Culture is defined as the personality or character of the company. If culture is your MotiCode, you want the company's personality to be the type that consistently shows care to the team.

• You want to work in a place where you feel the leaders, your boss, and your colleagues care for you and for each other.
• It's important to you that you work in a place where you spend time with your team virtually or in-person.
• You get your energy from being with your colleagues. It is important for you to like your co-workers and you often pursue friendships with colleagues.
• You are drawn to companies that show they value their employees by having fun parties, group get-togethers, team building activities on a regular basis. If you work remotely, there is an option for gatherings of some sort (zoom, in-person, travel to headquarters etc)
• You value teamwork and collaboration and love when you are put on project teams to solve a problem, organize an event, or carry out an initiative. 

Small Shifts if Culture is your MotiCode:

• Think about how you can influence culture.  Often the organizations with the best culture have employees who advocate for it.
• Form a culture team. Organize and coordinate team activities.
• Cultivate friendships. Step away from your desk and eat lunch or take breaks with others (virtually or in-person).
• Create small ways for company employees to naturally connect. Examples include :vision or kudos boards, candy jars, quick morning meetings to kick off the day, etc.
• Increase your belonging cues, which are daily activities that impact culture for the better. Examples include: always giving others a chance to speak, increasing proximity to others in your team, saying thank you, being an active listener, etc. 

Things to watch out for:

• Be aware of how of workplace conflict impacts you.  Often conflict or disagreement does not sit well with folks who have culture as a top MotiCode. You might seek to avoid conflict and make peace but often that hinders innovation or will cause you to put your needs last. 
• Your desire for harmony might cause you to not want to rock the boat and therefore not share an idea that might be necessary but unpopular.  Make sure to weigh the cost/benefit of always putting harmony first. 
• Ensure that you are not taking it personally when colleagues do not want to spend free time, lunches, or after work time with you or the rest of your team.  Not everyone wants work to be social and that is okay.

• You appreciate it when your leader regularly provides detailed, timely feedback that helps you grow. Ideally that feedback is positive, because that feels good, but that's not the only important thing. Often constructive feedback can be valuable too.
• You crave one-on-one time with your boss. It's important to keep that time sacred. It offends you when your boss cancels such meetings.
• You tend to compliment others readily because you yourself understand the need for recognition.
• You likely share your awards readily (on resume, in interviews, in your conversations with your boss or peers). 

Small shifts if Praise is your MotiCode:

• Schedule one-on-ones with managers yourself and send questions you'd like to discuss in advance. Share your work and be specific about the type of feedback you seek. 
• Ask for feedback from peers too! This can be just as helpful in ensuring you know how your performance measures up. Create opportunities where you can gather feedback and input from those you work with.  
• Learn about ways the organization supports feedback for professional development. For example, do you have access to a 360 assessment?
• Research free online tools to gather feedback from your business partners.
• Consider joining groups in the community where feedback is given regularly.  Examples include: small business circles, toastmasters, young professionals groups, etc. 
• Keep an affirmation journal where you track the praise you have received.  Refer to this regularly to motivate you.  Often we tend to remember the negative feedback and forget the positive.  Tracking positive feedback can help.
• Show that you care about all types of feedback by being a great listener and acting on the feedback you do receive. 

Things to watch out for:

• Feedback that lacks objectivity.  Remember that not all feedback is created equal. Even the best managers and colleagues can be unfair judges of others.  The best feedback is specific and actionable, fact-based, and avoids judgement.
• Coming across as too needy with compliments. You want feedback to improve and to stay motivated. Make sure that you are not being perceived as fishing for compliments. 
• A perception by others of a lack of confidence in your own work/needing constant validation in order to move forward/needing too much direction and can’t function independently. 
• You like receiving praise and compliments, therefore you likely share compliments freely-which is great and uplifting.  Make sure, though, that the praise you share always feels sincere, objective, and true. 

• You want to be paid appropriately for your contribution.
• You believe the best way to recognize hard work or taking on additional responsibility at work is with financial rewards.
• It's motivating to you when you feel that the more effort you put in, the more reward you will get.
• You are often attracted to positions with performance-based bonuses or commissions. 
• You believe people who work harder (ex: spend more time in the office) deserve to make more money.

 Small shifts if Money is your MotiCode:

• Talk to your boss about ways you might receive the financial compensation you seek. Benchmark salaries to ensure your salary is comparable to industry trends. Keep in mind there might be limits to this because companies have pay ranges that they are working with.
• Consider developing a side gig or finding opportunities outside the workplace to earn additional money.  New studies show that by 2021, 50% of US workers will have done some form of gig work.  As this trend grows, companies are looking at ways to continue to incentivize workers who seek to tie their effort to their compensation.  
• Explore commission based roles within your organization or in your side gig.

Things to watch out for:

• This can be a particularly volatile MotiCode for many people.  Sometimes you might strongly value money because you do not feel you are being paid at market value.  Or you might feel that your living situation and lifestyle calls for more earnings.  Understand what is at the core of this need.  Is it constant or is it situational?
• The grass is not always greener.  It can be tempting to leave a perfectly good job because you can earn more elsewhere. However, there is a risk of starting a job at a new company that might not fit you in other ways outside of salary.
• Be careful that you are not being perceived as someone who is only willing to put in the hard work if they are being paid for it.  In nearly every position there are times where you will be expected to work harder and longer that does not result in an increase in pay. 

• You want to see that that the role you play is making a difference in advancing the mission of the organization.
• You want to work for organizations whose mission is compelling and reflects a sense of doing good for its customers or the world.
• It's important for the bulk of your daily activities to be spent on meaningful activities. Busy work, throw away work, menial tasks—you have a hard time when you are asked to engage in such things.
• You value solving problems, particularly strategy problems.
• When you work on projects deemed mission critical to the organization, you engage more deeply.     

 

Small shifts if Impact is your MotiCode:

• Work with your manager to map your core work responsibilities to the key strategies of the company. Ensure your performance review aligns with the impact you do and how it serves the company.
• Volunteer to work on key projects that are tied to the mission or strategy of your team or organization.
• Challenge yourself to think about how your daily tasks can be tied to the bigger picture. Reframe how you think of your daily work and make room for 5-10 minutes daily to identify how you impacted the person, company, or product.
• Do the tasks you consider menial (or less impactful) early in the day so you can work on the big picture tasks toward the end of the day and leave the office feeling valuable and impactful.
• When you manage or lead others you impact them on a personal level and you impact the organization on a broader level. What is your ladder to management?  Ensure you know this.

Things to watch out for:

• Your reluctance to do ANY kind of busy work or tasky work. It is important to understand though, that with any job comes busy work and tasks that often do not appear mission critical.  Sometimes achieving a goal and long term impact takes time.
• Your tendency to procrastinate on the busy work and how that impacts your broader team.
• Understand who or what you specifically seek to impact. Example, if you are attached to the mission of the organization or passionate about the product your company produces then the organization is who you want to impact with your work. Your results should be tied to organizational impact. If it is individual you are seeking to impact (students, team, patients, consumer etc) then it is less about the organization and more about your connection and tie to that individual(s). 

If Prestige is your MotiCode, you desire a seat at the table. At the core you are motivated by having influence.  

• You want be connected to the influential people in the organization, and you want to be influential yourself.
• You want to be invited to the important meetings and work on high profile projects.
• You crave the opportunity to represent your team or company to key leaders or clients.
• Your title needs to accurately reflect what you do.
• You also need to know that there are opportunities for meaningful advancement within your company.
• You like praise, but you especially like praise when your boss or more senior leaders are included on that praise. Example:  An email from your boss saying great job feels good. And email from your boss, and copying the senior leadership team, saying great job has much more value. 

Small shifts you can make in your work if Prestige is your MotiCode:

• Gain expertise in your field. The more knowledgeable and skilled you become, the more likely you will get that seat at the table you seek.
• If you feel like you should be included in an important meeting or conversation, request to join (but be sure your reason why reflects the value you can bring and not just your personal desire to be "in the room.")
• Additionally, building trust with your team is important.  The more trust you build, the more you are respected and that will lead to invitations to strategic meetings, etc. 

Things to watch out for:

• Because prestige is important to you, you often use “I” statements and ensure you are getting credit where it is due.  Make sure you share credit and use “we” statements when appropriate. Being inclusive and building trust ultimately will help you gain more influence. 
• Conversely, since influence does matter to you, ensure your upbringing, self-doubt, etc does not cause you to overuse "we" statements when "I" is genuinely deserved.
• Make sure you bring the same energy level to meetings with your peers and entry level team members as you would to a meeting with senior leaders.
• Do not only prioritize time with influencers. Ensure you are taking time to connect with peers and more entry level employees.