In the video “The Three Things We Work For (Money
Isn’t One of Them)”, Andy Mulholland explains that money is not what motivates
people the most (Skillsoft Ireland
Limited, 2011). I have to agree with
him in that money is also not my primary motivator. Part of it is based on my non-consumerist
background. My parents were very frugal
and taught us as children the value of money and hard work. In fact, I began working at the age of 7
selling greeting cards and stationary door to door in my neighborhood. One of the first things my father told me
about work was that you should be proud of what you do even if you’re shoveling
horse maneuver. This pride for my work carried on into my odd jobs as a
dishwasher, waitress, retailer and every job I’ve held throughout my life. The key to my motivation at work, and the
reason I still get up every day to do a job, is feeling happy at work. This was, and still is, one of the biggest
motivators for me. What makes me happy
at work? Doing a job that interests me,
feeling pride in what I do, learning and growing in my job, and feeling valued
as a person.
In my opinion, Andy Mulholland has hit on the
three most important factors that make people satisfied in their work environments.
For a job to be interesting to me, it
needs to fulfill me. In my current
position I assist people in realizing their academic goals. Helping people is one of the core elements
that defines me as a person. I have
always been a very service-oriented type of individual. Another core aspect of my personality is a
deep need to learn. I feel it is
essential that a person always strive to learn new things. Personal and professional growth is absolutely
necessary for our human development. Lastly,
I believe everyone wants to feel valued.
It is a necessary ingredient that fuels our self-esteem, feeds our
self-confidence and vindicates everything we do.
Apart from these three important motivators, I
feel that there are also other incentives that move me to good performance. Purpose I feel needs to be present in anything
I do. I must feel not only that there is
a purpose in what I’m doing, but it must be a purpose that I believe in. For example, a salesman must believe in the
product he is selling in order to sell it. People do things that have purpose, once the
purpose is lost, so is the motivation. Another
important motivator for me is a healthy work environment. This means that the
physical space that I work in must be clean (not cluttered) and conducive to
productivity. Having computers and
printers that work is essential in my administrative duties and failing
equipment can be very stressful and demotivating. The environment should also be healthy in
regards to work relationships with my peers. It is extremely important to me to establish
and maintain a healthy rapport with my co-workers. I am an extremely sensitive person and my
emotions can easily hinder my performance. Here is where I need to improve on my emotional
intelligence (Whetten & Cameron,
2011). Another motivator, and one
that I value immensely when received, is time-off from work. I would rather be rewarded with time-off then
over-time pay. My personal time is very
precious to me and therefore I am extremely motivated when I know that time-off
will be the end result of my efforts.
References
Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S.
(2011). Developing management skills (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
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