CompTIA Keynote: How Are You Motivating Your Team

By Gennifer Biggs, security, storage, and managed services editor

Let me start this blog by saying that I can't possible do justice to the presentation by Daniel Pink, the keynote speaker at CompTIA Breakaway. He was funny, smart, engaging – did I mention funny? Oh, and highly informative. Pink shared insights and tips that most IT business owners in the audience could roll out in their business starting the minute they get off the plane from San Antonio. The author of several books, most recently Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us talked to the audience about the misconceptions of what motivates us (money) and what they as business leaders can do to change that ineffective habit in their business.

The bottom line: Three things motivate most people: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Pink suggested that by giving your team autonomy over their time, technique, team, and task – even for a few hours a week – you can spark fresh creativity that is not only satisfying to your staff but enhances your business. If you follow that up with mastery – allowing people to improve at their job, you've taken another step. And lastly, if you shut the door by giving them purpose – showing them why they are important to overall success of your business, you have hit the trifecta.