Let’s imagine this scenario: In a meeting, an employee has made it clear to his manager that he wants to be promoted. The manager works with the employee over a 12-month period, outlining the milestones needed to be promoted and tracking the employee’s progress against the milestones. During the next promotion cycle, the employee is promoted but he hands in his resignation a few months later. What happened? Could this have been prevented? The manager thought that he was addressing the needs of the employee. In this case, the employee was motivated not by promotion, but by another factor. Unfortunately, the manager and even the employee were not aware of that.

The official definition of motivation is the willingness to act or work. In the context of the work environment, I believe it is the desire to fulfill one’s job responsibilities where employee engagement is met. Imagine an environment where the majority of the employees are motivated at work. The productivity would be immense and the vibe in the office would be energetic. What factors motivate employees? Fear can be a very powerful motivator. It is the fear of losing one’s job, fear of letting someone down, fear of not being seen as working hard amongst senior leaders, fear of not completing a task, etc. However, fear is not a sustainable and healthy motivator. There are other factors that are both internally and externally focused that motivate employees.

Below is a list of motivators that employees should rank in order of importance. The rank order may surprise managers. The employee should discuss in detail what he/she was thinking with each of the motivators. There will definitely be overlap amongst the motivators but having the discussion will be very helpful for both the employee and his/her manager.

-Job content (the role itself)

-Additional responsibility (wanting to take on additional responsibility)

-Recognition (being recognized either in public or private)

-Affiliation (connection and feeling to the department, organization or to individuals in the organization)

-Power (desire to influence more broadly)

-Achievement (sense of accomplishment and wanting to take on responsibility of goals)

-Advancement (promotion or larger role)

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