The current pandemic and associated restrictions on everyday life are leading to increasing dissatisfaction among many people. However, dissatisfaction with one's own situation is not a new phenomenon. Many people are plagued by a general lack of drive and wait for other people to give them incentives to act, instead of taking action themselves and trying to realize their wishes and goals. Probably everyone knows what it feels like to be motivated, yet few are able to explain where the motivation comes from. If it is already difficult retrospectively to justify the origin of motivation, the question arises how to motivate oneself in the first place. This post is intended to help better understand the motivational process and provide food for thought on how to motivate yourself and those around you to take active and purposeful action.
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Understanding Satisfaction: Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory
Before explicitly discussing the motivation process, this insertion will first look at how satisfaction can arise. Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory, which has particular implications for the professional world, has shaped our understanding of when and how (work) satisfaction arises. He first distinguishes between hygiene factors and motivators in the satisfaction spectrum. While hygiene factors (e.g., an appropriate salary) are able to reduce dissatisfaction, motivators (e.g., responsibility) are able to lead from a neutral state to satisfaction. Even though it has been empirically shown that the clear assignment of the various factors to one of the two areas is not viable in practice, this distinction nevertheless provides interesting insights, particularly for operational application.
Hygiene Factors Explained
Hygiene factors are the baseline conditions that, when absent or inadequate, cause dissatisfaction, but when present, merely prevent dissatisfaction rather than creating genuine satisfaction. Common hygiene factors include salary, job security, working conditions, company policies, quality of supervision, and interpersonal relationships with colleagues. These factors relate to the context of work rather than the work itself. An employee who is poorly compensated will be dissatisfied, but merely paying them a fair wage does not in itself make them enthusiastic about their job. This distinction is crucial because many organizations focus their retention efforts almost exclusively on hygiene factors -- raising salaries, improving office amenities, adding perks -- without addressing the deeper drivers of genuine motivation.
Motivators Explained
Motivators, by contrast, are factors intrinsic to the work itself that generate positive satisfaction. They include achievement, recognition, the nature of the work, responsibility, advancement, and opportunities for personal growth. These factors relate to what a person does rather than the conditions under which they do it. When motivators are present, individuals experience genuine engagement and fulfillment. The implication for organizations is that creating meaningful, challenging work and recognizing individual contributions are more effective strategies for building a motivated workforce than simply improving the conditions surrounding the work.
Salary, job security, working conditions, company policies. When absent, they cause dissatisfaction — but when present, they only prevent dissatisfaction. They cannot create genuine motivation.
Achievement, recognition, meaningful work, responsibility, growth opportunities. These factors relate to the work itself and generate real satisfaction and engagement when present.
Defining Motivation: Direction, Intensity, and Persistence
In psychological terms -- closely related to how basic psychological needs shape behavior -- motivation describes a state that indicates the direction, intensity, and persistence of one's own willingness to act in relation to a specific objective. Essentially, a distinction is made between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. The American Psychological Association (APA) defines these two forms of motivation as follows:
"Intrinsic motivation: an incentive to engage in a specific activity that derives from pleasure in the activity itself rather than because of any external benefits that might be obtained."
"Extrinsic motivation: an external incentive to engage in a specific activity, especially motivation arising from the expectation of punishment or reward."
Following this understanding, both the action itself and the consequences associated with an action can motivate a person to perform or not to perform this action. To understand this better, it is worth taking a closer look at the different phases of action.
The Three Components of Motivation
Understanding motivation as having three distinct components -- direction, intensity, and persistence -- provides a practical framework for analysis. Direction refers to what a person chooses to do. Among all possible actions, which one does the individual select? Intensity refers to how much effort a person puts into the chosen action. Two people may choose the same goal, but the energy they invest can differ dramatically. Persistence refers to how long a person continues to pursue the action in the face of obstacles, setbacks, and competing demands. A person may be highly motivated in the short term but abandon their efforts at the first sign of difficulty. Sustainable motivation requires strength in all three components.
The Phases of Action: Effort, Performance, and Outcome
Every effort leads to a performance, which in turn results in an outcome. In the case of intrinsic incentives, the action is performed because the acting person attaches a value to the action as such. In the case of extrinsically motivated actions, on the other hand, the subjective value for the acting person results from the outcome associated with the action. In practice, however, it is not sufficient to confront a person with a desirable outcome -- e.g., in the form of a reward. Whether a person actually acts on the basis of an offered outcome depends on a more complex process. First, the outcome must have a subjective value for the acting person (valence). In addition, one forms expectations as to whether one's own action can lead to a performance that is suitable for realizing the offered outcome (instrumentality). Consequently, a person can only be extrinsically motivated to act if the outcome offered is of value to the person and the person feels able to perform the action in such a way that the performance also leads to the desired outcome.
Expectancy Theory in Greater Detail
This model of motivation draws heavily on Victor Vroom's expectancy theory, which remains one of the most influential frameworks in organizational psychology. Vroom's theory identifies three key variables. First, expectancy: the individual's belief that their effort will lead to adequate performance. A person who doubts their ability to complete a task will not be motivated by any reward, no matter how attractive. Second, instrumentality: the individual's belief that adequate performance will lead to the desired outcome. If a person believes that the promised reward will not actually be delivered, or that factors beyond their control will prevent the outcome from materializing, motivation is diminished. Third, valence: the value the individual places on the outcome. A reward that is meaningful to one person may be irrelevant to another.
Motivation, according to this model, is the product of these three variables. If any one of them is zero -- if the person does not believe they can perform, does not believe performance will lead to the outcome, or does not value the outcome -- then motivation is zero, regardless of how strong the other two variables might be. This mathematical relationship underscores why one-size-fits-all incentive systems so often fail: they assume universal valence and ignore the critical role of expectancy and instrumentality.
The Challenge of Measuring Motivation
The biggest challenge regarding motivation is that it is not directly observable. Most attempts to measure and/or quantify motivation are based on inferring motivation from the observable action and the observable outcome. However, the factual quality of such inferences is at least questionable. Even if it is difficult to find valid explanatory approaches, research in this area is nevertheless relevant because the state of motivation can be understood as a kind of energy source that enables one to take up a goal-oriented action.
Behavioral Indicators and Their Limitations
In practice, managers, educators, and researchers typically rely on behavioral indicators to assess motivation. These may include effort expended, time invested, voluntary engagement beyond minimum requirements, enthusiasm expressed, and persistence in the face of difficulty. While these indicators can provide useful signals, they are imperfect proxies. A highly motivated person may appear calm and measured, while an anxious or externally pressured person may appear energetic and busy without being genuinely motivated. Self-report measures -- questionnaires and surveys that ask individuals about their motivational states -- are widely used in research but are subject to social desirability bias and limited self-awareness.
The practical takeaway is that motivation should be assessed through multiple indicators rather than any single measure, and that conclusions about the motivational states of others should be held with appropriate humility.
Motivation in Organizations
Motivation is not only important for personal success, but also for organizations, which benefit when everyone involved is motivated and satisfied with their job situation. In practice, however, it can often be observed that organizations try to create incentives via hygiene factors. If one follows Herzberg's delineation above, however, these are not suitable for achieving satisfaction, or only to a limited extent. If organizations want to retain their employees and foster loyalty, they should instead focus more on motivators. From a financial point of view, suitable motivators may even be more favorable for an organization, but identifying them often involves a great deal of effort, as they can vary from person to person.
Designing Motivating Work
Research by J. Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham provides a complementary framework for understanding what makes work inherently motivating. Their Job Characteristics Model identifies five core job dimensions that contribute to intrinsic motivation: skill variety (the degree to which a job requires different skills and talents), task identity (the degree to which a job involves completing a whole, identifiable piece of work), task significance (the degree to which the job has a meaningful impact on others), autonomy (the degree to which the job provides freedom and discretion), and feedback (the degree to which the job provides clear information about performance). Jobs that score highly on these dimensions tend to produce higher levels of internal motivation, job satisfaction, and performance quality, while reducing absenteeism and turnover.
For organizations investing in talent development, this framework provides actionable guidance: enrich jobs by increasing variety, giving employees ownership of complete tasks, helping them see the impact of their work, providing greater decision-making authority, and ensuring they receive regular, meaningful feedback. These interventions address the root causes of disengagement rather than merely treating its symptoms.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in Practice
In practice, intrinsically motivated actions are mostly observed in the context of leisure activities, whereas extrinsic motivation is predominantly found in professional life. This arises from the nature of things, since the pursuit of a profession is usually linked to the need to generate an income. Thus, the pursuit of the occupation is mostly driven by the incentive of the wage as a consequence of action. However, people can also independently motivate themselves extrinsically by rewarding themselves for successful actions and thus providing the desired outcome independently of others. One problem with extrinsic incentive structures, however, is that they can lead to dependency, since when the incentive is lost, the desired action is no longer taken up. The action is also not taken up if changed circumstances lead to the expectation that one's own action is no longer sufficient to achieve the required performance. In addition, it is conceivable that saturation sets in, so that an increase in external incentives is needed to motivate a person to act. This is particularly conceivable in the case of repetitive actions. In general, it must always be taken into account with extrinsic incentives that they only have a motivating character if the outcome has a subjective value for the person, the performance leads to the desired outcome and the person is convinced that he or she can perform the action in such a way that the required performance actually occurs.
The Overjustification Effect
One of the most important findings in motivation research is the overjustification effect, first demonstrated by Edward Deci in the early 1970s. When individuals who are already intrinsically motivated to perform an activity are given an external reward for doing so, their intrinsic motivation for the activity often decreases. The introduction of the external reward shifts the perceived reason for the behavior from internal ("I do this because I enjoy it") to external ("I do this because I am rewarded for it"). When the reward is later removed, the individual may be less motivated to perform the activity than they were before the reward was ever introduced.
This finding has profound implications for both personal and organizational contexts. Parents who reward children for reading may inadvertently reduce their children's love of reading. Managers who introduce bonuses for creative work may actually suppress the creativity they are trying to encourage. The lesson is not that external rewards should never be used, but that they should be used thoughtfully and with awareness of their potential to undermine intrinsic motivation, particularly for activities that are already inherently engaging.
When individuals who are already intrinsically motivated receive an external reward, their internal motivation often decreases — the reward shifts the perceived reason for the behavior from "I enjoy this" to "I do this for the reward."
Strategies for Cultivating Intrinsic Motivation
Given the advantages of intrinsic motivation -- its sustainability, its association with higher quality performance, and its positive effects on well-being -- it is worth considering how to cultivate it deliberately. These same principles apply to building passion in your career. Several evidence-based strategies can help.
First, pursue activities that align with your genuine interests and values. Intrinsic motivation is most easily sustained when the activity itself resonates with who you are and what you care about. Second, seek optimal challenges — the principle of continuously improving performance depends on this balance. Activities that are too easy produce boredom; activities that are too difficult produce anxiety. The sweet spot of engagement lies in the zone where the challenge slightly exceeds your current ability. Third, focus on the process rather than the outcome. Paradoxically, people who focus on enjoying and mastering the process tend to achieve better outcomes than those who fixate on results. Fourth, create an environment that supports autonomy. To the extent possible, arrange your circumstances so that you feel a sense of choice and self-direction in your activities.
Practical Approaches to Motivating Others
For those in leadership positions -- whether formal or informal -- motivating others requires a fundamentally different approach than motivating oneself. While you can directly access your own values, goals, and interests, understanding what motivates another person requires empathy, observation, and genuine curiosity.
Listen Before You Incentivize
The most common mistake leaders make is assuming that what motivates them will also motivate their team members. Effective motivation begins with understanding each individual's unique values, aspirations, and circumstances. This requires regular, honest conversations about what people find meaningful, what frustrates them, and what they aspire to achieve. Only with this understanding can a leader design roles, assignments, and incentive structures that resonate at an individual level.
Provide Autonomy Within Structure
People thrive when they have the freedom to determine how they accomplish their goals, even when the goals themselves are set by others. Providing clear expectations about what needs to be achieved, while allowing flexibility in how it is achieved, satisfies the need for autonomy without sacrificing organizational alignment. This approach requires trust, and building that trust is itself a critical leadership skill.
Recognize Effort and Progress, Not Just Results
Recognition is one of the most powerful and cost-effective motivational tools available. However, recognition that focuses exclusively on outcomes can inadvertently discourage risk-taking and experimentation, as people learn to avoid challenging tasks where failure is possible. Recognizing effort, learning, and progress -- in addition to results -- creates a growth-oriented culture where people are motivated to stretch beyond their comfort zones.
The Role of Goals in the Motivation Process
With regard to the initial question, it must be emphasized that the process of motivation is exceedingly complex and that no model solution exists as to how one can motivate oneself or the people around one. Decisive for whether and how a person can be motivated are the individual value attributions and the character of the individual. In order to maintain the motivated state in the long term, it is important that not only external incentives are used for motivation. Intrinsically motivated actions and the focus on appropriate goals enable consistency with regard to action behavior. To do justice to the importance of goals in the motivation process, we will explicitly address goal setting in another post.
Goal Setting as a Motivational Tool
A detailed treatment of goal setting is explored in a dedicated post, but goals serve as a critical bridge between motivation and action. Edwin Locke and Gary Latham's goal-setting theory, one of the most empirically validated theories in organizational psychology, demonstrates that specific, challenging goals lead to higher performance than vague or easy goals. Goals provide direction, mobilize effort, encourage persistence, and stimulate the development of strategies for goal attainment.
However, the relationship between goals and motivation is bidirectional. While goals can generate and sustain motivation, the type of goal matters enormously. Goals that are autonomously chosen and aligned with one's values tend to produce higher quality motivation than goals that are imposed or pursued out of obligation. The most effective motivational strategy, therefore, is not simply to set ambitious goals, but to ensure that those goals are genuinely meaningful to the person pursuing them.
Conclusion
The process of motivation is complex, deeply personal, and resistant to simple formulas. What emerges from the research, however, is a set of principles that can guide both self-motivation and the motivation of others. Intrinsic motivation, while harder to cultivate than extrinsic incentives, produces more sustainable, higher-quality engagement. External incentives, while useful in certain contexts, carry risks of dependency, saturation, and the undermining of intrinsic interest. Understanding the distinction between hygiene factors and motivators helps explain why so many well-intentioned efforts to improve satisfaction fall short. And recognizing that motivation depends on individual values, perceived competence, and the expectation that effort will lead to meaningful outcomes provides a framework for more thoughtful and effective action.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?
Intrinsic motivation comes from the pleasure and satisfaction derived from the activity itself — you do it because you genuinely enjoy it. Extrinsic motivation is driven by external outcomes such as rewards, recognition, or the avoidance of punishment. While extrinsic motivation can be effective in the short term, intrinsic motivation produces more sustainable engagement and higher-quality performance. The key is understanding that both forms serve different purposes across different contexts.
How can I motivate myself when I lack drive or energy?
Start by aligning your activities with your genuine interests and values — intrinsic motivation is most sustainable when the work resonates with who you are. Seek optimal challenges that stretch your abilities without overwhelming you, as described in continuously improving performance. Focus on the process rather than fixating on outcomes, and create an environment that supports autonomy and self-direction. Setting specific, meaningful goals can also bridge the gap between intention and action.
What is the overjustification effect and how does it impact motivation?
The overjustification effect occurs when introducing an external reward for an activity someone already enjoys reduces their intrinsic motivation. The reward shifts the perceived reason for behavior from internal enjoyment to external incentive. When the reward is later removed, the person may be less motivated than before it was introduced. This has practical implications for parents rewarding children for reading or managers offering bonuses for creative work — both can inadvertently suppress the very behavior they aim to encourage.
How can managers motivate their employees more effectively?
Effective employee motivation starts with understanding each individual's unique values and aspirations through genuine conversation. Focus on motivators — achievement, recognition, meaningful work, responsibility, and growth — rather than hygiene factors like salary alone. Provide autonomy within structure, recognize effort and progress alongside results, and design jobs with skill variety, task significance, and regular feedback. Organizations investing in talent development see the strongest returns from these approaches.
Why do external rewards sometimes backfire as motivational tools?
External rewards can create dependency (behavior stops when the incentive disappears), saturation (ever-increasing rewards are needed), and the overjustification effect (intrinsic interest is undermined). They are most effective for routine, uninteresting tasks where intrinsic motivation is unlikely to develop. For creative, complex, or inherently engaging work, external rewards carry significant risks and should be used thoughtfully alongside strategies that preserve and nurture intrinsic passion.
The path to sustained motivation -- for yourself and those around you -- begins not with incentives or exhortation, but with understanding.