Drive

Daniel Pink argues that rewards and punishments, the carrot-and-stick model, are the wrong way to motivate people facing today's challenges. Drawing on scientific research on motivation, he describes a gap between what science has found and what business does. The central claim is that higher pay and bonuses improve performance on basic mechanical tasks, but when work calls for creativity, decision-making or other cognitive skills, larger rewards lead to worse results. Pink names three elements of intrinsic motivation, autonomy, mastery and purpose, and visits companies trying new approaches. Much of the evidence comes from studies at MIT and other universities. Published in 2009, it became a New York Times bestseller.

Adore Me CTO Bogdan Lucaciu summed up its answer in three words: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Remente co-founder David Brudo counted it among the books that had an impact on him.