6. Free stuff. T-shirts, food, desktop widgets, whatever.
It amazes me to no end how free stuff can motivate someone. Geeks could care less about the free company logo pens you hand out. I'm talking real free stuff here. I was on a project once where, for two solid months, dinner was ordered every night for anyone working late to meet the deadline. I couldn't believe how many people stayed just because it was easy to do it. Not only that, they were happy to do it!

The power of free things is that it's generally more motivating when it's a surprise. If everyone expects it all the time, it's not really as cool. In my opinion, even if a geek expects free food every Friday afternoon it's not going to motivate him any less than if you do it every random (6) Fridays.

I've seen geeks go out of their way doing some pretty silly things just to get free T-shirts at conferences. The vendors caught onto something right away and have been milking it for everything it's worth. They know geeks love free stuff, even if it's crap.

7. Control
This particular point amuses me somewhat actually. I've never really met a true geek that didn't love power. Not the kind of power that an executive has in a company. I'm talking about the power of knowing the inner workings of a complex system that the company benefits from. The power of being able to hop onto a server and manage to be in the top three frag-count players on every map...while everyone else just watches in amazement. The power of knowing that no matter what comes along as a surprise, you can figure something out that will work no matter what.

More to the point, geeks like to control their lives. Most of them (well, us) are control freaks that like to do things their own way. Be it control over how to implement their component, design their circuit board, cross out mundane sections of documentation that make no sense except to the business user until it's re-written, see where they're headed after the current project...whatever. If a geek doesn't feel in control, the anxiety will kick in and chip away until greener grass starts to grow on another company's lawn. Lay out the plans, stick to the plans, and give a comfortable level of control to the geeks and their motivation will feed itself.

8. Geeks need recognition
Having a purpose plays a big role in geek motivation. If geeks don't feel like they're needed or appreciated, they'll begin to wonder if they belong. If someone pulls off some completely unexpected progress by using their creative genius mind, by all means give them some public praise. Feed their desire to do more by giving them the reputation they deserve. The first couple times I was put in front of a VP that really liked what I'd done for their bottom line with my applications, I had such an adrenaline rush that I couldn't wait to get out there and kick some more ass.

Some may claim to just do it for the general cause of figuring things out and being just another team member, but deep down inside it still has to feel great to know that others are motivated by your accomplishments. Taking credit for a project at a high level in front of management without praising the hands-on folks is never the way to go. Giving proper recognition to the true hands-on geeks that are doing most of the grunt-work really motivates them to do more.

(Updated 7/18/06: Check out another post on giving proper credit where it's due, at http://www.retrospector.com/2006/07/18/integrity-avoid-taking-credit.)