Motivation

When I reported for work at my client's office the other afternoon, they were deep in a conversation about what motivates and satisfies them about their work (individually and as a company). It was interesting how different the answers were for the creative services team versus the client services team.

While they were collectively motivated to satisfy the client, the creatives were individually more satisfied by doing "good work," while the client services folks were more satisfied by satisfying the client. I consider the former to be an intrinsic motivation; even if the work is awesome, it doesn't mean that the client is going to like it. The latter, on the other hand, is an extrinsic motivation. Regardless of how they feel about the work itself, the client is happy and that to them is a job well done.

For me, good work usually is work that satisfies my client--on occasion, I guess, a client will want something that isn't my idea of good copy, and that is less than satisfying . . . but for the most part, bad copy is bad copy, and nobody is satisfied with that.

So tell me--is what motivates you the same thing that satisfies you? If not, how do they differ?