Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation: What’s the Difference and How Can You Use the Power of Both at Work?

Motivation can be defined as the force, usually invisible, that pushes, activates, or moves a person when working on something. It drives them to take action toward achieving a certain goal. Motivation incites people and makes them keep working hard to achieve their goals.

If you see a person working hard and focussing on the end goal, you can consider such a person as motivated. There are different types of motivation. They include intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

It is important for business owners and managers to understand the differences between the two. This can help them identify how they can use the power of both types of motivation at work. Motivation can boost the productivity of your employees.

Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivation can be defined as the type of motivation that comes from a person’s own desire to achieve something for their own success. For instance, the benefits you gain from participating in an activity or learning a new skill simply because you like it.

Some good intrinsic motivation examples might include exercising in a bid to remain healthy, writing stories because you enjoy writing, and washing your clothes because you like getting clean.

Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, can be defined as the type of motivation that comes from external factors. This kind of motivation pushes a person to do something in a bid to gain something or get a reward.

For example, you might read some text when preparing for an exam, clean your clothes because you are traveling, or exercise in a bid to lose some weight.

How Can You Use the Power of Both at Work?

Giving Out Awards to Celebrate Achievements

Running a business is not a walk in the park. Apart from making sure that all business processes are running efficiently, you are also supposed to ensure that all employees have everything that they need, including a conducive working environment.

In addition, you have to find ways of using both intrinsic and extrinsic types of motivation to motivate your employees. Combining the power of both, you can get custom employee appreciation gifts and recognition awards from Successories.com.

This is one of the best ways of making sure that your employees remain focused on what they are doing. In addition, you can appreciate the different milestones, accomplishments, and achievements of each of your employees to keep them motivated.

Sense of Ownership

If you look at the most successful businesses, you will realize that their employees care about the businesses and love what they do. This is normal with employees, they want to work in companies that they love and want to handle tasks they care about.

Employees need to see the difference that their efforts make to their companies, managers, and fellow employees. Using the power of the different types of motivation discussed here, business managers can give their juniors a sense of ownership.

To start with, they should make sure that all employees understand the vision and mission of their companies. They should also ensure that all employees understand that their efforts contribute to the success of the company. This makes employees feel appreciated and valued, something that improves your business.

Pursuit of Knowledge

Before talking about the pursuit of knowledge, you need to understand that making the right hires is one of the most important things for every business. You need to make sure that the employees you hire are willing to keep growing through knowledge acquisition.

Your employees need to always want to learn and acquire new skills. The best performers always have a desire for self-improvement and knowledge. You, however, need to find ways of supporting this appetite through motivation.

You can do this by providing training opportunities in the workplace. Some employees will be pushed by intrinsic motivation and embrace the training opportunities. You can also provide a reward for those who train and pass tests, such as promotions.

Why Employee Motivation

In conclusion, the motivation of employees plays an important role when it comes to the success of an organization. Motivation provides the energy, drive, and commitment that employees need to perform their daily tasks without any problems.

Without motivation, you are likely going to deal with low output levels and reduced productivity. In such a situation, you will find it difficult to reach your business goals. You might even end up losing your employees or closing the business.