Page 54 - Make Work Great

Overtness About Task

and quantify your contribution. These same answers also become a
compelling set of reasons for your workplace purpose. This can help
motivate you and also be useful once you begin to share your sum-
mary outputs list with others.

3. Be Overt About Your Incentives
Tanya used to work in the fi nancial sector, overseeing administrative
personnel and handling investment policy for the multimillion-dollar
portfolio of her publicly held company. Now she works out of her
home part-time, providing administrative support to a small, privately
owned fi rm in another industry. She works nearly every weekday but
sometimes for only an hour. While her paychecks and her pay rate
have both shrunk dramatically, she’s happy with the change.
Why? When she left the fi nancial industry, Tanya still wanted to
do something that would allow her to be productive and learn new
things. She also wanted fl exibility to spend time in other pursuits.
Because she was overt with herself about those desires, she was able
to seek out a position that met her needs perfectly.
Why do you do what you do? The easy answer is survival—“If I
didn’t work, I’d starve.” Your salary, and all it enables you to do, is
one incentive. But there are probably other types of work that would
allow you to avoid starvation. Did something else originally draw
you to this particular industry, company, or position? Was it income
potential? Flexibility? Growth and development opportunity? The
chance to contribute to society in a broader way? You can probably
name some positive aspects of your job, even if you’re not terribly

Quick Video: Six Hidden Factors of Motivation
Visit www.MakeWorkGreat.com for a short video segment about six
factors that often incentivize us at work. This is also an easy bit of
information to share if you’re trying to describe the contents of this
chapter to a trusted friend or colleague.

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