WHAT PEOPLE GET DONE: People try to accomplish what they want to accomplish. They make a genuine effort to do what they consider personally important and meaningful. When someone makes such an effort - puts his heart and soul into it - we say they are "motivated." Motivation, then, is internal. It’s a drive, an impetus, an incitement within a person who makes the effort. You cannot bestow motivation upon anyone, you can give an employee a raise, or a promotion, or even a kick in the rear, but you cannot "give" him or her the urge, the desire, the strong wish to achieve a goal. That must come from within.

HOW TO FUEL MOTIVATION IN THE WORKPLACE: You can help an employee recognize that a particular goal is personally important and meaningful to him or her. You cannot create the ends for which the employee works, but you can help him or her find the means to those ends.

MOTIVATION - A FINAL PERSPECTIVE: Employees are their own best source of motivation. If an employee’s work is properly structured, he or she will be motivated by the results of their own labors rather than by external rewards and punishments. The manager’s prime concern should therefore be to help employees achieve control over and receive feedback from their work. This is not to say, however, that the manager need not be concerned with environmental factors such as wages, personnel policies, and physical environment. Highly motivated employees will be tolerant of unavoidable inadequacies in these areas. But if conditions deteriorate markedly, especially if this appears to be due to the indifference of management, employees’ motivation will be canceled out by their growing frustration. Thus, in motivating employees by concentrating attention on job content, the manager should not ignore the employees’ basic needs.

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