The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Career satisfaction, life-work balance, the reality of the changing workplace, and understanding personal goals and priorities has been on my mind a lot recently.  While on Twitter, I came across this video, which is adapted from Dan Pink’s talk at the RSA.  The animated illustration of the keynote is captivating, but more importantly, it points out some of the underlining factors that motivate people at work:

Money is only a motivating factor to a point for getting good results. After that people seek autonomy, mastery and purpose to be fully productive.

Good Reminder on Branding

In Alina Wheeler‘s own words:

The companies who are customer centric—i.e. they see the world through the eyes and experiences of their customers, have the most successful brands. They view each touchpoint as an opportunity to build trust, extend customer loyalty, and fuel word of mouth. The companies that have really strong internal cultures i.e. employees that live the brand, who believe in the core purpose of the brand, and who are passionate about the brand, are off the charts successful.

The best companies have brand guidelines that help employees and other partners understand the brand and make it easy to apply the standards at each new touchpoint.

The brands that are not doing a good job at branding are the ones who are not paying attention to the customer, and the dynamics of the marketplace.

On staying relevant:

A brand does not need to continually reinvent itself. Organizations, however, need to stay relevant, continually find ways to engage their customers, and respond to their needs. It’s critical to have a laser-like focus on answering the question: Why should our customers choose us over others.