I wrote my first computer program when I was in 4th grade. I found it fun and challenging then and, 30 years later, I still find it fun and challenging. I studied computer programming in college and worked as a software developer for around 10 years before I slowly started taking on more and more management duties. At 14 years in, I became head of a technology department, hardly ever had the opportunity to write software anymore, and I started hating my job. The problem wasn’t just that I stopped doing something I enjoyed; it was that I found no meaning in the work that replaced it. I think this is one of the keys to having a fulfilling work life: you must either do work you intrinsically enjoy, or you must be able to connect somehow with the higher purpose of your work.

Enjoyment or Meaning

When I wrote software on a regular basis, I was able to use my work as a creative outlet. I took great joy in utilizing my creative energies to solve real problems for people. Once that went away, I was left with the cat herding reality so many technology managers know. I became guide, bureaucrat, referee, and scapegoat. I seldom got to exercise my creative side, so I constantly found myself asking the question, “Why am I here?” I was well paid, but that only got me so far. Studies show that, beyond the point of attaining a fair wage, money is a terrible motivating tool for almost all workers. Instead I had to look at how I contributed to the overall success of the company and what that meant. I worked for an investment firm so, in my view, my work essentially helped a bunch of stodgy old rich guys get richer and stodgier. This wasn’t exactly motivating.

I could have tried to find meaning in my work, and I certainly did try. However, such efforts are merely bandages covering a larger problem. Failures in motivation like this are almost always and unequivocally a failure in management. Every person tasked with managing people must understand the fundamentals of human motivation. At an absolute minimum, you have two major responsibilities as a manager:

1. To the best of your ability, match the talents and interests of your staff with the work they do.
2. Communicate the mission of the organization, why that mission is important, and how each employee contributes to that mission.

There are many other important things managers must do to have fully engaged and happy workers, but these two are great starting points for driving people to do their best. It’s amazing how motivating it is to know how you fit into and contribute toward something larger than yourself. This is true even if the overall mission is a humble one.

Motivating Yourself

An interesting twist on this problem crops up for the entrepreneurial among us. Sometimes you’re in the unique position of being your own boss and trying to keep yourself motivated. I’ve certainly been feeling some of these pressures as I embark on my own startup journey. Sometimes you’re forced to do something you don’t enjoy simply because you’re the only person around to do it. For example, I really don’t enjoy writing blog posts, nor do I enjoy keeping up with Twitter and other social media. I find it takes up way too much of my time and starts to feel like a dreaded chore. What to do?

Well, recently I’ve been applying the two motivation rules to my own life. I already know I don’t gain intrinsic enjoyment from the tasks, so that leaves me with the higher purpose question. I ask myself whether or not my blog posts and Twitter attention directly impact my company’s overall mission. At this point the answer is a qualified no. Given my limited time as a solo entrepreneur, I have to work on tasks that have a high return on my effort invested. At this stage I know I have more to gain from my efforts on product and customer development than I do from content marketing. A few extra Twitter followers and some more hits on my blog get me no closer to having a product to sell that will add value for my customers. Therefore, I’ve scaled back my blog and social media efforts, but I still recognize their importance in the long-term picture.

In the future, I’ll reassess this decision. Once the product exists and I enter more of a marketing phase, then having a strong social media presence will more directly tie into my overall mission and I’ll feel more motivated to put in the effort. This same philosophy can be useful in many workplaces. If people are doing work they don’t enjoy and doing it for no good reason, their motivation is going to drain dramatically. If, on the other hand, they can inject some common sense into their work by expending effort on things that matter and working as much as possible on tasks they enjoy, they’ll be far more likely to be productive and happy. Sometimes common sense just isn’t common enough!