Em = f(Ea, Mi, Ce)

The little formula I put up there says something like a motivated employee is a function of three factors more or less: employee attitude, manager interation and corporate environment.

Regarding employee attitude, my observation is that our profession is sprinkled with some people who have inherent motivational issues who perhaps defaulted to technology because there is some excitement to be had and it might seem easier to deal with than digging ditches, clearing out the stable and so forth. The way this plays out is that the techie tends to neglect the aspects of projects that aren't interesting - and tends to focus only on the parts that are exciting to them.

To those, I think an attitude adjustment is needed. The attitude that I think is healthy is that working for a company, one is charged to be a steward over some of the technical assets of the company. Good stewards keep the company in the safety zone and does what's needed regardless of whether or not one finds certain tasks interesting or not.

Regarding manager interaction - I think managers would do well to not just tell team members what to do and set them to work - but explain the value that each project will create for the company so the employee clearly sees what value they're creating. Also, a manager should curb the notion that the team couldn't do without them and their ability to make decisions. Employees are often very capable of making decisions. When possible, I think they should be given a chance to make key decisions and take the credit and responsibility for it.

Regarding corporate environment, I think some executive teams play a game called "take all the credit and assign all the blame." If that's the case, then even employees that are internally motivated can become demotivated by such an environment. There are definitely toxic environments out there. One idea is to give executives a book called What got you here won't get you there which outlines a lot of bad habits often exhibited by executives that have helped them get to the position they are in - but will keep them from reaching the next level of success because they're toxic. Perhaps they'll have an epiphany and help change the environment.