What drives YOU in the line of duty ?

What motivates you to do things that you do, to jump out of your bed every morning, raring to go and accomplish something?

Motivation Theories - There are several popular theories on what motivates a human being. I am sure you are familiar with most, if not all, and I list some of them to get us started.

• Maslow – hierarchy of needs.
• Alderfer – ERG theory: Existence needs, relatedness needs and growth needs.
• McClelland – Need for achievement, affiliation and power.
• Herzberg – Two factor theory.
• Skinner's reinforcement theory.
• Vroom's expectancy theory.
• Adams' equity theory.
• Locke's goal-setting theory.

Human needs: Maslow's theory is well accepted and a popular theory describing the hierarchy of human needs such as food, water, shelter, society, self-esteem and then self-actualization.

Workplace motivation - My Go-to Motivation Theory: Most readers reading this article are likely from the corporate world and my go-to theory for workplace motivation in the corporate world is AMP (Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose) as highlighted by Daniel Pink in his bestselling book -Drive. He debunks the carrot and stick approach which asserts that people will produce the desired outcome at the workplace when given financial incentives(carrot) or because of fear of punishments(stick). According to AMP motivation theory, the intrinsic motivation for today's knowledge worker in a corporate workplace comes from three key factors: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.

• Autonomy: is the desire to self organize our lives and work, instead of being managed by someone else i.e. manager. If empowered to take decisions and have control over our work, people are more engaged and perform better.
• Mastery: the urge to get better and better at something that matters. This is what keeps us learning and honing new skills. Acquiring new skills helps us being productive and therefore more satisfied.
• Purpose: The desire to do something for a larger meaningful cause. It is like story where two bricklayers when asked 'what are you doing ?', one of them replied 'laying bricks' and the other said ' I am building the Taj Mahal' . or A janitor at NASA instead of saying I am mopping the floor said I am helping put the man on the moon

The AMP theory asserts that employees are not necessarily motivated by material incentives or fear of punishment. Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose help build trust, and trust is the only legal performance-enhancing drug. Therefore people perform better, are more productive, effective and happier, if we focus on these 3 factors i.e. giving them the autonomy, support them in mastering the skills required and help them understand the larger purpose of their work.

So that is what motivates a corporate employee.

To quench my thirst towards finding what motivates people I learned what keeps a soldier motivated, so much so that he makes the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty. Here is what I learned.

In the Indian Military (and you can draw parallels of this spirit in militaries of other nations), a soldier lives and dies for Naam, Namak and Nishan

that is (Honour, Loyalty, Flag/Insignia)

• Naam (Name/Honour)- the name and honour of the soldier's unit, the army and the Nation. A soldier would do anything to uphold the reputation and respect of his army unit and his nation.
• Namak (Salt/Loyalty) - loyalty to the soldier's unit , the army and the Nation. A soldier believes that he is forever indebted to hands that fed him and will remain loyal all his life to his country and his army unit.
• Nishan(Flag or Insignia) - the insignia or the flag of his unit, the army and the Nation. The greatest sight for any soldier is that of his country's flag flying high and he would make the greatest sacrifice to keep the flag flying high.

These are not mere words but the spirit and ethos of a soldier.

I want to leave you with the thought that can 'Naam', Namak and Nishan motivate a corporate employee in the line of duty? and can Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose provide the right motivation to a soldier?

In the 21st century workplace, does the company (Naam), loyalty to the company (Namak) and it's brand (Nishan), the supreme motivation factors for an employee?

Please ponder on it and provide your views on what do you think.