The ingredients of motivation
Our video on the ingredients of motivation provides you with a selection of factors that researchers often say are key motivators for them. For each one, we suggest some practical things you can do to keep members of your team motivated.
Theories of motivation
There are many theories about motivation, here are three that you may find useful to explore when thinking about your research group:
- Dan Pink’s ‘The surprising truth about what really motivates us’ video (opens in YouTube) describes three key factors that motivate people: autonomy, mastery and purpose.
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – this article describes the different levels of needs that humans need in order to be motivated – it provides practical tips for managers on how to motivate their team – it highlights the importance of creating a safe environment, which we explore in our section on creating a thriving and inclusive research environment.
- Herzberg’s hygiene factor theory explains that as a leader we need to be creating factors that lead to satisfaction and motivation, and removing factors that lead to dissatisfaction and demotivation – learn more from this Mindtools article.
Related topics
Previous and next
Go back to the previous section: Developing autonomy
Go to the next section: Running effective meetings