Most people I talk with aren’t unmotivated. They’re busy, capable and committed. What they struggle with is sustaining energy when their work no longer feels like it’s moving them forward.
With so much written and spoken about technology and workforce disruption, I’ve spent a lot of time in conversations and programs focused on staying motivated. What follows is a simple framework I often share in those discussions.
Why Mastery Gets Overlooked
According to Daniel Pink, three motivators drive human motivation: purpose, autonomy and mastery. Purpose connects daily work to something larger than ourselves. Autonomy gives us the freedom to make decisions and act independently. Mastery comes from learning, growing and gaining confidence in our skills. When these motivators are present, productivity follows. When they’re missing, work tends to drift toward busy-work, micromanagement and disengagement.
We can work on all three, but mastery is often the most overlooked and, importantly, the one individuals can influence most directly.
A Simple Way to See Where You’re Growing
So how do you see mastery at work in your role? One useful approach is job flow mapping. It’s a simple exercise, but a powerful one.
Start by listing all of your workplace responsibilities. Write down everything you believe you’re accountable for. These can usually be clustered into eight to ten primary activities. Then invite feedback. Ask a supervisor or peer to review your list. What surprises them? What might be missing?
Next, assess your confidence and competence for each responsibility. Ask two questions. How confident am I that I’m doing this work correctly? And how skilled am I at this part of my role?
Now comes the visual step. Create a graph with confidence on the vertical axis and competence on the horizontal axis. Set zero at the origin and five at the end of each axis, forming four quadrants. Plot each responsibility into one of them.
Quadrant one typically includes newer responsibilities. Confidence is high, but competence is still developing. Quadrant two is the learning phase. Skills are improving, but confidence dips as the complexity of the work becomes clear. Purpose can feel less certain here as well.
Quadrant three reflects emerging mastery. Competence rises, purpose becomes clearer and confidence begins to return. Quadrant four represents full mastery. Skills are strong, confidence is high and the purpose of the work is well understood.
Why Balance Keeps Work Motivating
Once everything is mapped, take time to review the overall distribution of your work. In my experience, most people are surprised by how concentrated their responsibilities are in one or two quadrants.
This balance matters. If most of your work sits in quadrant one, you’re likely overwhelmed. If everything falls into quadrant four, boredom can creep in because there’s not enough challenge. Healthy growth requires a mix. Over time, responsibilities should move from quadrant one to quadrant four and then, ideally, onto someone else’s quadrant one. That transition is succession planning in action.
Managers can use this same framework to guide role conversations. Encourage team members to create and share their maps. Look for opportunities to redistribute responsibilities, provide coaching for quadrants one and two and create in-place development by handing off quadrant-four work.
Job flow mapping isn’t just an activity. It’s a mindset. It helps people see themselves growing in their work, and that sense of progress is a powerful source of motivation that leads to stronger engagement and a more change-ready workforce.
