Unlocking the Power of Intrinsic Motivation

If money is the only reward, a high turnover is inevitable. Let's transform that.

How do you get people to bring their best to work?

For a long time, companies thought the carrots and sticks approach would be the best way to foster commitment. Is that the case?

Giving higher bonuses for outputs may drive unwanted behavior.

Making people afraid of punishment will ensure they play it safe and don’t innovate.

Without a proper purpose, people will inevitably treat their jobs as a means to pay their bills rather than something they genuinely care about.

If more money isn’t how you get people to bring their best, how would you do it? That’s when intrinsic motivation comes in. Let’s talk about it.

What’s intrinsic motivation?

Intrinsic motivation is a way of driving behavior based on internal desires. When someone does something because she relates to it or because it matters to her, that’s intrinsic motivation. The reward comes from the feeling you’re doing something you care about. It comes from within and not from the outside.

Contrary to intrinsic motivation, we have extrinsic motivation. The reward comes from something external, often financial compensation. For example, you get a bonus when you reach the sales goal.

Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is something you’re in control of; your reward comes from doing what you care about. Extrinsic motivation is something out of your control; no matter what you do, your reward is unpredictable.

I like comparing intrinsic motivation with product vision. You know where you want to land, but don’t know how to get there. You use every opportunity you have to learn and grow. You enjoy the journey no matter how it unfolds. You’re excited about discovering the new, evolving, learning, and making small steps. Intrinsic motivation is inspiring and energy-boosting.

I compare extrinsic motivation with feature roadmaps. The solution is already defined, and your mission is to deliver features, though you may disagree with them. Day in and day out, you strive to reach what was predefined, hoping to achieve that goal and get your promised reward. As a feature roadmap, your chance of succeeding is only one; you either get it or miss it. Motivation boosts when you get your bonus and plunges when you don’t. Extrinsic motivation is often stressful, as you have no control over the outcomes.

Examples of intrinsic motivation at work

The good thing about intrinsic motivation is that you can design the workplace for that. With simple actions, you can get outstanding results.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

• Empower people with problems, not solutions: Instead of telling people what they should deliver when trusting them with important problems, let them figure out how to solve them. This attitude drives accountability and better results.

• Create room to learn from each other: Companies have loads of talents, but mainly, they receive pressure to produce more. You can motivate people by letting them share their knowledge with their team members. For example, ask what people would like to share, then once a month, ask your team to select what speaks most to them. After that, the one with the most votes becomes the trainer. Sharing is caring, and people love doing that.

• Let people be heard: People are inclined to stay in a place where their opinion counts and their voice is heard. You can create different methods to make it easy to share opinions, e.g., a feedback box, an anonymous survey, etc. The magic happens when leadership acts and addresses what people care about.

• Involve your team: People are motivated when they are involved in something meaningful. For example, when planning a team event, get people involved in the preparation instead of keeping everything a secret. You will be surprised by outstanding ideas and high commitment.

• Learning goals: Everyone has something to learn; help them keep evolving. One thing that I like to do as a leader is agree on a quarter-long learning goal. Then, I use one-on-ones to help my team members gradually develop. It’s indeed time-consuming but rewarding to help people grow.

Factors that promote intrinsic motivation

What we discussed will help you boost intrinsic motivation, but that’s not enough to keep it flowing. Some other aspects are also crucial. Let’s explore them:

• Challenge level: As a leader, you need to give your teams challenges matching their skills. When the challenges are bigger, they need help or will fail. When the challenge is too easy, they won’t engage in bringing their best. Balancing skill sets and problems you empower them to solve is critical. You can get people in the flow by matching your skillset, challenge, and purpose.

• Praise: Recognizing people’s effort is vital to keep intrinsic motivation pulsing. When they feel what they do matters, they will keep doing more of that. Use the power of feedback to share positive feedback with the person in public. Appreciate them for their work and achievements.

• Sense of belonging: When people feel they belong to a team, they start caring more about collaboration, and the result is beautiful. It’s your responsibility as a leader to foster collaboration and help team members get together. Create feedback rounds so team members can become strong together.

• Curiosity: One of the critical aspects of intrinsic motivation is to discover the new continuously. Small steps and progress. That’s why creating space for teams to explore the unknown and constantly learn is important.

The balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Based on what I wrote, you may wonder, “Should I ditch extrinsic motivation altogether?” No, that fast. There’s also good in it, but there’s a catch. Let us break down a few misconceptions:

• Salespeople need bonuses; that’s how they work.

• Bonus drives loyalty

• Bonus can lure talents to join you

Maybe the above was true in the past, but we live in a knowledge era. People look for meaningful ways to spend their time, not just ways to make more money.

Combining intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can work well, but you need to apply some aspects.

• Fair: Treat people fairly and equally. One thing that destroys motivation is having different bonus schemes for different levels. This creates first, second, and third-class employees, removing the sense of belonging.

• Getting everyone on the same boat: Make the bonus rules the same for everyone. This will foster collaboration, and everyone will either thrive or fail together.

• Compatible compensation: Pay people according to their skillset and market. The rest follows when you remove the doubt that people are paid fairly.

Yet, I must warn you to be careful with extrinsic motivation. It’s easier to make it complicated and create an undesired effect. Keep it simple to understand and ensure it gets people on a mission. You want missionaries, not mercenaries.

Conclusion

Intrinsic motivation is the fuel that motivates people to bring their best. It creates joy throughout the journey, no matter the result you achieve. Focus on driving more of that.

Extrinsic motivation is external and out of people’s control. It’s a hit or a miss, and it causes more stress than pleasure. However, you can use it in combination with intrinsic motivation when you treat people the same way and get everyone on the same boat.

Give people a mission and trust them; the rest will follow.

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