After completing the ‘motivators’ exercise to identify your own motivators, make a list of everyone on your team. This could be your peers, or if you’re a manager/lead, your employees

For each person on your list, guess their top 2 motivators. You will probably find this exercise difficult, even if you thought you knew your peers. Do they respond well to recognition? Do they take a task and run with it (autonomy)?

Once you think you have identified a motivator for each person, check with them. This is really the only way to confirm if you are speaking the right language to them. Motivators can also change over time, and in different situations. As you’re having this conversation with each person, also take the time to explain what motivates you.