I know that once I motivated two full-stack developers to work a lot more than they were being paid for by saying 'just because the New York Times frontend developers can't do it, doesn't mean we can't do it'.
I still feel a bit ashamed when I think about how much time they invested (~160%), but I wasn't forcing them in any way. They knew the total budget from the beginning, and with that in mind, we were setting the scope together. It was their will to deliver the best possible quality which made them work the extra hours.
In the end, everybody was happy as the project was pretty successful.
If you demand something from someone, often they'll give it grudgingly, and only as much as they're obligated to give. If you let that same person decide how much to give, especially when they also enjoy their work, often they'll gladly give you much more.
Probably just a pat on the back :-/ but I don't know since they were employed at a different company.
Nevertheless, my feedback towards their team lead was very positive, and that might have helped them too since they both collected a bunch of negative feedback while working with some of my colleagues.
I still feel a bit ashamed when I think about how much time they invested (~160%), but I wasn't forcing them in any way. They knew the total budget from the beginning, and with that in mind, we were setting the scope together. It was their will to deliver the best possible quality which made them work the extra hours.
In the end, everybody was happy as the project was pretty successful.