As the year draws to a close, ‘tis the season for reflection. A time to pause amidst the hustle, slow down our restless minds, and examine the terrain we’ve traversed - professionally, personally, and beyond. Space to appreciate progress made, lessons learned, and perhaps paths yet unexplored. The gentle invitation here is to look within first before rushing ahead into the blank canvas of a new year.
Moving Motivators offers a powerful framework for this self-examination by mapping our core drivers and incentives at any point in time. Developed by pioneering leadership thinker Jurgen Appelo, this activity revolves around 10 fundamental motivations that make us tick - either intrinsically or extrinsically. Let’s break these down in more detail:
Intrinsic Motivations - Inner Rewards
First we have intrinsic motivations - inner desires or rewards not imposed by any external entity. Think a musician playing for the sheer joy of creating rather than hunting album sales. Or an entrepreneur driven by the intellectual challenge of innovating versus making maximum profits. The following 5 motivators are intrinsically focused:
Curiosity - freedom and resources to deeply explore topics that fascinate us. It celebrates learning for learning's sake without worrying about practical applications.
Mastery - stretching our abilities by tackling complex challenges that remain just within reach. The reward lies in overcoming adversity and expanding our competence.
Freedom - maintaining control and flexibility over how we spend our time and attention. This enables self-directed choices aligned with our interests versus rigid directives.
Relatedness - developing mutual understanding and care within our interpersonal connections. Humans have an innate need to establish close relationships and feel a sense of belonging.
Purpose - aligning our daily work and activities with a higher cause or meaning that resonates at our core. When purpose is present, we brim with passion and vitality in pursuing our life's work.
Extrinsic Motivations - Outer Rewards
In contrast, the following motivators are fueled externally by some form of recognition, reinforcements or compensation:
Acceptance - praise, approval and validation from peers and leaders for our contributions and adherence to social norms.
Power - exercising legitimate influence within teams and organizations to shape priorities and drive desired changes.
Order - operating within clearly defined policies, procedures and structures that enable stability and consistency.
Status - occupying an esteemed position that garners respect from others based on rank or reputation.
Goal - pursuing measurable objectives and well-defined milestones that lead to advancement or external rewards upon completion.
The final motivator bridges both intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions:
Honor - pride and self-esteem from upholding ethical standards and cherished values within our conduct and contributions. While honor relies partly on external validation, it also stems from internal moral codes.
This taxonomy of 10 motivation dimensions (aka CHAMPFROGS) provides a framework to reflect on our needs, incentives and behaviors. But raw definitions only get us so far. Moving Motivators comes to life when we actively assess our own motivation profiles.
Mapping Your Unique Motivation Mix
The actual Moving Motivators activity involves ranking printable motivation cards from least to most important to you along a spectrum. This ranking comprises your motivation mix at a given moment. To begin, read the motivator definitions and clarify any ambiguity based on your personal interpretations. Then without overthinking, arrange them left to right per your gut instincts on current significance and priority.
Once complete, soak up this visual dashboard of what drives you. Are certain motivators bunched toward the left or right extremes? Which sit squarely in the middle? Does this align with your hypothesized order or are there surprises that challenge your self-perceptions? Appreciate both the confirmations and contradictions.
Now pose some reflective questions:
Which motivators feel aligned with how I spend my time and energy lately? Which feel disconnected?
If I were more aware day-to-day, which motivators would likely fluctuate most in priority?
Which dimensions presently energize and drain me? Which leave me feeling neutral?
What insights around my needs and incentives emerge from this snapshot?
Evolving Motivations Over Time
While mapping motivators in isolation offers insights, the real power comes from revisiting this exercise over time. Our motivations undoubtedly transform across life stages as we mature, take on new responsibilities, and experience unexpected twists that reshape priorities. Even over a few months, you may observe your motivation mix shifting - whether gradually or radically.
To unlock this evolutionary perspective, periodically recreate your motivator map from scratch. Then contrast your latest ranking with previous ones. Reflect on any major re-ordering based on life changes or conscious efforts to redirect your focus areas. Perhaps external chaos or loss redirected energy toward more intrinsic rewards like freedom. Or a health scare intensified seeking purpose and meaning.
Some insightful reflection questions here include:
Which motivations increased in my priority over time? Which decreased?
What life factors likely contributed to these changes?
Which shifts align with my desired personal growth and which conflict?
How might proactively influencing my motivation mix guide future decisions?
The goal here is bringing your key drivers into conscious awareness - instead of operating on auto-pilot or habit without true self-knowledge. Use both milestone events and this annual reflection to check-in on motivational evolutions.
Informing Major Life Decisions
Beyond retrospective analysis, clarifying your motivations before major decisions offers tremendous upside. Say you’re contemplating changing jobs, roles, companies, or even careers - which inherently requires tradeoffs across incentives like pay, flexibility, purpose, and growth. What if you mapped motivators now and then simulated how each option might reshape the same map?
Start by recreating your current motivation mix. Then through each hypothetical scenario, play out whether a given motivator would rise or fall in priority after the change. Adjust their ranking accordingly across the spectrum. How do the two maps compare? Which future map aligns best with your desired motivational emphasis? This simple simulation generates self-insights to inform big career choices.
The same approach applies when evaluating a geographical relocation, school selection, relationship, or other keyDetermining blind spots in your motivation mix can help reconcile this disconnect. Perhaps certain motivators like freedom or purpose secretly energize you but get overpowered by more visible drivers like status or acceptance. Proactively elevating the importance of overlooked motivators creates permission to make new choices.
By championing all motivations - even subtly through small daily actions or rituals - you authorize yourself to make decisions aligned with your whole self. So revisit Moving Motivators when facing crossroads and leverage the wisdom within your evolving maps.
Translating Reflections into 2024 Goals
As we turn the page on 2023, resist rushing straight into 2024 goal-setting until pausing for reflection first. Moving Motivators offers the perfect mechanism to guide this process - both surveying the year that passed and intentionally designing what comes next. Here is a recommended process to bridge these stages:
2023 Retrospective: Rebuild your Moving Motivators map from early 2023. Contrast it with today’s map. Analyze your key drivers then versus now after a year’s twists and turns. What changed? Why?
Current State: Document your present motivation mix independent from the past or future. Which incentives presently hold the greatest sway? Which sit on the periphery?
2024 Vision: Envision your ideal motivation balance for 2024. Which drivers would you like to strengthen and decrease? Why? Get creative in imagining possibilities.
Strategic Rebalancing: Detail specific actions that would shift your motivators toward this envisioned state. Which life, work or lifestyle choices influence the underlying mix? Outline goals accordingly.
Quarterly Checkpoints: Schedule time over 2024 to recreate your map. Evaluate progress toward your intended motivation emphases and evolve goals as needed.
Following this pathway, your 2024 intentions stay rooted in self-knowledge versus idealized (but disconnect) New Year’s resolutions. Your choices align with core motivations that ignite your fire.
Key Reflections
Let’s recap the key reflective questions that Moving Motivators invites you to ask amidst this annual transition between years:
Which motivations hold the greatest importance as I end this year? How does my 2023 closure map contrast with previous years?
What specific experiences, challenges and milestones shaped my motivation mix this past year?
Looking ahead, which motivational areas would I like to strengthen or decrease in 2024? Why?
What specific goals would guide my motivation profile toward this envisioned state?
By regularly checking in through Moving Motivators mapping, you sustain alignment across your fluid motivational landscape. This accelerates growth that sticks versus short-lived New Year’s pledges. Through self-knowledge, you can lead yourself wisely.
So be sure to integrate this activity into your own annual reflections - as well as with teams and family. A shared vocabulary around core motivations enriches relationships and leadership. Discover these hidden forces guiding your decisions as you close out 2023 and start fresh in 2024. Here’s to a bright year ahead fueled by your deepest motivations made conscious at last!
If this journey into understanding your motivators has sparked an interest in further exploration, remember the value of coaching. As a professional coach with a diverse background, I'm here to support and challenge you in your growth journey. If you're interested in deepening your understanding of leadership, developing strategies for personal and professional growth, and embracing your full potential, I invite you to contact me. Together, we can explore how I can help you grow as a leader and achieve your aspirations.