Complimentary Motivation.

The following is written in a different style of writing than my normal blogs as it is a copy of a paper I wrote as a reflection for my Principles of Management class this semester. It highlights the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation for management teams, and how they are not separate of each other where one is better than the other, but how the compliment each other and when done correctly, people can be highly motivated for great periods of time. It is a bit of a longer read, but I promise it gives good insight to motivation strategies for management teams. Hope you enjoy!

This semester, we have learned a lot about management in many different aspects. Aspects of operations, relations, motivation, strategy, etc. However, one topic of management that always seems to gain my interest is motivation. It is fascinating to me the ways in which people are motivated to do things. Not just how are they encouraged to do more, but what drives them to do it? What are their motives? After this semester and thinking on our discussions of motivation, I have developed some deeper thinking into motivation from a management perspective, and I have a better view of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation from an organizational view as not two different options, but two parts to one whole.

Often, when we hear about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, we either know what it is and we think, “well, _________ is the better of the two.” Or, we think, “what does that even mean?” I think depending on your outlook on life, your decision on whether extrinsic, the pushing forces, are more important to you or intrinsic, the pulling forces from within, are more important tends to change. But, I would argue that they are complimentary of each other, and in many cases with proper designation of each, people can grow to be intrinsically motivated through extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation can bring about the desired extrinsic motivators.

I remember working at The Home Depot starting in 2019 and I was extremely uninterested. All I cared about was playing soccer, but our season was cancelled because of COVID-19 and I decided to find a job instead of just taking part in school. When I first started at The Home Depot, I was an intrinsically motivated person, but not when it came to doing Home Depot work. When it came to soccer, I was passionate and highly driven to improve, but Home Depot was just a transactional trade-off for me when I started. I needed money, and they needed someone in the store, so there I was. Fast forward a few months and I saw how much The Home Depot cared for and valued their associates. I thought, well I want to win some of those awards and prizes. The visible and clearly attainable extrinsic motivators brought to life the intrinsic motivation in me. 10 months since my start date, I was doing incredibly well in my role, and was asked to interview for supervisor. I was no longer concerned about the rewards; the intrinsic motivation was all the drive I needed to perform and enjoy my job. I was a Manager on Duty, typically a position that takes 2-3 years to attain, in just over one year, and at 20 years old at that.

Once I reached Manager on Duty, I was still highly engaged for another six months until I started to realize my burnout. I was putting in all the hours, operating the largest department in the store at one of the most successful rates in the region and breaking store records. However, I was no longer receiving the extrinsic motivation I once had and I started to think, “Are people still noticing me?” Truth was, yes, but it didn’t feel that way. After six months in this position, I decided to leave and return to school.

While I wouldn’t trade my experience at Home Depot for anything, I would say I did learn a huge lesson from it. When it comes to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, they are complimentary to each other, and the extrinsic side must be consistent. The extrinsic motivators have great potential of bringing about intrinsic motivation, but only when the extrinsic motivators appear to be attainable within reason and frequent enough to not create a gap that forgetfulness of recognition ensues. Then, the intrinsic must act before the extrinsic is received by the person. When motivated, extrinsic rewards intrinsic, and intrinsic earns extrinsic. When unmotivated, extrinsic seems attainable, intrinsic is noticed as the differentiating force that earns extrinsic, and the unmotivated person will often likely take up the attitude of, “I want those things too!” and once they have that attitude, it’s on management to then reward their intrinsic motivational behaviors consistently with extrinsic rewards. If, like in my situation, the extrinsic is not consistent, team members may begin to feel under-noticed and under-appreciated, thus making them feel as though their intrinsic motivation is being wasted, and before long they will take their interests elsewhere.

Overall, one of the most valuable lessons I learned this semester that I have been able to apply to a real-world situation of my own is that of motivation. As managers, we can’t just rely on everyone being intrinsically motivated, and we can’t just rely on extrinsic motivation to always push. It is important to motivate extrinsically and evaluate the growth of new employees’ intrinsic motivation. If they are being intrinsically motivated, reward it, if they aren’t it may be time to find another new hire, because truth is that real drive and motivation comes from both forces acting on a person; no single force of motivation can keep someone at 100%, only the work of two forces together can do that. Make extrinsic rewards attainable, and use them to reward intrinsic motivation at every opportunity possible.