You reward everyone the same way
Public praise thrills one person and mortifies another, and you cannot tell which is which.
Courses
See what you would learn
Understand what each person on your team is working for.
A course on motivation that starts from the person rather than a theory. It covers what drives people at work, why the same recognition lands differently, and how to support good work without assuming everyone wants what you want.
Open Cadence on the App Store, type the sentence when it asks what you want to learn, and answer a few setup questions. Free to start. Android testers can request early access.
Type this when Cadence asks what you want to learn
I want to understand what motivates different people on a team. Help me support good work without assuming everyone wants the same rewards or attention.
Change any word so it fits your situation. The course is built from what you type and a few setup questions.
- Best for
- Leadership
- Prerequisites
- None. Bring the situation you have.
- Course length
- 7 to 30 lessons, sized to your goal
- Lesson pace
- About 10 minutes a day
- Format
- Read it, or play the audio
- Access
- Available on the App Store, with early features and Android testing access
Before the course is built
Setup asks about your situation first.
Lesson 1 opens on the moment you describe, and the examples use your role. For this request, expect questions like these.
- How large is your team, and how well do you know what each person wants from their work?
- Is the problem low energy, uneven effort, or one person you cannot seem to reach?
- Do you have budget and authority over rewards, or mainly your attention and words?
Right for now
If any of this sounds familiar, start here.
One person has gone quiet
They used to care visibly, and something changed, and you do not know what.
Your team does the work and no more
Effort is fine and energy is missing, and incentives have not moved it.
Course arc
Where the course goes, in order.
Cadence writes the lessons for you, so the exact path follows your answers. This is the ground a course built from this sentence covers.
01 / 06What people actually want from work
The evidence on motivation, and why money and praise explain less than managers expect.
Finding out, one person at a time
Questions that reveal what someone is working for, without making it an interrogation.
Autonomy, progress and meaning
The three conditions that most reliably sustain effort, and how a manager affects each.
Recognition that fits
Public, private, written, specific: matching acknowledgement to the person.
When someone disengages
Distinguishing burnout, boredom, unfairness and life outside work, and what you can do about each.
Motivation you cannot buy
Working within limited authority: attention, trust and the design of the work itself.
What changes
What you will be able to do, and what you will stop believing.
You will be able to
Read what someone is working for
Learn to ask, and to notice, what drives each person: mastery, autonomy, recognition, security, purpose.
Recognise in the way that lands
Match how you acknowledge good work to the person receiving it.
Diagnose before you incentivise
Tell apart low motivation, unclear expectations, and a problem outside your control.
Ideas this course corrects
People are motivated or they are not
Motivation is mostly situational. The same person is engaged in one setting and switched off in another.
Fair means treating everyone the same
Fair means each person gets what helps them do good work, which is rarely identical.
Course questions
What to know before you start.
Is this a fixed course?
No. Cadence builds the course when you type the sentence and answer a few setup questions, so the lessons follow your situation. This page describes what a course built from this request covers. You see the whole path before Lesson 1.
Who is this course for?
A course on motivation that starts from the person rather than a theory. It covers what drives people at work, why the same recognition lands differently, and how to support good work without assuming everyone wants what you want. It sits under Leadership in the Work & ambitions part of the library.
Do I need any prior experience?
No. Setup asks what you already know and where you want to use it, and the course starts from there. Bring a real situation if you have one; the examples are built around it.
How long does it take?
Courses run 7 to 30 lessons of about 10 minutes, sized to what you asked for. One lesson a day is the intended pace, and you can go faster. Lessons can be read or played as audio.
Does this course award a certificate or degree?
No. Cadence is for practical self-learning and does not award accredited degrees or professional certification.
Start today
Type it, answer a few questions, open Lesson 1.
The sentence to type
I want to understand what motivates different people on a team. Help me support good work without assuming everyone wants the same rewards or attention.
Open Cadence on the App Store, type the sentence when it asks what you want to learn, and answer a few setup questions. Free to start. Android testers can request early access.