The 9 work motivations.
What energises you and your team at work?
I had a private session recently with a client.
Her energy was palpable. Dressed in designer shoes and jewellery, her vibe was ‘I am someone who makes moves.’
“What is thiiis”, I cooed.
“It’s the first time I’ve been in my green zone in years”, she explained.
“My bandwidth isn’t hijacked anymore.”
She’d been made redundant.
The first thing she felt was relief.
Then, something neat happened … she started to feel like herself again.
After being frozen from stress, her ‘old self’ could finally defrost.
Why it hadn’t been working.
The reason my client felt out of whack at her job wasn’t because she didn’t love it.
It was because she was motivated by something the job could never give her.
The 9 work motivations.
The 9 work motivations, taken from clinical psychologist Dr Riaz’s work with billionaire-entrepreneur Peter Jones, suggests 9 factors influence what energises us at work.
These are:
Meaning
Security
Material reward
Power/Influence
Status
Expertise
Creativity
Affiliation
Autonomy
In sessions I invite people to choose 3 that resonate with them and to think about what that means in a work setting.
The 3 they choose tell me how they’re wired and thereby what naturally energises them at work.
Which 3 resonate with you?
Years ago, I was in a job that felt hard, all the time.
It never occurred to me that there was another option other than powering through.
Looking back, I realise I was exhausted because my top 3 motivators weren’t being met. I didn’t need more time; I needed more energy, doing more things that motivated me.
Think back to jobs where you felt really tired.
Chances are, your 3 motivators weren’t being met.
I like to think of what motivates me as my ‘personal dashboard’.
On this dashboard are my 3 motivators, and ‘conditions’ for me to feel energised.
I refer to this dashboard to check whether I’ll be naturally motivated at work.
With your 3 work motivators, you can start to figure out what your non-negotiables are at work. This then creates a set of conditions for you to say ‘yes’ to your best work.
Here’s an example.
My 3 motivators are autonomy, creativity and influence.
At work, I ask myself:
Could this give me creativity, autonomy or influence in some way?
If not, how could I get creativity, autonomy or influence by saying yes?
If it doesn’t give me my top 3, it doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll say no.
It just tells me I’ll have to work a little harder to make myself do it.
Because I’m not intrinsically motivated by it.
Here’s my dashboard for what energises me.
top 3 motivators:
Autonomy
Creativity
Power/Influence
Non-negotiable for work to feel energising:
I crave control over how and when I work. If I can decide how I work, I am motivated to get started.
I crave to use my creativity at work. If I can apply my creativity (writing, presenting, problem solving) in some way, I’m already excited.
If a project grows my influence, that’s great for business. Immediately, I get energised visualising how this could help me get to that next level.
Knowing this helps me manage my energy a little more proactively.
Instead of feeling surprised that I’m fried after a project that doesn’t meet one of my motivators, I now remind myself: because it wasn’t naturally motivating, to get it done, I had to exert extra energy. As a result, I need to replenish.
At work, there’ll be things that don’t energise you.
But you get to decide how you approach your work.
Knowing what motivates you helps you see what energises you and what depletes your energy. The 3 motivators are a great tool for this.
For example:
If your motivator is creativity, you’ll need to feel you’re applying your creative thinking skills to be energised. Document what creativity means to you, then see if you can find a way to apply those skills in your current gig.
If one of your drivers is security, you’ll need to feel either financially or emotionally safe. Extrapolate what that means to you. Does it mean healthy cash flow? A regular salary? Once you know what it means in practical terms you can start thinking about what could be possible at your existing gig.
If one of your drivers is meaning, you’ll need to feel you're doing something of substance. Flesh out what that looks like to you.
When you are clear on what your motivators mean in practical terms, it becomes clear what you need more of to feel more yourself at work.
Add them to your dashboard.
On the flip side, it’s also de-energising working with someone who doesn’t seem to want to be there.
It feels like taking a sack of concrete for a walk.
If you have people ‘half in’, or at capacity, this exercise could be a real ‘aha’ moment.
For example, if you’ve been having conversations about capacity and feel that you’re not getting anywhere, giving the person a tool to figure out what they want out of their career, and how the job could facilitate that, could be a game-changer.
You’re not their career coach, but you are a lifeline.
Your responsibility as a boss is to set the standard for how people behave at work.
And if you get a vibe that people are not that into their job, or they’re underwater in a pretzel-type position, it’s incumbent on you to ask them to reflect on how this gig could work for them.
Then, once you know what people want, you can see what’s possible.
You don’t have to do it alone.
I run a workshop on tapping into what motivates you so people can design their personal growth plans for work. I teach this at workplaces, in teams and across companies. Get in touch to learn more.
You also can do the exercise for yourself, so you can speak to it truthfully, and then share it with your team.