Do your Intrinsic Motivators change? And if so, how do you know?

At EQIQ (Attuned’s parent company), all employees already retake the Motivation Assessment once a year. Do people’s Motivators vary every time? The short answer: some do and some don’t. Those who do have significant differences in their Profile from one year to the next have usually had some sort of promotion or other role change at work, or a life-changing personal milestone such as getting married or having children.

It’s always interesting to hear how my colleagues’ Motivators have changed, and the reasons that may lie behind those changes; Security and Financial Needs, for example, often rise after starting a family. Likewise, I’ve seen some significant differences in my own Motivator Report, most notably when I started my current role as Customer Success Manager, which was a totally new area for me.

Before I changed roles, my top Motivators had been Status, Altruism, and Financial Needs (Report #1). After starting the role, however, my Profile changed so that Feedback became my only ‘Need to have’ (Report #2). This made sense because, since I was stepping into a new position in an unfamiliar area, I needed a lot more feedback and support. Progressing in my career (Status) and helping others (Altruism) were still important to me, they just weren’t my primary motivation at that time.

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As well as allowing individuals and managers to visualize shifting priorities within themselves and their teams, retaking the Motivation Assessment also helps to create a greater sense of self-awareness and the ability to track and reflect on change over time. It also gives managers the opportunity to communicate with and motivate their team based on the latest Motivator Report, while on a wider scale it offers the longer-term potential to track and measure changing trends within a company, a city, a country, or even globally. Based on this data, individuals and companies will then be better positioned to make positive changes.

For me, retakes have been crucial in allowing me to develop a deeper understanding of myself and my motivational needs, thus providing me with clearer direction on what I should focus on, and making work more enjoyable and more meaningful overall. It’s also been useful for my direct manager, who was able to see how my Intrinsic Motivators had changed and adjust his management and communication style accordingly.

To get the most out of the Motivation Assessment Retake, our team of psychologists have come up with a list of powerful questions to ask alongside the retake. These include:

• What were the key insights you received the last time you took the Assessment?

• Are there any surprising results in the latest Motivation Assessment? If so, why are these surprising?

• How have your workplace relationships changed since the last time you took the Assessment?

• How have all the changes caused by the pandemic affected your priorities and values? Were these experiences reflected in the latest Assessment?

• Describe how your goals for your work and job have changed since the last Assessment.

• Were there any changes in your professional or personal life since your last Assessment? If so, do you feel these changes affected your motivation at work?