Motivation

Everyone likes lists.  It gives people something to agree with, or to disagree with.  So here's my list of things that motivate me at work.  What's your list?

1.  A Challenge.  Preferably I'd like a technical challenge, but ultimately I'll take anything.  I guess I'm competitive in some respects.  So I'll take the challenge to improve a customer relationship, make a business process work better, or have the the cleanest work area.  Just give me something that someone says can't be done.

2.  Ownership.  I've got to feel like I'm working on something that I own.  Something I can improve, without someone telling me not to do it that way, or that I'm not allowed.

3. Learning.  I love to learn new things.  I can be happy doing almost anything, as long as it's mine, it's challenging, and I'm learning something new.  Once I feel like I've mastered it (or learned all I care to), I get bored very quickly.  I'm not really one of those guys that likes to know what he's going to be doing tomorrow, and the week after that.

4. Respect of my peers.  I don't need much recognition, especially from my management.  I figure that just keeping me around means they are happy.  And to be honest, I think I have a better idea than they do of how well I'm performing.  However, I do value the respect of my peers.  "Good job" from a peer means a lot more to me than high praise from an executive.

5. Remuneration.  Yeah, money.  This is a tough one for me, because frankly, it doesn't motivate me like it does some people.  I had an "ah hah" moment many years ago as I became involved in the salary reviews of all the engineers at my former employer.  As a young engineer, I was in the unusual situation of seeing all the salaries of my peers.  At first it was difficult to deal with seeing this, and my relative position.  But as I came to understand how the process works (and I think has to work for the most part), I realized that using salary as a measure of satisfaction was always going to be a losing proposition.  From then on, I only had one criteria for my salary: was I satisfied with it (regardless of the market, or what anyone else was being paid.)  However, over the years I have received several "bonuses"; some of them quite substantial.  When that happens, I feel very appreciative and motivated to perform my best, as a matter of gratitude.

So, what motivates you?  I'm convinced that we need to do a better job understanding and responding to people's motivations, and engineers in particular.  There's the perception that it's all about money, but I'd like to know where that fits in your list of motivational factors.