Motivation Mapping: Leading with Purpose

When was the last time work truly energized you? 

Today, discover how to pinpoint what’s fueling you and learn practical ways to reconnect with your deepest motivators - so your work supports both your goals and your values.

In this episode of the Practicing Connection podcast, Jessica and Coral reveal how you can use the Motivation Mapping tool to transform your work from simply meeting deadlines to leading with energized purpose. 

Through a reflective, step-by-step practice, you’ll learn how to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, notice your own balance, and make small shifts that lead to long-term fulfillment and renewed drive. 

Whether leading a team or taking on a new project, this process helps transform routine into meaning.

Try Motivation Mapping for a current project:

• Grab the Motivation Mapping Worksheet
• In one sentence, share an intrinsic motivator that makes the work meaningful to you right now.
• Then, post one small action you’ll take to better connect this project to your values this week.

Share your insight with our LinkedIn group—let’s celebrate purposeful leadership and inspire each other with new ideas!

Further links and resources from this episode:

• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: practicingconnection@oneop.org 

Transcript

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:00:00] Hi, thanks for listening to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Jessica,

CORAL OWEN: And I am Coral.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: And today we're going to be talking about motivations, specifically, how to better understand what fuels us as leaders. And how to align our work with what matters most. Coral, how are you?

CORAL OWEN: Hey, I'm doing great Jess. Thank you. This topic has been on my mind a lot recently, to be quite honest. And so, you know, so often in leadership we hit stretches where we feel drained or disconnected and we wonder why. And sometimes it's because we're leaning heavily on external motivators, like deadlines, recognition, pressure, general routine.

And none of these are inherently bad, by the way, just as a side note, but those internal drivers that really sustain us and connect us to the work, they can kind of get lost in the doing of the thing, if you will.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that really resonates with me. I've noticed that when I'm motivated by things like [00:01:00] learning growth or connection, I feel energized even when the work is really challenging. But if I'm only driven by a deadline or not trying to let someone down, I can feel depleted pretty quickly and burned out.

I mean, I know depleted kind of means burned out, but I mean, burned out, like I think a step beyond depleted even.

CORAL OWEN: Yeah, exactly. And this is where today's practice of motivation mapping comes in. It's a practice that helps us pause and really take a look at the mix of motivators that are in play. 

And so, extrinsic, intrinsic, we’ll get into those in just a second. And once we see sort of how everything is comprised, we can make small shifts to reconnect with our work with our values, and strengthen our intrinsic motivation to better sustain our energy.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: All right. This is very intriguing. Coral, can you share a little more about what motivation mapping is and why you selected it?

CORAL OWEN: Absolutely. So motivation mapping is a tool for taking [00:02:00] stock of what's driving you in a given project or area of responsibility. You can think of it like checking the fuel mix in your tank. 

Are you running mostly on extrinsic motivators, like external rewards, deadlines, recognition, or are you primarily fueled by intrinsic motivators, things like purpose, growth, alignment, learning, like you said, Jess, that are really, centered with your value sets. 

And like we just mentioned, neither type of motivation is inherently better than the other. Extrinsic motivators keep us accountable and on track. But if they're the only thing driving us, like you already alluded to, Jess, we tend to burn out. 

Intrinsic motivators, on the other hand, are renewable. They sustain us through setbacks because the work itself becomes meaningful.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Hmm. Yeah, this is fascinating. I remember reading a book a while back where they talked about one extrinsic motivator, which was salary, for example. You know, an external reward for work done. 

And one of the things that they mentioned was [00:03:00] that the research shows that when you get to a certain amount, that becomes less of a factor and that you need to focus on internal motivators.

But what I saw happening with that was people grabbing onto the, “Oh, people only need to make this much money, and then we need to do the internal motivators.” And I think that it's more nuanced than that. And so I'm excited for this activity.

CORAL OWEN: So, yeah, that's a wonderful example, by the way, Jessica. So here's how you can try motivation mapping yourself. 

Step one. Pick a focus area. So you're not going to tackle your entire portfolio, okay? Just choose one project, task, or responsibility that you're working on right now.

For example, it might be leading a new initiative at work, preparing a presentation, bookkeeping, managing a big transition for your team. 

Step two, you're going to list your motivators. You can draw two columns on a page, one for intrinsic and one for extrinsic. [00:04:00] For the intrinsic column, write the motivators that come within things like, “I care about impact, I'm learning new skills, this connects with my internal values.” 

The extrinsic column, jot down the external drivers. “There's a deadline. Getting a great salary from this. My team or boss expects us. I'll be evaluated. People are depending on me.” Things of that nature. 

Step three - there's only four steps by the way - step three is you're going to just take notice of the balance. Not judge it. Just notice it. 

So look at your list and circle of motivators that feel really strong right now. They’re kind of primary ones. Do they fall all in one column? And what does that tell you? This reflection piece about your current experience of this work, is it primarily externally dominated or internally?

Then step four, if you notice that you're running mostly on extrinsic motivators, ask yourself, “How can I reconnect this task with something that feels intrinsically meaningful to me?” 

For example, if you're [00:05:00] writing a report, mainly because it's due and that can, you know, kind of grind the gears a little bit sometimes, try reframing it as perhaps a chance to highlight your team's contributions or clarify a bigger vision, something along those lines, and that shift, it taps into purpose. 

Which is far more sustaining, and it really can give us a bigger, broader context about the impact of what's going on.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Wow. I really like how practical this is. You know, sometimes we don't realize we're running on fumes until we stop and look at what's fueling us. And I can attest to this. I often don't realize that I'm running on fumes until I'm forced to stop and look at what's fueling me.

CORAL OWEN: Exactly. And you know, for our listeners, having a few additional reflection questions as you try to map out your motivation may help anger you. So here are a few that we might suggest. 

“When was the last time you truly felt energized in your work? What values were being honored in those moments?” [00:06:00] 

Another one: “Looking at your current responsibilities, where are you noticing a potential imbalance in your motivators?” 

And then a third to kind of bring this home: “What's one small way that you can reconnect to your values in that area this week?”

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, those are awesome prompts. You know, even taking five minutes to think them through could shift how you approach. I mean, I think we're often sharing prompts like this, these kind of big questions and it feels it could feel really big. 

Don't let that scare you. Just look at the question and let your mind do the work and just spend a few minutes thinking through them and that could shift how you approach your work.

CORAL OWEN: Absolutely. And again, this shift doesn't have to be big. Sometimes it's not even a fundamental shift of how we're working. It's just a matter of shifting perspective, and even these small reframes can reconnect us to our deeper motivation. 

Maybe instead of, “I have to get this done,” you think, “This is gonna help create a better experience for the people that I'm [00:07:00] serving.” 

And that little alignment with values can change the entire energy that you're bringing to the work and to your day.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, and you know, it seems like this is something that leaders could use with their teams too. So like asking your team, “What's motivating us about this project?” Or asking a group, right? 

If you're working on a coalition with others, ask yourselves, “What's motivating us about this project?” 

That could really spark a conversation that helps the people that are involved in that team or that group feel more connected, and less like they're just going through the motions or they're just coming together, choosing a task, and then going and doing the task, right.

CORAL OWEN: I absolutely love that.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well. Awesome. Thanks so much Coral for sharing this. 

That's it for today's practice on motivation mapping. We'd love to hear what you discover when you try it. You can email us at practicing connection@oneop.org and share your reflections.

CORAL OWEN: Also a little bit of a [00:08:00] bonus freebie for this episode. 

If you would like a worksheet to walk through this practice step by step along with the reflection questions as well, just check the show notes for this episode and we have a downloadable template that you can use.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Thanks again for joining us today. If you enjoyed this episode, click the share button in your podcast app and send it to a colleague or a friend who might benefit. We'll be back next week with a fresh episode. 

Until then, keep practicing. 

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection Podcast is a production of OneOp and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, US Department of Defense under award number 2 0 2 3 4 8 7 74 3 3.