Originally published in Catalyst Magazine
What is the value of a single piece of information without any context? Knowing that the answer is “three”, without any other relevant information is useless. Even with a label, such as miles, dollars, or customers, you still don’t have any way to judge whether “three” is good or bad until you see it in relation to some other piece of information. Relationships are key to understanding the value of the data.
Most job descriptions I have seen focus on two areas: the responsibilities of the position (the present), and the experience or credentials required (the past). But the best candidates are not looking to repeat past accomplishments – they are looking for new challenges and opportunities to grow and advance (the future). If you want to attract the best and brightest talent, you need to focus on what the candidate can expect in the future should they accept the position, not just what is involved on day 1.
This article might be described as a great big disclaimer to Management and Motivation Part 2 - 7 Motivating Factors. In that article, I described several basic motivational factors I have observed in people over the years.
Reality, however, is rarely that simple. Here, I hope to add some texture to that discussion by describing some exceptions and special circumstances where people are motivated differently than they might be otherwise.
In my last article, I explained that motivating people is a personalized task that has to be tailored to the individual you are working with.
Here are 7 different ways that people are motivated. These are certainly not exhaustive, and there are probably variations of each one that could be discussed further. But these are some of the more common motivational factors that I have seen:
One of the essential skills for good management - whether it be people management or project management - is the ability to motivate people. Countless books and articles have been written about motivational tips, tools, and techniques, but I would like to focus on the idea that people are motivated in individually different ways, and whatever motivational techniques you may use, the key is not to master a technique and use it on everyone; The key is to tailor an individual technique for each individual person.