Internal Motivation: The Jackpot of Professional Development

Skilled Nursing team members celebrate their joy during a Creative Spark interactive art making session!

For the past several months in my capacity as Creative Spark Program Manager, I have been working and learning with affordable housing Resident Service Coordinators through our Thome Innovation Award. We now stand at the midpoint of our intervention and took the month of July to reflect and create a robust evaluation method with the hopes to capture the impact Creative Spark makes. Part of this work included me personally reviewing hours of recorded videos and dozens of discussion comments, emails, and surveys collected over the last year in order to distill our observations down into essentially one elaborate spreadsheet. This spreadsheet was then coded and analyzed for meaningful patterns. I know this may sound pretty daunting, but honestly I found myself smiling every day of that work. Not only do I enjoy data coding and analysis, but evaluation has literally accessed a part of me that when nurtured is absolutely unstoppable: my internal motivation. 

Internal motivation is that elusive thing that human developmental scientists are always trying to understand and quantify. It’s the jackpot moment when our focus and energy is ignited within and the impetus to succeed becomes very personal.  In the professional world, we can offer lots of external motivators: salary, incentive programs, appreciation events, employee gifts, etc. However, internal motivation comes from the many experiences and personal values we hold which push us to go the extra mile in our work. It is commonly said “If you do what you love, then you will never work a day in your life.” That word “love” is speaking to an internal feeling, a passion we have to be of service. When I read the epiphanies and successes of our learners during evaluation, I prove to myself the effectiveness of the day-to-day work which in turn fuels my sense of purpose in bringing joy and creativity to older adults and their support teams. As I observe my own reaction to reviewing and understanding what my work accomplishes, I’m also thinking about how that applies to reaching the internal motivation of our participants as well.

Across the board in our work with Resident Service Coordinators, we found that they were more closely connected to their sense of purpose more than even to their residents or their coworkers. Their sense of doing good work that helps people is the primary force driving their daily interactions with residents and co-workers. The challenges Coordinators face include low-end pay, limited programming resources, ever-shifting government regulations, and juggling multiple communities with hundreds of residents needing service and different team member personalities and working styles. And yet they stay despite the stresses because, as we have observed, they overwhelmingly know what they do makes a difference for those who need it most. But even the most purposeful team member can falter and experience burnout. Internal motivation comes from past experiences and values, but cannot survive on that alone. 

As previously mentioned, external motivators can be provided to help people feel appreciated and reward them for their hard work, but they are limited by budget, time, and managerial style. Internal motivators take time, attention, and creativity for a supervisor to understand and access; but, once this investment is made, internal motivators can be nurtured by elements that cost very little money. New experiences, sustained growth, and meaningful connection with residents and coworkers are the foundation for finding that jackpot moment when internal motivation kicks in. Our human curiosity and drive to learn is far more powerful motivation than a free lunch and gift card. I see this reflected in our work with Service Coordinators. Creative Spark’s training has always intended to convey more than just information. We offer our learners a community of social support with meaningful interactive experiences, safe spaces to share stories, and helpful insights on how to build trust in professional relationships. And what we have observed is that our learners are hungry for confirmation that they are not alone in the struggle to be of service and there are others who care deeply about their well-being and success. Just knowing that we are here rooting for them and available to help when they stretch themselves by trying something new makes a huge impact on their confidence and energy level. We are finding this universally across new hires to veteran affordable housing team members. 

I have been amazed that just a small investment (3 hours of asynchronous coursework, weekly office hours) has impacted our participants so profoundly, but then I remember it’s the exponential nature of internal motivation that is being accessed. Our work acknowledges and sustains purpose by focusing on joy and connection. We nurture a culture shift that moves away from isolated burnout toward a sustainable purpose-driven system of reciprocity. When we talk about the spark in each team member, we are talking about their internal motivation, their special sauce that drives the work AND inspires everyone who encounters it to share their spark as well. Accessing that is the key to making professional development more than just a checkbox, but instead a powerful opportunity to explore internal motivators and ground team members in their sense of purpose.

Veronicah Cohen, B.S.H.D., is the Creative Spark Program Manager and advocates for the transformational power of creative expression on the personal and community level. She graduated from the University of California, San Diego with her B.S. in Human Developmental Sciences with an emphasis on older adults. Veronicah’s journey in elder care began with providing creative engagement to senior living residents to promote emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well-being in new and innovative ways.