars, we’re all young rising stars in this league. Obviously it’s an exhibition, but it’s always better to have bragging rights whenever you can.” – Kyle Kuzma, Power Forward, Los Angeles Lakers

Motivation gives you the mental strength to persist in the face of many challenges and to rise to the occasion when necessary so that you can achieve closer to your full potential.