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In my experience working with and managing humans, the best people care about doing great work first, but there's usually a secondary motivator. The most common self-motivators are in my experience are: money, status, recognition, adrenaline, or freedom.
People who are primarily self-motivated are generally not great team mates or hires. The best folks care about doing great work first, and the self-motivator is secondary. But it's important to think about what those motivators are for the people who work with and for you.
Money: Feels most valued when receiving pay raises, equity, and sees salary as the most important signal of their importance.
Status: Feels most valued based on reporting structure, position in org chart, job title.
Status: Feels most valued based on reporting structure, position in org chart, job title.
Recognition: Feels most valued when acknowledged and praised publicly or privately.
Adrenaline: Feels most valued when put on high pressure, high risk projects with the chance for big failure or big success.
Freedom: Feels most valued when give lots of autonomy and ownership.
Adrenaline: Feels most valued when put on high pressure, high risk projects with the chance for big failure or big success.
Freedom: Feels most valued when give lots of autonomy and ownership.
All of these things matter to everyone a bit, but in my experience for most people, one usually matters a lot more than the others. If you can understand self-motivators you can direct folks towards the right opportunities and show up for them in ways that will resonate.
There are positives and negatives to these. For example, my primary self-motivator is recognition. The negative side of this for me is that it can make me too eager to please and too concerned about making people happy. I'm aware of this and work against these tendencies.
