What motivates workers?

Avoiding demotivation is one thing. But individual life is more glorious, and organizations are more successful, when we work enthusiastically, even passionately, and not just because it pays the bills. Let’s look at some of the situations in which a person finds the motivation to go above and beyond. Notice how we placed the onus of motivation on the person, not on their manager. Motivation comes from within; managers cannot create it. But we can try to understand our employees’ motivators and then shape the workplace environment, assign tasks, and tailor our words to engage—and, above all, not to sabotage—their intrinsic motivators.

What can intrinsically motivate an employee? Here is a partial list that can be a good starting point for exploration. Each item on the list includes an example of a person who is motivated by this attribute. Keep in mind that an individual’s motivators may shift over time as their life situation changes.

Achievement (Angie) 

Angie meticulously keeps task lists and relishes striking through each item on completion. If she completes a task she didn’t put on the list, she will retroactively add it and immediately cross it out. On her own, Angie is usually good at breaking down a big, long-term goal into intermediary steps on a list of tasks, but as her manager, you find that she sometimes gets lost when the goal is too big and too abstract. If she’s listlessly haunting the corridors or Slack channels, check in to make sure Angie has some next steps she can tick off today. 

Companionship (Colin and Colleen) 

Humans are social animals, but there is a spectrum of sociability, and Colin is at one end. Giving him opportunities to enjoy companionship may motivate him; depriving him of them will send him into a tailspin. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, while productivity at home soared for many of his colleagues, Colin’s productivity cratered so far that under normal circumstances, you would have had to let him go. Others may be at the opposite end of the need for companionship, and companionship is another motivator whose importance can grow and fade. Colin just moved from another city to work at your company. Equally sociable Colleen has deep roots in the area and an extended family nearby, and she sings in a choir. Companionship may be one of her most powerful motivators, but she may not appreciate the not-mandatory-but-you-really-should-be-there happy hour.

Recognition (Randy and Renata) 

Randy lives for acknowledgments of his contributions, whether for his work or for organizing the holiday party. He likes awards, badges, and being pulled on stage to receive them during company meetings. What works for Randy doesn’t work for everyone, though. Renata doesn’t crave the limelight and prefers to be recognized in a one-on-one conversation. Like money, recognition is a currency whose value can be debased. While Randy laps up every opportunity for recognition, giving it to him publicly for screwing in a light bulb devalues the recognition that Renata earned for saving the company $100,000. 

Status (Sara and Sam) 

Whereas recognition can be doled out to everyone in principle—notwithstanding what we said about debasing its value—status is, by definition, a zero-sum game. It’s about one person’s rank relative to others. Job titles are one way of marking status, and Sara is always eager to advance through the ranks. Sam cares quite a bit less than Sara does about titles . . . until Sara gets the promotion to senior associate before Sam does. Then it turns out he cares a lot. We’re not all angling to be at the top of the heap, but we don’t care to slip down. Because someone else’s advance necessarily changes our relative position, promotions are always a fraught event in which motivating one person may demotivate many others. 

Security (Steven) 

Some of us feel more anxious, some of us less, about the future. Steven is highly anxious, and that anxiety distracts him from doing his best work. He would never describe himself as motivated by money, but for Steven, money buys peace of mind. He appreciates employment contracts that give him long-term visibility. What he doesn’t appreciate is rumors about big changes like mergers and layoffs. If you’re working with Steven, avoid idle speculation! Once rumors are in the air, be sure you check in on Steven. You may not be able to guarantee stability, but simply giving Steven a chance to discuss his anxieties is often helpful. As people’s life situation evolves, their need for security may also change. It’s far easier to be happy-go-lucky before you have a mortgage and a family to support.

Mastery (Maria) 

Just honing a skill toward perfection can be deeply satisfying. Sure, Maria gets recognition, status, and a sense of achievement from using and improving her skills. There’s more to mastery than those rewards, however; there’s a meditative delight in performing your skill and getting better at it, even when nobody’s watching. The delight of mastery is not something you can easily give somebody, but managers often take it away inadvertently. With mastery as her motivator, Maria is self-contained as long as she’s working at the edge of her current abilities. That’s the only way she’ll get better. Give her tasks far below her capabilities or, worse, a promotion that takes her out of her beloved domain, and Maria’s resignation letter will land on your desk faster than you can say “Niccolò Paganini.” 

Autonomy (Andy) 

What Andy loved about the COVID-19 lockdowns and the move to the home office was the power he gained over his own time. Andy is acutely aware of the ebbs and flows of life and business. The old-school 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. office hours had never corresponded to the reality of his work, his night-owl biorhythm, and his unpredictable home life. The pandemic taught many businesses that they could trust people like Andy to do the work on time and up to snuff while giving them flexibility in terms of the when and the how. 

Purpose (Bjorn and Nathan) 

In our 20-odd years of working together, both of us have had opportunities to throw in the towel and try our hands at something other than management training. One thing that has kept us coming back for more is our belief that we are not just building a company—although that’s fun, too! We’re doing our part to help managers enable more people to contribute passionately for their own individual benefit and for the world’s.

Life should be filled with purpose. But it’s a bit much to expect everyone to find theirs in their work. Some people use their work as a means to achieve entirely private purposes, like giving their children more opportunities. And that’s okay; these people can be just as productive as those who have found purpose at work. Meanwhile, not every organization offers a purpose that’s worth going above and beyond for. Some companies will contort themselves trying to represent their business as deeply meaningful. We don’t think trying too hard pays off in the long run. 

This list of motivators is hardly exhaustive. Candidly, as the two of us have worked together, we’ve discovered that pure ornery opposition has sometimes brought out our best work, if not always our best selves. If you ignore humanity’s wilder palette of motivations, you might not be able to make sense of your team members’ shifts between different states of engagement. Or your own. The human heart is a complicated thing. 

And that’s why the issue of motivation is a delicate topic. If your takeaway is that management is about driving your team’s performance by playing their motivators like piano keys, we’ll have done you and your team a disservice. People don’t come with their engagement level and their top three motivators branded on their foreheads. Will people reveal what motivates them if you ask them? Only if they are self-aware enough to give you an accurate picture. That’s a Texas-sized if. Even then, they’ll only be open about motivators if they trust you and the larger management team. 

Avoiding demotivation is one thing. But individual life is more glorious, and organizations are more successful, when we work enthusiastically, even passionately, and not just because it pays the bills. Let’s look at some of the situations in which a person finds the motivation to go above and beyond. Notice how we placed the onus of motivation on the person, not on their manager. Motivation comes from within; managers cannot create it. But we can try to understand our employees’ motivators and then shape the workplace environment, assign tasks, and tailor our words to engage—and, above all, not to sabotage—their intrinsic motivators.

What can intrinsically motivate an employee? Here is a partial list that can be a good starting point for exploration. Each item on the list includes an example of a person who is motivated by this attribute. Keep in mind that an individual’s motivators may shift over time as their life situation changes.

Achievement (Angie) 

Angie meticulously keeps task lists and relishes striking through each item on completion. If she completes a task she didn’t put on the list, she will retroactively add it and immediately cross it out. On her own, Angie is usually good at breaking down a big, long-term goal into intermediary steps on a list of tasks, but as her manager, you find that she sometimes gets lost when the goal is too big and too abstract. If she’s listlessly haunting the corridors or Slack channels, check in to make sure Angie has some next steps she can tick off today. 

Companionship (Colin and Colleen) 

Humans are social animals, but there is a spectrum of sociability, and Colin is at one end. Giving him opportunities to enjoy companionship may motivate him; depriving him of them will send him into a tailspin. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, while productivity at home soared for many of his colleagues, Colin’s productivity cratered so far that under normal circumstances, you would have had to let him go. Others may be at the opposite end of the need for companionship, and companionship is another motivator whose importance can grow and fade. Colin just moved from another city to work at your company. Equally sociable Colleen has deep roots in the area and an extended family nearby, and she sings in a choir. Companionship may be one of her most powerful motivators, but she may not appreciate the not-mandatory-but-you-really-should-be-there happy hour.

Recognition (Randy and Renata) 

Randy lives for acknowledgments of his contributions, whether for his work or for organizing the holiday party. He likes awards, badges, and being pulled on stage to receive them during company meetings. What works for Randy doesn’t work for everyone, though. Renata doesn’t crave the limelight and prefers to be recognized in a one-on-one conversation. Like money, recognition is a currency whose value can be debased. While Randy laps up every opportunity for recognition, giving it to him publicly for screwing in a light bulb devalues the recognition that Renata earned for saving the company $100,000. 

Status (Sara and Sam) 

Whereas recognition can be doled out to everyone in principle—notwithstanding what we said about debasing its value—status is, by definition, a zero-sum game. It’s about one person’s rank relative to others. Job titles are one way of marking status, and Sara is always eager to advance through the ranks. Sam cares quite a bit less than Sara does about titles . . . until Sara gets the promotion to senior associate before Sam does. Then it turns out he cares a lot. We’re not all angling to be at the top of the heap, but we don’t care to slip down. Because someone else’s advance necessarily changes our relative position, promotions are always a fraught event in which motivating one person may demotivate many others. 

Security (Steven) 

Some of us feel more anxious, some of us less, about the future. Steven is highly anxious, and that anxiety distracts him from doing his best work. He would never describe himself as motivated by money, but for Steven, money buys peace of mind. He appreciates employment contracts that give him long-term visibility. What he doesn’t appreciate is rumors about big changes like mergers and layoffs. If you’re working with Steven, avoid idle speculation! Once rumors are in the air, be sure you check in on Steven. You may not be able to guarantee stability, but simply giving Steven a chance to discuss his anxieties is often helpful. As people’s life situation evolves, their need for security may also change. It’s far easier to be happy-go-lucky before you have a mortgage and a family to support.

Mastery (Maria) 

Just honing a skill toward perfection can be deeply satisfying. Sure, Maria gets recognition, status, and a sense of achievement from using and improving her skills. There’s more to mastery than those rewards, however; there’s a meditative delight in performing your skill and getting better at it, even when nobody’s watching. The delight of mastery is not something you can easily give somebody, but managers often take it away inadvertently. With mastery as her motivator, Maria is self-contained as long as she’s working at the edge of her current abilities. That’s the only way she’ll get better. Give her tasks far below her capabilities or, worse, a promotion that takes her out of her beloved domain, and Maria’s resignation letter will land on your desk faster than you can say “Niccolò Paganini.” 

Autonomy (Andy) 

What Andy loved about the COVID-19 lockdowns and the move to the home office was the power he gained over his own time. Andy is acutely aware of the ebbs and flows of life and business. The old-school 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. office hours had never corresponded to the reality of his work, his night-owl biorhythm, and his unpredictable home life. The pandemic taught many businesses that they could trust people like Andy to do the work on time and up to snuff while giving them flexibility in terms of the when and the how. 

Purpose (Bjorn and Nathan) 

In our 20-odd years of working together, both of us have had opportunities to throw in the towel and try our hands at something other than management training. One thing that has kept us coming back for more is our belief that we are not just building a company—although that’s fun, too! We’re doing our part to help managers enable more people to contribute passionately for their own individual benefit and for the world’s.

Life should be filled with purpose. But it’s a bit much to expect everyone to find theirs in their work. Some people use their work as a means to achieve entirely private purposes, like giving their children more opportunities. And that’s okay; these people can be just as productive as those who have found purpose at work. Meanwhile, not every organization offers a purpose that’s worth going above and beyond for. Some companies will contort themselves trying to represent their business as deeply meaningful. We don’t think trying too hard pays off in the long run. 

This list of motivators is hardly exhaustive. Candidly, as the two of us have worked together, we’ve discovered that pure ornery opposition has sometimes brought out our best work, if not always our best selves. If you ignore humanity’s wilder palette of motivations, you might not be able to make sense of your team members’ shifts between different states of engagement. Or your own. The human heart is a complicated thing. 

And that’s why the issue of motivation is a delicate topic. If your takeaway is that management is about driving your team’s performance by playing their motivators like piano keys, we’ll have done you and your team a disservice. People don’t come with their engagement level and their top three motivators branded on their foreheads. Will people reveal what motivates them if you ask them? Only if they are self-aware enough to give you an accurate picture. That’s a Texas-sized if. Even then, they’ll only be open about motivators if they trust you and the larger management team.