Motivation Part II: Elements of Motivation

What motivates you?


What motivates your mentee or employee?


For years I was convinced I knew the answer especially for those in technical fields. Generally people are primarily motivated by 1 of these 3 categories of things:

1. The kind of work they do/projects they have
2. Money
3. Recognition

Figure out which is their primary category and give them as much of it as you can and that will make for a happy and productive person. If you have someone that gravitates towards highly visible projects then make sure to mention their name (or better yet, have the division head or CEO mention their name) at all hands meetings. If you have someone that is motivated by the latest technology then put them on bleeding-edge type projects or give them some extra research assignment that requires a new technical direction.


But more recently one of my favorite authors, Dan Pink, wrote a book called Drive which studies human motivation in depth. Through his work I discovered that those 3 categories are only part of the equation and not even the most important part! For the kind of work that is beyond the purely mechanical and requires even rudimentary cognitive skills and creativity the 3 elements of motivation for the 21st century are (with definitions from Mr. Pink):

1. Autonomy - "the urge to direct our own lives"
2. Mastery - "the desire to get better and better at something that matters"
3. Purpose - "the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves"

There is a superb TED Talk where he introduces this concept and makes a case for all of us to rethink the elements of motivation. This video is absolutely worth your 20 minutes. After watching consider if and how you would change your approach to motivating people.


Dan Pink talk here.