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Tasks requiring creativity show best results when intrinsic motivators are in play. Essential elements of intrinsic motivators are:

Autonomy: Self drive and being free to make your own choices of work and how you can best do it. Autonomy is basically, the freedom to do what you do best at a time when you are most inspired to do so and using your own intelligence and techniques to best accomplish this.

It is to be self-driven and be your own boss. Companies like Google and Facebook have successfully adopted this culture and the birth of Gmail and Google Maps are the proud result of this autonomy to their employees. A more specific book on this subject would be Work Rules! which provide insights from inside Google. It will transform how you live and lead.

Mastery: This is when you get more skilled at what you do and become more recognized for your work. Deliberate practice, setting clear goals, consistency and constant performance review to check mistakes and improve – are the touchpoints to master your craft. Practicing should be purposeful too and the book GRIT talks all about that.

Pink talks about “Goldilocks Tasks” – tasks that are not too hard, not too easy, just right to ensure that you are getting better without getting stressed. Management should try to provide each employee with balanced tasks to keep them sufficiently challenged and interested and yet not become stressed.

Purpose: Work we undertake should have a purpose and we should be aware that our actions are fulfilling a higher purpose or even a common group purpose. Awareness of purpose will lead us to appreciate the impact of our contribution and this motivates us to put forth our best.

Profit in the form of rewards may sustain us for a short period, but purpose is what gives us passion, pride and the ability to sustain long term.

Type I behavior is a way of approaching your life that is built around intrinsic motivators. Everyone needs to feel they are in charge of the direction of their life. We want to choose what to learn and create, to become better people in a better world. This vision and decision making is Type I behavior.

Type X behavior is built around extrinsic motivators and desires. This behavior is much less focused on inherent satisfaction from the activities in daily life and much more focused on the external rewards that will come from completing the activities. The differentiation is very clear.

Another book that might be interesting to read on these last points is Stumbling On Happiness.

About The Author Daniel Pink

Daniel H. Pink is the author of six provocative, bestselling books about business, work, and human behavior. He draws on 50 years of behavioral science to overturn our wisdom on motivation. Drive spent 159 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists and has been translated into 37 languages.

In 2019, Pink was named the 6th most influential management thinkers in the world by Thinkers 50. Pink was host and co-executive producer of “Crowd Control,” a television series about human behavior on the National Geographic Channel that aired in more than 100 countries. He has appeared frequently on NPR, PBS, ABC, CNN, and other TV and radio networks in the US and abroad.

He has been a contributing editor at Fast Company and Wired as well as a business columnist for The Sunday Telegraph. His articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The New Republic, Slate, and other publications.

From 1995-1997, Pink served as chief speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore. He is also the proud recipient of honorary doctorates from many prestigious universities like Georgetown University, the Pratt Institute, the Ringling College of Art and Design, and Westfield State University.