Motivation

What is motivation? How do you get it? How do you motivate other people?
Motivation is a force that inspires action. It is critical to achieving goals and outcomes. Motivation is either external or internal. External motivation can be in the form of rewards or consequences. Internal motivation is unique to each individual and is far more challenging to identify and apply. You can motivate others externally or internally but lasting change requires internal motivation.
To motivate others you must understand what matters to them. An MIT study shows that rewards (or more money) are NOT a driving force behind productivity in the workplace. Autonomy, mastery and purpose were discovered to be the most critical factors to motivate people.

• Autonomy – individual control or the ability to direct our own lives
• Mastery – getting better and better at something that matters
• Purpose – doing what we do as a part of something greater than ourselves 

 For an engaging presentation of this information delivered by Daniel Pink check out this VIDEO. He has also written extensively about motivation in his book Drive. 
We encourage you to apply these principles of motivation. When you want to motivate someone, give them more control, help them improve at something or share the greater purpose (the why) behind the task.