What Really Drives Us: Motivation Beyond the Bonus

By Jane Cox

Before you think about motivating your team, start with this question:

What truly motivates you, beyond money?

Is it recognition? Autonomy? Learning something new? That feeling of progress? Or simply doing something really, really well?

It took me a while to realise that the moments I felt most energised at work didn’t come from bonuses or praise. They came when I felt I was genuinely making a difference, when I felt valued, or when I was stretched in a way that helped me grow. But that wasn’t always obvious, especially when I first became a leader.

Beyond Carrots and Sticks

I grew up with the classic carrot-and-stick technique: KPIs, incentives, and bonus targets on one side; performance charts and public ranking systems on the other. And yes, those can drive behaviour, sometimes in unforgettable ways. I’ve experienced some amazing rewards during my career, a Patagonian cruise, a private jet tour, Parisian speed shopping and I still feel the sting having let my team down over one missed employment ratio as if it were yesterday.

Carrot and stick can work, but only to a point. It won’t get you sustainable, long-term performance, especially once your team is no longer working just to cover basic living costs. And it won’t help you grow into a coaching-led leader.

If you want to energise people in a way that lasts, you need to go deeper. You need to understand what really drives us.

What Really Drives Us?

To answer that I turned to psychology and found some powerful insights worth sharing.

Self-Determination Theory (SDT)

If you have not yet discovered it, Self-Determination Theory offers a solid foundation. It suggests people are most motivated when three core psychological needs are met:

• Autonomy – I choose to do this, not because I have to.

• Competence – I’m good at this, and getting better.

• Relatedness – I feel seen, supported, and part of something.

It also describes a continuum of motivation, from least to most internal:

• Amotivation – No intention to act

• External Regulation – Motivated by reward or punishment

• Introjected Regulation – Motivated by guilt or ego

• Identified Regulation – Aligned with personal values

• Integrated Regulation – Fully internalised

• Intrinsic Motivation – Done for the sheer joy or meaning of it

Leadership takeaway: If I want to build lasting motivation in my team, I need to create the conditions where people want to act for themselves. That means helping them move from external motivators, which are often short-lived, toward more self-sustaining internal ones.

Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation

To understand where my team members currently were on this spectrum, I looked more closely at the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.

• Extrinsic motivation comes from outside: bonuses, praise, fear of failure, or deadlines. It can work in the short term, but if you lean on it too heavily, you risk box-ticking, disengagement, or burnout.

• Intrinsic motivation comes from within: enjoyment, purpose, curiosity, and pride. It’s when the work itself feels meaningful and rewarding.

Great leaders, like great coaches, adapt. They know how to balance both types of motivation. But most of us overuse extrinsic levers because they’re easier to measure and manage.

What to Look For: Motivation in Action

So how can you spot these different types of motivation at work? Here’s a simple comparison:

Extrinsically Motivated:	Intrinsically Motivated:
You might hear: Will this help me get promoted? Is this going in my review? What’s the deadline? Do we get a bonus for this?	You might hear: I’ve got an idea we could try I want to get this right, it matters I love this kind of challenge
You might see: Focus on finishing quickly rather than doing it well Productivity spikes only when incentives appear Reliance on external tracking or checklists	You might see: Voluntary effort beyond what’s required Curiosity and self-driven learning Support for teammates without being asked
You might notice: Low initiative on tasks without clear rewards Frequent “What’s in it for me?” thinking A more transactional than connected team culture	You might notice: Consistent energy, even without recognition Engagement in the process, not just the outcome A sense of pride and ownership in the team

Leadership takeaway: This isn’t about judging one end of the spectrum as better than the other. It’s about listening. Once you understand what drives someone, you can lead in a way that truly connects with them.

The SCARF Model: A Brain-Based Lens

To deepen my understanding, I also looked into neuroscience, specifically the SCARF model by David Rock. It suggests that our brains are constantly scanning for five key needs:

• S – Status: Do I matter here?

• C – Certainty: Do I know what’s going on?

• A – Autonomy: Do I have any control?

• R – Relatedness: Do I feel connected?

• F – Fairness: Am I being treated justly?

When these needs are met, we feel engaged and energised. When they’re under threat, we disengage. Every interaction, whether it’s a meeting, an email, or a one-on-one, is a chance to support or undermine these needs.

For example:

• Micromanaging? You’re hitting Autonomy.

• Springing last-minute changes? You’ve triggered Certainty.

• Recognising contributions? You’re boosting Status.

• Asking how someone’s doing, and truly meaning it? That’s Relatedness.

• Inconsistent rules? You’ve risked Fairness.

  
  

Putting This Into Practice

Ok that's the theory. But as you probably know by now, I'm always much more interested in the practice. (Bridging that knowing - doing gap!) So, here are three practical ways you can apply this thinking at work:

1. Run a Motivation Check-In

Ask a great coaching question: "What motivates you at work, beyond pay?" Then really listen. You’ll learn more in five minutes than you might from a year’s worth of engagement surveys.

2. Use SCARF to Decode Reactions

Next time someone resists, shuts down, or disengages, ask yourself:

"Which of the five SCARF needs might be under threat here?"

Often the issue isn’t what’s said, but why.

3. Design with Intrinsic Motivation in Mind

When assigning work or setting goals, think about these three needs:

• Autonomy – Can they shape how they do it?

• Mastery – Is there a stretch or learning opportunity?

• Purpose – Does it connect to something bigger?

  
  

A Final Thought

We know it, but it's worth re-emphasising. Motivation isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s personal, dynamic, and deeply human. Of course, people need fair pay. But the leaders who build resilient, high-performing teams understand this:

When you light a fire within someone, you don’t need to keep lighting one under them.

So, let's start with ourselves:

👉 What really motivates me?

👉 And when did I last ask my team the same?

If you’d like to learn more about how to motivate your team members, or explore how our programmes could support your people and organisation please get in touch here. 

Author: Jane Cox

Jane is one our Work Stories founders and resident executive coach. To find out more about Jane click HERE