Motivation is the art of getting other people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

–Dwight Eisenhower

There are numerous ways to get people motivated. One popular approach relies on enhancing or improving factors that are external to the specific job a person performs. These "external" factors are aspects of a job that are related to job environment, not the job content itself. External factors include:

• Company policies and benefits
• Working conditions
• Salary and other forms of compensation
• Status
• Job security

Some experts have demonstrated that externally focused incentives provide only a short-term means of motivation. They argue that, to be effective and keep people moving forward, leaders need to continuously provide these rewards — while upping the ante each time. Using only external factors to motivate employees, therefore, can become increasingly costly over time.