Self-Driven

An early career evaluation suggested that I was driven by reward and recognition, and it was true - give me a pay rise, a new company benefit or a bit of praise from the boss, and I would work my socks off.

But the problem with being driven externally is that when the rewards and recognition dry up (a downturn means no pay rises, and an over-extended boss in another country means you’re rarely even acknowledged), the reason to work hard dries up too.

And with no drive to work, unhappiness, frustration and stress soon appear.

Better, then, to learn how to be self-driven - pushed forward by a desire to keep getting better, and focused on delivering maximum value to others, whether they recognise you for it or not.

It took leaving the Corporate world for me to start changing from an external to an internal drive - maybe you won’t need to do anything so drastic unless, that is, it’s what YOU really, really want to do….