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

The examples below describe my experience and colleagues’ experiences when this article was first published in 2022. They are anecdotes, not a longitudinal study or evidence that a promotion or family change causes a particular motivator to rise.

It was interesting to discuss changes with my colleagues. In my own experience, I saw differences in my Motivator Report when I started a new role as Customer Success Manager. That is my interpretation of my experience, rather than a rule for other people.

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.

After a year in my new role, however, my top three Motivators changed back to Status, Financial Needs and Altruism (Report #3), with Feedback in fourth place (now just as a ‘Nice to have’). Since I had received enough feedback and become confident in the job, my Feedback needs lessened and my previous top Motivators regained their former level of priority.

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.

The original article considered pandemic-era changes and the research possibilities of repeated assessments. Those questions remain hypotheses here; this article presents no new longitudinal findings.

Examples of questions that a properly designed longitudinal study could investigate include:

“Does satisfaction of the motives reduce how strongly they are valued?” According to the Two Process Model, if someone is having their needs met, then their corresponding motives would go down.

Or “To what extent are some Motivators ‘locked in’ or permanent, and others situation-dependent?” For example, Feedback tends to rank high for new starters or new grads. But is this inherent in this demographic, or is it actually because they have a greater need for support and reassurance for that particular period only, just like it was for me?

Answering these questions requires appropriate analysis; the personal reports above cannot establish a general causal explanation.

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 changes since your previous assessment 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?