5 motivational myths that need busting

The reality: People have unique motivational profiles

It wasn’t so long ago that companies around the world thought that the secret to galvanizing their staff was providing perks like ping pong tables, well-stocked larders and free gym memberships. But the notion that everyone is essentially motivated by the same things isn’t just incorrect, it’s hugely counterproductive.

The truth is much more complex—and also more beautiful. In fact, a person’s motivational profile is a lot like a fingerprint.

While it is true that people are motivated by a finite list of factors, there is an almost infinite number of combinations when it comes to these factors’ relative importance to that person. How do we know? We measured it. To cut a long story (and an even longer equation) short, there are about 7.5 quadrillion different possible motivational profiles, meaning the chances of two people having the exact same motivational needs are very remote indeed.

To motivate people effectively, therefore, it’s crucial to understand what their individual motivational needs are first.

The reality: The C-suite, HR and line managers all have a role to play in creating motivating workplaces

To motivate people as a manager, you need to create an atmosphere of trust that will allow your team members to give you honest feedback about their motivation levels, and the kind of tasks and interactions they find motivating or demotivating. You also need to embrace different approaches: while some of your team members may thrive on Autonomy, others may prefer the Security of clear targets, instructions and rules.

If you’re in HR, your responsibility is systemic in nature: you should aim to give managers in your organization cutting-edge research-based tools and training, and create processes that will allow them to be more effective at motivating people.

At the C-level, recognizing the importance of motivation and culture, and giving HR adequate resources to make meaningful progress should be a top priority.

The reality: Employees are mainly motivated from within 

In the classic carrot and stick approach to management, rewards and punishments are key to motivation. This can include bonuses, incentives and extra holidays on the one hand, and criticism, disciplinary actions and dismissal on the other. All of these can be grouped under what’s called Extrinsic Motivation.

The opposite is Intrinsic Motivation, the values and preferences that drive a person from within, and which make doing a particular task more meaningful for them.

For most companies, the focus has long been on motivating people extrinsically, but decades of psychological research have shown that this is much less effective than one might expect, and can even have a negative effect on performance.

Intrinsic Motivation, on the other hand, is strongly linked to increased engagement, better performance and overall happiness.

For more information on the value of Intrinsic Motivation vs Extrinsic Motivation, check out this primer and this recent academic study, or download our White Paper on the subject for an even deeper dive, but the short version is this: leaders need to stop placing so much weight on extrinsic motivators and start working to understand their employees’ intrinsic motivators if they want to not just inspire but also retain the best talent.

The reality: High motivation can come with high needs

What does it mean for an employee to be motivated?

At Attuned, it means that your employee’s need-to-have Motivators are fulfilled at work. To put it another way, they are in an environment in which they can participate in and pursue the things that make work meaningful for them. And the more need-to-haves a person has, the more specific their motivational requirements.

So how do you know what a person’s motivational requirements are, I hear you ask. That leads us on to Myth #5…

The reality: Assessments can measure motivation and culture fit

Until relatively recently, understanding what motivates people took time. In fact it generally took multiple 1-on-1s, countless hours of on-the-job assessment and observation, and a lot of trial and error over weeks, months and years to finally get a sense of what makes a person tick.

With Attuned, however, you can fast-forward through this lengthy process and get straight to the good stuff.

Taking our Intrinsic Motivation Assessment (you can learn more about how it works here), which draws on years of psychological research and a sprinkling of AI, generates a unique report that makes people’s unseen drives and values instantly visible, allowing managers to better understand what each person needs to thrive at work.

Not only that, but managers can also see at-a-glance where they have motivational gaps with team members, allowing them to personalize their management approach to match the individual’s needs and develop a common language to enhance communication.

As for culture fit (and, indeed, culture add), Attuned aggregates the individual Motivator Reports to create charts that visualize the team or company culture, highlighting both core shared values and outliers. This makes it easy to screen for people who have a similar profile to the rest of the team (or to find people who can bring something that’s currently missing from your team dynamic).

Now that we’ve debunked some of the myths around motivation at work, here’s what you can do to really motivate your employees:

Engage the Individual

Rather than looking at whole organizations, divisions or teams, it’s important to understand what motivates each employee individually. Everyone has a different motivational profile, so it pays to tailor your management and leadership approach accordingly.

Create an Atmosphere of Trust and Psychological Safety

Trust and Psychological Safety are a must in any successful organization to make sure employees can communicate freely and openly in all directions. This transparency from all sides is necessary to create mutual understanding, and it has to be a two-way street: as a leader, it’s important that your employees know your motivations as well as their own if you want to create real lasting trust.

Focus on Intrinsic Motivation

There are a few work tasks (mainly dull, repetitive ones, such as on production lines) where extrinsic motivation has a largely positive effect on employees, but in most cases people do a lot better when they are intrinsically motivated. If people get satisfaction from the work itself, they will be more engaged, productive and happier. And by making work more meaningful for employees, the whole organization benefits.

Use Tools and Data to Measure Your Employees’ Motivation

In the end, everything comes down to really understanding what drives your employees individually. In the past, managers would need countless 1-on-1s and meetings, team discussions and casual chats to get to know their employees and all their nuances in motivation. To achieve this you need superb people skills and lots of experience, and even then the failure rate is still high. Luckily, we now have tools like Attuned that make the whole process of understanding employees a lot easier and faster for busy managers.