How To Motivate People
Understand and leverage, the four key factors that motivate everyone.
The fundamental identity of leadership is the ability to influence, motivate, and drive people.
Another false truth is that people/employees, however you want to categorize individuals, are not solely dictated by personal needs.
For example, an Apple employee may claim they love working for the company because of the tech giant's brand identity and objective purpose.
But in reality, what drives them to this ideology is that they resonate with the identity of working for Apple, which provides them with a purpose. They enjoy the lifestyle that working with this company provides them. Or they feel safe, secure, and comfortable by accepting that the organization's goals for them as an employee are easier and more pragmatic to achieve than their own.
Within this article, I will explain the four principles that drive and motivate individuals. By understanding these psychological factors, you will be able to identify, understand, and leverage these tendencies within those you are trying to motivate toward your teams organizational goals.
First, understand, that some people are motivated by a combination of these factors, while others resonate with the desire for only one. Some individuals may fluctuate from one desire to the next depending on external events which shift their focus.
Also, many of us struggle to self-diagnose exactly which one of these factors motivates us. But if you understand the principles of these desires and understand the behaviorism's these natures exude. You will be able to pinpoint exactly how to get the best out of your team members, employees, and colleagues.
Purpose
Firstly, the most common and often a significant contributor to all of our internal motivators. The need for purpose is a nagging desire that can either lead to unwavering ambition leading to great individual success. Or a self destructive egoic poison when self-discipline, initial opportunity and current ability do not align with a person's identity of purpose.
We all have a proposed identity of who we are and more importantly, who we want to be. This ideology drives us to make decisions that in our mind, will lead to the specific outcomes that will contribute to this identity.
Our values of good and bad, wrong and right, shape what we define as our ‘purpose’. What will make us wake up and feel good about the things we are doing and the goals we are striving toward.
How To Give Someone A Sense Of Purpose As A Leader
The art of giving someone purpose is to understand what they define as ‘purpose’. Be a great listener, identify and analyse what someone is passionate about. What fills their conversations and what discussions are they most engaged by.
This person might not be motivated by a paycheck but more invested in helping others or providing customers with an amazing service if that is their industry requirement. So instead of thinking a pay increase is the only thing that will motivate them, facilitate them with responsibilities that align with their personal needs by giving them the tools to help others.
Maybe there is an ambitious person who wants to learn and develop as a professional. So provide them with the training and resources to allow them to feel a sense of personal growth.
Think of Elon Musk. SpaceX - Multi planetary existence. Tesla - revolutionizing electric transport. Neurolink - building implantable brain computers . His successful visionary leadership is a product of building brands that are solving humanity's biggest problems.
These problems provide over 100,000 employee’s with purpose. His companies don’t prioritize advertising that you’ll work for a competitive salary, with a free car and healthcare. They advertise that you’ll work for a company shaping the future of our existence.
You may not have the ability to promote such an organisational purpose to your team or employee’s, but find relative margins to fulfill others with a purpose they can resonate with.
However, sometimes the most effective method to motivate others who want purpose, is to recruit and build your team with those whose goals align with you and your organisational goals already.
For example, for a football coach, it is easier to influence pro athletes, to win a game, league and championship. If you were a CEO of a cancer treatment company it would be easier to find and motivate other individuals who are passionate about finding ways to save lives.
In essence, the easiest way to build team cohesion and motivate a team, is by uniting those with the same purpose together, within an organisation with the same goals.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle and purpose can quite easily run in parallel. Sometimes, someone's purpose is the need to live a certain lifestyle. Think of when you apply for a new job or role, you typically imagine the status and identity that comes with the territory of the position. The difference is that purpose is an internal desire for identity but lifestyle is the need for an external show of status.
A material and superficial gratification opposed to a purposeful bigger than life desire. Of course there is nothing wrong with wanting a particular lifestyle. It’s often those that oppose luxury are the ones who seek it most.
For example, think of salespeople. Jordan Belfort has glorified the role of a salesman. Many of such, have formed an ‘ambition’ related to the ideology of living this lavish lifestyle of fast cars, big houses with the career responsibilities of ‘hustling’.
How To Provide Someone With A ‘Lifestyle’
People who are motivated by lifestyle, want to be given the reward of feeling they are up-keeping an external image in alignment with what they think is the pinnacle of social dynamic. Provide them with the flashy job titles and perks required to keep their ego’s justified. Make their responsibilities sound appealing to the outside perspective, by glorifying their individual KPIs.
A crucial way to drive someone with these tendencies is to challenge their ego’s. A person obsessed with the validation of others will be very responsive to constructive criticism. They will be insecure to any attack on their ideal identity. Use this as fuel to motivate them toward the person they want to be which also needs to align with the success metric within the organisation.
Do not let them cross the border to delusion and exhibit complete unresponsiveness to contributing to organizational gain. Make sure you are aligning and directing their personnel desires with organisational outcomes. An over compensation for individuality at a detriment to the team has no place, stay resolute to this.
Knowledge Of Their Next Move
Think of ‘blue and white collar jobs’, they typically won’t supply individuals with a sense of purpose. Majority of foundational workers are assigned careers which provide them with a paycheck to survive and a life with a variety of commodities. Their ambition may not be hungry enough to want to be fulfilled by aspirations of finding a purpose.
Instead these individuals are driven to seek the safety of instruction and knowledge of their next move. What fulfills this desire is the demonstration of an organised and well prepared working culture and environment. They require a job that is secure, their responsibilities are clear and the idea of the future is one of certainty and predictability.
They seek guidance and are driven by the ideology that the one leading them, is demonstrating high levels of competency. They will be your biggest critics as a leader but also your most compliant allies when on-boarded.
How to provide someone with ‘knowledge of their next move’
Make the culture of what you and your organization represents, crystal clear. The values and the overall goal you as a leader are trying to accomplish. State the clear responsibilities of the individual. Ensuring you assign these individuals with a sense of stability over creativity.
It will be super important to adopt strong change management strategies within your organisation. Set and define clear performance metrics and provide a clear plan of progression. Adopt transparency with all of your instructions and processes. Explain your maneuvers and be willing to exercise extreme levels of preparation to keep these individuals engaged and trusting.
Most importantly, lead by example and wear the culture of your teachings on your sleeve. Channel their needs for external motivation into the type of drive that you can shape and mold to fit the requirements the team needs.
Madness
Finally, those that are driven by madness. This goes to the ones that don’t require an emotional sense of purpose or external gratification. They are the ones hyper competitive and obsessed with self application.
They can quite easily become obsessed with any challenge or goal. Fueled by an intense desire to innovate, disrupt and excel. These people are more engaged in the face of skepticism. They are motivated by unorthodox methods and adversity.
The bigger the risk and the bigger the problem, the greater the appetite for success. They will only work in one gear, a mode of extreme intensity and obsession.
How To Facilitate Someone With The ‘Madness’
Notice the difference in the title. People can’t be given the madness. It is something unique, born inside of those capable of such a fear of commodity and comfort. These people are the hardest and the easiest people to lead. Rules hurt them and micromanagement disengages them.
Instead, provide them with the freedom to pursue their madness and channel it towards success. Shape their unrelenting ambition into a purpose that aligns with your organisation. Give them clear KPI’s for them to engage with.
Most importantly, ensure that the culture of your team dynamic is one with an exciting vision. Raise the bar so high that even the most ambitious individuals have a ceiling to grow and goals to chase. Prevent the culture of the organization and environment of the team dynamic from becoming stagnant, by promoting innovation and creativity.
These people are born to lead themselves and more importantly, others. Be prepared to understand that this person within the organisation, might be the one that wants to take the reigns of the team. It’s hard to compete with someone who exhibits unlimited motivation and ambition.
The true representation of a great leader is to identify and grow potential in those that inhibit such characteristics. Nurture and guide them as an asset that can one day become a great leader themselves.
Despite this, not all mad people are great performers, especially not great leaders. While being "motivated by madness" can lead to exceptional success, it can also come with downsides, such as burnout, strained relationships or misjudgments stemming from their overconfidence. So when their over-eagerness becomes detrimental, try to reign it in when their individual goals are out of sync with the organisations.
To Conclude
I hope this publication provides you with insight into the true psychological drivers that motivate people. As a leader, it is vital you can execute upon these understandings within your own organisations.
As much as humans are complex, we are often far too susceptible at demonstrating the same patterns of behavior. Thus, becoming predictable in a world where being uniquely prepared for different situations is so prevalent. Lucky, for us leaders, we can use this psychological predictability to understand and leverage those in our teams, to align and achieve heighten team success.
Take the time to understand your team by becoming an expert analyst. It may seem complex but, by just being more present in your interaction with others, you will begin to form an understanding of what one of these four factors drives and motivates a person.
Listen and observe. When the time is right, begin to test your team with questions aimed to expose their emotional triggers. Figure out what cars they drive, who they spend time with, what their hobbies are. Do they come into work earlier? How do they fit into the team dynamic? What responsibilities within the organization do they tend to gravitate toward the most?
Understand your team – understand their motives – understand how to drive them toward success.
Liam Adcock • January 9, 2025
The fundamental identity of leadership is the ability to influence, motivate, and drive people.
Another false truth is that people/employees, however you want to categorize individuals, are not solely dictated by personal needs.
For example, an Apple employee may claim they love working for the company because of the tech giant's brand identity and objective purpose.
But in reality, what drives them to this ideology is that they resonate with the identity of working for Apple, which provides them with a purpose. They enjoy the lifestyle that working with this company provides them. Or they feel safe, secure, and comfortable by accepting that the organization's goals for them as an employee are easier and more pragmatic to achieve than their own.
Within this article, I will explain the four principles that drive and motivate individuals. By understanding these psychological factors, you will be able to identify, understand, and leverage these tendencies within those you are trying to motivate toward your teams organizational goals.
First, understand, that some people are motivated by a combination of these factors, while others resonate with the desire for only one. Some individuals may fluctuate from one desire to the next depending on external events which shift their focus.
Also, many of us struggle to self-diagnose exactly which one of these factors motivates us. But if you understand the principles of these desires and understand the behaviorism's these natures exude. You will be able to pinpoint exactly how to get the best out of your team members, employees, and colleagues.
Purpose
Firstly, the most common and often a significant contributor to all of our internal motivators. The need for purpose is a nagging desire that can either lead to unwavering ambition leading to great individual success. Or a self destructive egoic poison when self-discipline, initial opportunity and current ability do not align with a person's identity of purpose.
We all have a proposed identity of who we are and more importantly, who we want to be. This ideology drives us to make decisions that in our mind, will lead to the specific outcomes that will contribute to this identity.
Our values of good and bad, wrong and right, shape what we define as our ‘purpose’. What will make us wake up and feel good about the things we are doing and the goals we are striving toward.
How To Give Someone A Sense Of Purpose As A Leader
The art of giving someone purpose is to understand what they define as ‘purpose’. Be a great listener, identify and analyse what someone is passionate about. What fills their conversations and what discussions are they most engaged by.
This person might not be motivated by a paycheck but more invested in helping others or providing customers with an amazing service if that is their industry requirement. So instead of thinking a pay increase is the only thing that will motivate them, facilitate them with responsibilities that align with their personal needs by giving them the tools to help others.
Maybe there is an ambitious person who wants to learn and develop as a professional. So provide them with the training and resources to allow them to feel a sense of personal growth.
Think of Elon Musk. SpaceX - Multi planetary existence. Tesla - revolutionizing electric transport. Neurolink - building implantable brain computers . His successful visionary leadership is a product of building brands that are solving humanity's biggest problems.
These problems provide over 100,000 employee’s with purpose. His companies don’t prioritize advertising that you’ll work for a competitive salary, with a free car and healthcare. They advertise that you’ll work for a company shaping the future of our existence.
You may not have the ability to promote such an organisational purpose to your team or employee’s, but find relative margins to fulfill others with a purpose they can resonate with.
However, sometimes the most effective method to motivate others who want purpose, is to recruit and build your team with those whose goals align with you and your organisational goals already.
For example, for a football coach, it is easier to influence pro athletes, to win a game, league and championship. If you were a CEO of a cancer treatment company it would be easier to find and motivate other individuals who are passionate about finding ways to save lives.
In essence, the easiest way to build team cohesion and motivate a team, is by uniting those with the same purpose together, within an organisation with the same goals.
Lifestyle
Lifestyle and purpose can quite easily run in parallel. Sometimes, someone's purpose is the need to live a certain lifestyle. Think of when you apply for a new job or role, you typically imagine the status and identity that comes with the territory of the position. The difference is that purpose is an internal desire for identity but lifestyle is the need for an external show of status.
A material and superficial gratification opposed to a purposeful bigger than life desire. Of course there is nothing wrong with wanting a particular lifestyle. It’s often those that oppose luxury are the ones who seek it most.
For example, think of salespeople. Jordan Belfort has glorified the role of a salesman. Many of such, have formed an ‘ambition’ related to the ideology of living this lavish lifestyle of fast cars, big houses with the career responsibilities of ‘hustling’.
How To Provide Someone With A ‘Lifestyle’
People who are motivated by lifestyle, want to be given the reward of feeling they are up-keeping an external image in alignment with what they think is the pinnacle of social dynamic. Provide them with the flashy job titles and perks required to keep their ego’s justified. Make their responsibilities sound appealing to the outside perspective, by glorifying their individual KPIs.
A crucial way to drive someone with these tendencies is to challenge their ego’s. A person obsessed with the validation of others will be very responsive to constructive criticism. They will be insecure to any attack on their ideal identity. Use this as fuel to motivate them toward the person they want to be which also needs to align with the success metric within the organisation.
Do not let them cross the border to delusion and exhibit complete unresponsiveness to contributing to organizational gain. Make sure you are aligning and directing their personnel desires with organisational outcomes. An over compensation for individuality at a detriment to the team has no place, stay resolute to this.
Knowledge Of Their Next Move
Think of ‘blue and white collar jobs’, they typically won’t supply individuals with a sense of purpose. Majority of foundational workers are assigned careers which provide them with a paycheck to survive and a life with a variety of commodities. Their ambition may not be hungry enough to want to be fulfilled by aspirations of finding a purpose.
Instead these individuals are driven to seek the safety of instruction and knowledge of their next move. What fulfills this desire is the demonstration of an organised and well prepared working culture and environment. They require a job that is secure, their responsibilities are clear and the idea of the future is one of certainty and predictability.
They seek guidance and are driven by the ideology that the one leading them, is demonstrating high levels of competency. They will be your biggest critics as a leader but also your most compliant allies when on-boarded.
How to provide someone with ‘knowledge of their next move’
Make the culture of what you and your organization represents, crystal clear. The values and the overall goal you as a leader are trying to accomplish. State the clear responsibilities of the individual. Ensuring you assign these individuals with a sense of stability over creativity.
It will be super important to adopt strong change management strategies within your organisation. Set and define clear performance metrics and provide a clear plan of progression. Adopt transparency with all of your instructions and processes. Explain your maneuvers and be willing to exercise extreme levels of preparation to keep these individuals engaged and trusting.
Most importantly, lead by example and wear the culture of your teachings on your sleeve. Channel their needs for external motivation into the type of drive that you can shape and mold to fit the requirements the team needs.
Madness
Finally, those that are driven by madness. This goes to the ones that don’t require an emotional sense of purpose or external gratification. They are the ones hyper competitive and obsessed with self application.
They can quite easily become obsessed with any challenge or goal. Fueled by an intense desire to innovate, disrupt and excel. These people are more engaged in the face of skepticism. They are motivated by unorthodox methods and adversity.
The bigger the risk and the bigger the problem, the greater the appetite for success. They will only work in one gear, a mode of extreme intensity and obsession.
How To Facilitate Someone With The ‘Madness’
Notice the difference in the title. People can’t be given the madness. It is something unique, born inside of those capable of such a fear of commodity and comfort. These people are the hardest and the easiest people to lead. Rules hurt them and micromanagement disengages them.
Instead, provide them with the freedom to pursue their madness and channel it towards success. Shape their unrelenting ambition into a purpose that aligns with your organisation. Give them clear KPI’s for them to engage with.
Most importantly, ensure that the culture of your team dynamic is one with an exciting vision. Raise the bar so high that even the most ambitious individuals have a ceiling to grow and goals to chase. Prevent the culture of the organization and environment of the team dynamic from becoming stagnant, by promoting innovation and creativity.
These people are born to lead themselves and more importantly, others. Be prepared to understand that this person within the organisation, might be the one that wants to take the reigns of the team. It’s hard to compete with someone who exhibits unlimited motivation and ambition.
The true representation of a great leader is to identify and grow potential in those that inhibit such characteristics. Nurture and guide them as an asset that can one day become a great leader themselves.
Despite this, not all mad people are great performers, especially not great leaders. While being "motivated by madness" can lead to exceptional success, it can also come with downsides, such as burnout, strained relationships or misjudgments stemming from their overconfidence. So when their over-eagerness becomes detrimental, try to reign it in when their individual goals are out of sync with the organisations.
To Conclude
I hope this publication provides you with insight into the true psychological drivers that motivate people. As a leader, it is vital you can execute upon these understandings within your own organisations.
As much as humans are complex, we are often far too susceptible at demonstrating the same patterns of behavior. Thus, becoming predictable in a world where being uniquely prepared for different situations is so prevalent. Lucky, for us leaders, we can use this psychological predictability to understand and leverage those in our teams, to align and achieve heighten team success.
Take the time to understand your team by becoming an expert analyst. It may seem complex but, by just being more present in your interaction with others, you will begin to form an understanding of what one of these four factors drives and motivates a person.
Listen and observe. When the time is right, begin to test your team with questions aimed to expose their emotional triggers. Figure out what cars they drive, who they spend time with, what their hobbies are. Do they come into work earlier? How do they fit into the team dynamic? What responsibilities within the organization do they tend to gravitate toward the most?
Understand your team – understand their motives – understand how to drive them toward success.
Liam Adcock • January 9, 2025