Monday, September 3, 2012

A520.4.3.RB - Motivation Beyond Money


Andy does a fine job of outlining these motivators that people like me respond to, which are interesting work, recognition, and the expansion of one’s skill set. If the work that someone is doing does not interest them, how can you keep them engaged enough to do it every day and excel at it? It’s nearly impossible, and for me having an interesting job is a rather big motivator. Along with it being interesting comes challenge, excitement, and achievement, all of which allow me to continue to do it day in and day out.

Recognition, which is arguably the most important one, is crucial for me. I consider myself to be an over achiever, and because of that I enjoy being recognized for my efforts, my contributions to the organization. And who doesn’t? Every employee, no matter the level in the organization, wants to know their true value by being recognized. It’s part of the big picture concept where employees want to see their contributions and hear about them from leadership.

The expansion of one’s skill set is also a no-brainer. Organizations need highly trained, intelligent people working for them, and with this comes training programs for different specializations and areas of focus for organizations. Leaders are often selected for promotions within the company, but not without some sort of training and advancement of skills. I enjoy learning new job skills, new trades, and furthering my education, basically anything that makes me better at what I do.

Additionally, I have other motivators, one of them being goal setting, both from my manager and myself. I establish long and short term goals that allow me to accomplish different tasks in my professional life, but I also like it when my manager does the same for me. I enjoy the challenge, and it often results in me discovering a new talent or skill that I possess.

The second motivator is feedback, both positive and negative. Just as much as I enjoy hearing everything that I am doing well at, I also like to hear what areas I could improve on. This makes me a stronger leader and helps me with personal and professional development.

A third motivator is my peers at work. Who I work with has a lot to do with my general demeanor at work. I enjoy working with friends, not co-workers, so building relationships with my peers is essential. I feed off of their positive energy and excitement, as they do me, and bouncing ideas off of them and collaborating is fun, effective, and good for development and relationship building.




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