293: Recognising & Understanding your Drivers at Work

Aoife O’Brien [00:00:01]:

Do you wish your team were more motivated than they actually are? Do you feel like they’re disengaging even when they’re really capable of doing the role? Well, today’s episode is going to cover all about that. This is the Happier at Work podcast. I’m your host, Aoife o’, Brien, and in the first couple of episodes we talked about culture at work, we talked about positive workplace cultures, we talked about toxic workplace cultures. And last week we had a fantastic episode with none other than than Amy Edmondson talking all about psychological safety. Today’s episode is the middle pillar of the thriving talent framework. So the base of the pillar, the foundation, is all about psychological safety. The first pillar is all about workplace culture. The second pillar, which is the middle pillar, is all about our drivers or our needs at work.

Aoife O’Brien [00:00:52]:

Now, a little fact here about this episode or this chapter, should I say, of the book, it was the one I probably knew most about. It was where I started when I started writing the book. First, it was the information that just flowed right out of me. I did my dissertation research all about one of the theories of motivation, which relates to need satisfaction at work. And it’s a topic I’m so, so interested in. So I’m going to dive right in to talk about what our universal needs are and how they relate to motivation. Then some potential unique needs that other people may have. And I’m going to talk about some of the derailers, some of the things that are driving us but can actually get in the way of us doing our best work.

Aoife O’Brien [00:01:42]:

So starting with the universal needs, this is based on self determination theory, which is a theory of motivation. And that theory says that we have three basic universal psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness and competence. If you’ve ever read the book Drive by Dan Pink, he popularized this. He gave them different names. I think he calls them autonomy, mastery and purpose. But essentially, fundamentally it’s the same thing. So we have autonomy, which is all about our sense of choice and control over what we do and how we do it. We have competence, which is all about feeling capable of doing the job, but also having a level of challenge.

Aoife O’Brien [00:02:26]:

And then we have relatedness, which is all about how we relate to other people doing the job. So how do we get along? What kind of relationships do we have at work? I also like to add into the relatedness piece this idea that it’s how we relate what we do on a day to day basis with the bigger picture of what we’re trying to achieve, whether that is as an objective within the team, our own objectives, the company objectives, or our life goals. So how is this role that I’m doing now contributing to what I want to achieve in my career or what I want to achieve in my life? If we take a step back and have a look at autonomy and competence, in particular, what is not covered by self determination theory and what I have uncovered from my secondary research when I was doing my master’s on all those years ago, is this idea of balance, or what I’m calling the Goldilocks effect. So it’s not just about having autonomy. It’s not just giving people a whole load of autonomy. If you think back to the start of the pandemic, overnight, we all had a whole load of autonomy all of a sudden. Some people really thrived in that kind of situation, but others were really floundering. So it’s not just about giving people autonomy.

Aoife O’Brien [00:03:53]:

You need to bal that out with giving clear guidance and direction as well. So think about finding that right balance. The more complicated factor here is that it will be different for different people, and it will be different at different stages of your career. Or if you start in a new role, for example, and you’re expected to hit the ground running, how many times have you heard that that means that they just want someone to get on with the job, but it’s the responsibility of the leader to provide sufficient guidance about what is expected in the role. The same thing can be said, competence. So we don’t want to feel so capable of doing the job that we could do it with our eyes closed, because then we become complacent. Then we feel like we’re not being challenged enough. So we need to have sufficient challenge, but not too much challenge that we feel like we’re in over our head, or we have a great sense of imposter syndrome.

Aoife O’Brien [00:04:48]:

So it’s about getting that balance right. So as a leader, these are the things that universally that will motivate your team. And again, the difficulty here is it’s not a one size fits all. And it really warrants a conversation on an individual basis. They may not know what their needs are, but they certainly know what areas they feel frustrated in at work. So maybe they don’t have enough autonomy, enough decisions that they’re getting to make within their own role. Maybe you’re telling them too much, or maybe you’re just leaving them to get on with it and without providing enough guidance. And you can understand through having a conversation with someone where their needs are being met and where they’re not being where they’re being frustrated, even if they don’t use that terminology themselves.

Aoife O’Brien [00:05:37]:

So that’s the universal needs. We all have those three needs. Then there are other unique needs that we may have. So these are things like recognition or stability or variety. Some people want to have variety in their roles. If they’re left doing something that is not what they really want to be doing. So someone’s checking spreadsheets all day, but that’s all they’re doing all day, and they really feel an underlying need or an underlying desire or an underlying drive to have a sense of variety in their role, then that’s something that’s going to cause great frustration. And again, this is going to come from an individual conversation.

Aoife O’Brien [00:06:21]:

What is the person, you know, what is driving them to do the role that they’re doing? How are they getting things done? Where do they feel frustrated? And how can you have that conversation with them, finding that language? Where are their needs? Being frustrated? You don’t have to use the term needs. You can just ask, where do you feel frustrated at work right now? Is there something that’s repetitive? Is there something that, you know, there are other people who prefer the stability or monotony. I don’t know. Can you call it that? Some people prefer to do that same thing day in, day out, and that’s what drives them. The third element that I talk about is this idea of derailers. So these are inner drives that we have that are actually causing us to derail a little bit. They’re taking us away from the goals that we’re trying to achieve. And these can be things like the need to be right.

Aoife O’Brien [00:07:18]:

So you have this inner drive, like, I feel like I want to be the person who’s right all the time. And then that impacts on the relationships that you have. It can also blind you to places where maybe you’re wrong or you don’t have all the answers. Maybe it means you don’t seek out help because then people will see that you’re not right all the time. So there are these other things that get in the way. So being right or letting ego in the way. There can be things like wanting everything to be perfect all the time, wanting to do things really quickly. These are inner drives that we have that can cause us to derail and can have a negative impact on our careers.

Aoife O’Brien [00:07:58]:

The other thing that I do talk about in this section is money. Because I think oftentimes, especially when it comes to motivation, we think that people are going to be more motivated by money. I share quite a Few examples in the book itself of how this is not necessarily the case. And one example in particular from my own career where I was doing quite a junior level role, but I was offered a 50% pay increase. And as a result of getting the pay increase, I actually started working less. And I didn’t understand at the time. I could see that I was doing it, but I didn’t have the language, I didn’t understand the psychology behind why that would be happening. And so that’s just one example.

Aoife O’Brien [00:08:41]:

When we pay people more, we exceed, expect that they’re going to be more motivated. But actually it can sometimes act as a demotivator. I talk about the emotional salary as well, which I recorded a great episode on the podcast a number of years ago with Marisa Elizondia, and she talks all about that and expands on this idea of it’s not just about the money. So pay people enough to take money off the table, but then find other ways, understand what they’re doing. Inner drives are to really impact on their level of motivation. So whether that is the universal needs of autonomy, relatedness and competence, a unique need, or maybe a derailer that’s getting in their way and causing some sort of frustration for them, you can also think about these ideas. So think about the universal needs, think about the unique drivers that you have as an individual and, and also think about the unique drivers, the unique needs that other people on your team might have. And something I want to leave you with as well is that we often attribute our own drivers to other people.

Aoife O’Brien [00:09:52]:

So we assume the kinds of things that drive us at work are going to drive other people, they’re going to motivate other people. And that’s, you know, we attribute that to other people, but actually that’s not necessarily the case. And usually people are motivated by different things to us. So it’s so important to understand what that is. You can apply that to yourself. Where are the areas where I’m feeling frustrated at work? Where are the areas that I could potentially look to have my needs or my drivers better satisfied? And also thinking about your team as well. So how can I better apply this? How can I understand from my team’s perspective how to know what’s frustrating them at work? Those insights are all from the Thriving Talent book in the Drivers section and the book is coming out at the end of March 2026. You can find all details relating to it on the website thrivingtalentbook.com and I’d love to know, is there something that you’re going to do differently as a result of listening to Talent, Today’s episode or watching and let me know what that is.

Aoife O’Brien [00:11:00]:

Get involved in the conversation. I’m Most active on LinkedIn. You can also reach out directly to me on podcastappieratwork, ie.