How Burberry's CEO Fixed Employee Motivation Without Perks or Pay Rises

If you want to get more out of your team, stop thinking like a manager and start thinking like a biologist.

Humans don’t wake up excited about KPIs.

• We’re not wired for quarterly goals

• We’re wired for survival, connection, and meaning

Motivation isn’t a management problem.

It’s a brain problem.

The limbic system runs the show.

Fast, emotional, and ancient.

It scans for danger, reward, and belonging, not strategy decks or slide charts.

The rational brain? That’s the intern. Smart, but slow.

It understands goals, but only acts when emotion gives it the green light.

That’s why most motivation fails.

We explain before we connect.

We aim for logic but forget the limbic.

So, how do you tap into the most powerful human motivators?

The 4 Human Drives Behind Motivation

Behavioural science has shown we’re driven by:

1. Autonomy – We crave control over our work

2. Mastery – We want to get better at something that matters

3. Purpose – We need to feel part of something bigger

4. Belonging – We need to feel seen and safe with others

Motivation happens when work is designed to tap into all four.

I’ve spent this week researching how world-class leaders actually do this 👇

Real-World Playbook: How the Best Do It

Here are some of the most unique and inspiring ways great leaders have used behavioural psychology to create extraordinary teams:

1. Jos de Blok at Buurtzorg (Autonomy)

In 2006, the Dutch healthcare system was drowning in red tape.

Nurses were overworked. Patients were rushed.

And most of the workday was spent filling out forms, not caring for people.

Then a former nurse named Jos de Blok asked a radical question:

As a result, he founded Buurtzorg (which means “neighbourhood care” in Dutch) with a small team of just four nurses and a radically simple vision:

Each team of 10–12 nurses was autonomous.

They decided:

• Which patients to take

• How to structure their day

• Who needed more time or less care

• How to coordinate with families and local communitie

There were no checklists or quotas.

Just one North Star:

Do what’s best for the patient.

The Results?

• 30% fewer hospital visits among Buurtzorg patients

• Improved recovery times

• Highest employee satisfaction in the sector

• Lowest overhead costs (because no bloated admin layer)

• And today: over 10,000 nurses, still operating in small, self-directed teams

All without a single traditional manager.

Buurtzorg didn’t just improve healthcare.

They proved something bigger:

• When people feel trusted, they act like professionals

• When people feel controlled, they act like robots

2. Satya Nadella at Microsoft (Mastery)

When Nadella took over in 2014, Microsoft was broken.

• Teams were competitive, not collaborative

• Employees feared failure and hid mistakes

• Curiosity was punished and arrogance was rewarded

Nadella fixed this by installing a growth mindset and making learning the metric.

He made vulnerability the leadership model.

He shifted the culture from “prove yourself” to “improve yourself.”

Practical Playbook:

• He gave everyone a copy of Mindset by Carol Dweck

• Managers were trained to praise effort, not just outcomes

• Meetings began with “What did we learn this week?” instead of KPIs

This activated mastery and safety.

People stopped covering up problems and started solving them.

He shifted the company from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all” culture.

3. Angela Ahrendts at Burberry (Purpose)

Burberry was stale and disconnected in 2006. The brand was diluted and employees were disengaged.

But CEO Angela Ahrendts didn’t start with product.

She started with purpose and storytelling.

She asked one powerful question:

She reminded employees they weren’t selling coats.

They were curating British heritage.

They were protecting people from the elements in style.

She connected teams to the story of craftsmanship, British heritage, and modern protection.

The result of this focus and company culture shift resulted in one of my favourite ever brand ads 👇

Her Playbook:

• Every retail employee was trained as a “storyteller,” not a seller

• Headquarters were redesigned to feel like fashion theatres

• Internal newsletters featured customer journeys, not spreadsheets

When you give people a mission worth showing up for, they’ll go the extra mile because they believe in it.

4. Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo (Belonging)

During her time as CEO, Nooyi made one unusual move:

She wrote over 400 letters to the parents of her senior team, thanking them for raising such remarkable children. Watch the full interview here.

This simple act activated belonging and purpose. It built emotional loyalty and emotional loyalty builds real momentum.

Her Playbook:

• At annual meetings, she read some of those letters aloud

• She asked execs to bring their family to milestone celebrations

• She pushed for flexible working years before it was trendy

• She tied employee goals to societal impact, not just profit

The result?

• Emotional buy-in

• Deep loyalty

• Fierce motivation

This is what happens when belonging becomes strategy.

“You can lead with strategy. But you win with love.”

She turned personal recognition into a leadership advantage.

The Secret Glue = Recognition

You can give people autonomy.

You can give them purpose.

You can give them mastery and a tribe.

But if you never recognise them, it won’t stick.

It turns fleeting motivation into long-term momentum.

It says: “I see you. What you do matters.”

And the science backs it up:

• In a global Gallup study, employees who said they were “recognised regularly” were 4x more likely to be engaged.

• In Daniel Kahneman’s research, one of the biggest drivers of motivation was feeling acknowledged for your work.

• In BJ Fogg’s behaviour model, recognition acts as a reinforcing reward, cementing identity and effort.

This isn’t about pizza parties and plaques.

The most powerful recognition is:

1. Timely — within moments or days of the behaviour

2. Specific — name the exact thing that mattered

3. Sincere — keep it direct and honest

4. Public (sometimes) — amplify belonging when the setting is right

Remember to stay conscious of your own bias and what actions you like and be more objective about who deserves praise.

One method that has worked extremely well for public recognition is sharing a Typeform with the whole company to get them to share a peer nomination for someone that has lived the company values this week:

An internal comms email is then created and shared every Friday which usually gets a minimum of 20 nominations for each value so you get insights into the great work and behaviours people are showing across the business.

Give it a whirl 🤝

Your Challenge This Week

People aren’t algorithms.

They’re animals: emotional, tribal, and driven by meaning.

The leaders who win aren’t just good at strategy. They’re students of human nature.

If you want more from your team, stop managing performance.

Start designing motivation.

Pick one action you can do this week from the examples above to improve on the one you selected 🫡

MY TOP FINDS OF THE WEEK 🏆

For Your Performance

• A tactic to solve the biggest mistake people make with their work performance (X post)

For Your Team

• Coach K 🗣️ an interesting way to approach culture (X post)

For Your Health

• Japan’s secret behind 4.5% obesity rate + hack to improve your cardiovascular fitness by 2x (LinkedIn post)