Motivations of the techy

I spent an hour the other day with the team discussing what their personal motivations were for working at the company.

The team is a mix of contractors and permanent staff.

The idea was two fold. Firstly, by understanding their motivations I would be a better manager and could help incentivise them in the right way. Secondly, by revealing their ambitions they would be motivated to produce metrics which would help them achieve their goals.

These metrics are key to proving the business value of the team and will help prove its success and extend its influence (which are my personal goals).

I assumed that everyone (especially the contractors) would say money is a key driver for them. I was wrong.

Everyone and I mean everyone, talked about company culture as one of the prime reasons they work where they do.

Interesting.

It makes sense I guess. If it was all about $$$ then they might be doing more lucrative and money focused roles. Maybe that's too simplistic? I guess people (including myself) want it all but are more prepared to sacrifice money in the search for happiness.

I've only ever worked in an IT role but I know bankers, brokers and finance types and for the majority of them it's about the bucks.

No real end point to what I'm saying except to say you need to understand what motivates your team in order to incentivise them. That sounds super obvious but it was a little light bulb for me.