What motivates us at a deep level is nothing to with gaining material things or what money can buy. The sustainability of the energy that drives motivation is dependent on the source or reason that triggers the motivation in the first place.
For material things a person is only motivated until something has been obtained, and satisfaction of “having” is short lived until the novelty of a new thing wears off. If you buy a new item of clothing or even an expensive car it may feel good for a while until it becomes the norm. Then it is no longer even noticed, which is why it is not deep.
To get a deeper sense of motivation the emotions must be engaged and fed, not from ordinary desires of “having” but from something more relational. The feel good factor comes not from an object but from human interaction. Ultimately people need to feel wanted and they try and achieve this by attracting the attention of others in different ways.
But others are more concerned for themselves and will not notice us unless there is some association to their own needs. So we battle for each other's attention and crave recognition in order to satisfy ourselves and feel good. That is what people seek and it often ends in disappointment, hence a lot of demotivated, dejected people.
To illustrate this managers often have teams of unmotivated people. Managers by definition are individuals who like to be in charge and hold superior positions over others. This in turn is another form of attention seeking and self-justification, added to which managers are often ambitious people who prioritise their own aims and self-progression over others. They spend time in meetings and organising others to enhance their image of importance and spend little time with less important matters such as those of an individual team member, especially if it is not work related (associated to themselves).
On the other side employees are also looking for the attention of others, to reward or recognise their good work. They see the lack of attention from their managers and others and use that to justify their mistakes or poor performance and lament when things go well that nobody acknowledges them. In an objective sense both are just as trapped in the futility of the situation as the focus is predominantly on the self.
The deepest motivation is the satisfaction resultant from giving one's attention to others.
It is ironic that giving away what one craves for (attention) actually has a deep motivating effect because the satisfaction is on a human level, the appreciation of others who receive attention and goodwill is what drives the continuous good feeling in oneself needed for real and sustainable motivation.
Giving attention to others must be genuine and effortful, for example in order to gather information from others simply asking questions is often not sufficient. By actually working with others and experiencing their daily work (ie giving a much higher level of attention) one can ask questions in context of their world view and gain not only personal understanding but also respect and trust.
For employees this means being connected to the way their daily work impacts others. When the importance of an action is understood, how does this affect others in the organisation, how does this benefit the customer and the aim of the business, how much revenue does it generate, how important is it in keeping the whole organisation moving in the right direction.
Ultimately this is a question of feedback, partly being appreciated by managers who regularly explain and emphasise why an employees work is important, followed by a sense of worth and feeling of wanting to contribute. The attention of the employee moves away from self-satisfaction towards how they can do more for others.
The feeling of a productive cohesive team overtakes the self-serving feeling of recognition.
