E123E >> Career

What Motivates You In Your Career

Have you ever wondered about what it is that motivates you in your career? There are many different forms of business and personal motivation, and understanding these is important. Knowledge of motivational strategies will allow you to progress and grow in your career and, hopefully, reach your final goals as well. What is Motivation? So, what actually is motivation anyway? As explained by Dictionary.com, motivation is “the act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way”. In other words, motivation is a form of encouragement that is commonly used by employers in a business to help their team work more efficiently, thereby leading to higher business profits and the like.

What Motivates People?

There is a business theory referred to as Maslow’s Triangle of Needs which details the many different needs of a worker. The needs are categorised into the shape of a pyramid, whereby it is impossible to achieve tiers on the higher levels of motivation without first meeting a person’s basic physiological needs. These basic needs (food, water, shelter, etc) are largely what motivate us to go to work in the morning; we need the money to be able to provide for us and our families. And, after all, who really cares about promotion in the business and whatnot if they are going hungry at home? Next in the physiological needs is the need for safety. If a worker feels unsafe in the workplace, they will not be motivated to work harder. There are many forms of safety, from physical safety to emotional safety and everything in between. If a worker is stressed or scared, they won’t be working well, after all. Following on from these two basic needs are our physiological needs, and these are generally the needs which motivate us to succeed and grow. These include the need for friends, loved ones, and pride. Without this, we won’t be able to ever meet our full potential at the very top of the pyramid. The vast majority of workers fall into this “physiological needs” category; they have enough food and water and feel safe, however, they can’t quite reach the top podium for motivation yet. Business Motivators There are many forms of motivation that businesses choose to use. These include: ?Fear motivation—motivation of workers through fear and threats, generally in the form of the threat of losing a job if the work is not satisfactory ?Intrinsic motivation—whereby we are motivated to succeed by intrinsic (personal) factors, instead of being encouraged by someone else to work harder ?Incentive motivation—a form of motivation where an incentive or reward is offered to workers. This is a common form of motivation and can come in the form of a pay bonus or even a promotion within the ranks of the company! ?Power motivation—when additional responsibility is given to a worker to make them feel more important within their organisation, thereby motivating them All of the above forms of motivation are widely used in industry. If you are struggling with motivation, it could be that you are lacking in one of the above forms of motivation. Potentially, asking your employer directly for help may allow you to overcome your lack of motivation for the career in question!

In Summary

There are many different types of motivation. Indeed, motivation in the workplace is a topic which has been studied for huge lengths of time. Maslow’s Hierarchy of the Needs is a very relevant tool, even today, for helping a business or a worker understand their current needs in order to find new motivation in their career!