People Operations

CHAPTER 11Employee Motivation

Let me ask you this: what motivates you? I mean, what really motivates you? Not just what gets you up out of bed, but what makes you feel alive, bigger than yourself, ready to dive into something regardless of how hard it is because you believe in it? Do you know?

True motivation is the basis for all sorts of crazy achievements. It's how babies learn to walk, how Elon Musk managed to land rockets back on Earth, and how businesses go from good to great. When we feel motivated to do something, obstacles seem to diminish and dream‐busting realists stand down. But often it's hard to articulate what motivates us. For instance, can you really tell me what motivates you … right now? It's even harder to articulate what motivates others.

But in people ops, understanding what motivates our workforce is our raison d'être. The extent to which we can extricate true motivators and adjust our places of business to nurture such motivations can be the difference between a company that gets by and a company that defines the next era.

That's because when a company brings together a group of people who are authentically motivated, amazing things happen. Synergies happen. When you're motivated, an eruption of potential that you didn't think humanly possible within you, happens. It's the snapshot in time people look back to in their careers where they say, “Wow, that was an amazing, once‐in‐a‐lifetime team and company to work for.” And if you've had the good fortune ...