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By Katheren Leitner
As a human resources manager, I’m sure there are many questions raised when looking at the ingredients that make for a great leader. Should they be practical or visionary? Do they take a hands-on or hands-off style of management? Should they rise from the ranks or enter in from past senior management roles? Where should leadership come from? More importantly, what should be the most important trait of a great leader?
Invariably, the answer will be the person’s ability to have people follow. Quite simply, great leaders inspire people to want to achieve more.
This then raises a contentious question, “is it the leader’s job to motivate their people?” The word “motivation” literally means to cause an emotion strong enough to move. With this in mind, why is it then that so many leaders turn themselves inside out trying to keep their people motivated?
Understanding motivation and its influence on staff?
From a HR perspective, it is interesting to point out that while motivation is an emotionally-driven attribute, it is incredible that some leaders remain emotionally ignorant and think that “soft skills” are dispensable.
It important to understand that motivation comes from two different sources: intrinsic and extrinsic.
Intrinsic motivation comes from within the person and propels us forward; be it desires, fears, or a need. It is heavily influenced by what we believe at a core level and is best understood by the individual. As outsiders we can get a sense of what drives another person however we must tread with caution as we must rely on a number of assumptions.
External motivation, on the other hand, is outside of us, such as the people around us and how they interact with us that drives us to act. We are constantly surrounded by external stimuli. The risk with extrinsic motivation is that if external stimuli are not present in the right form, our level of motivation can be impacted. This is compounded by the fact that there is no set ideal; everyone has different intrinsic desires, needs and motivations which may or may not fit well with external motivators. Some motivator sources, internal and external, are set in concrete while others grow, change and evolve just as we do.
Personally, I do not believe that a person can sufficiently motivate another person to get long-term results. However, I have a strong conviction that the person ‘responsible’ for motivation, such as a leader, can have a significant “influence” by providing an environment which encourages self-motivation.
With all the managerial tactics, strategies and corporate talk out there, it’s easy for leaders to get confused on what to implement and not to implement, what ‘style; of leadership to take on…all which cumulates in no one being motivated anymore. The solution lies in ensuring they create a conducive environment to boost motivation and productivity.
How does a leader create a motivational environment?
There are a number of theories on how to create and enhance a motivational work environment. Here are four notable ones:
1. Recognition & Reinforcement
Recognition is one of the most obvious motivational factors and is a form of positive reinforcement, where productive traits are acknowledged, rewarded, and encouraged. Acknowledging a staff member’s hard work and contribution does wonders for morale and immediately creates a sense of value for them.
Just about everyone likes to be thanked for their work. What makes one “thank you” different than another is the level of sincerity behind the words. Staff know the difference between lip-service and heartfelt appreciation.
Leaders should understand what the different personalities require. Some personalities expect nothing more than a ticker-tape parade to recognise their efforts, while others much prefer a smile and a simple “thank you”. Having a solid grounding in understanding personalities will greatly assist in calling this correctly.
2. Goal-setting
Truthfully a staggering 9 out of 10 people are not motivated by goals alone. For most people, striving to reach a particular goal does not invoke a strong enough emotion to move them forward. Often other stimuli, internal or external, need to be present to inspire action and achievement of goals.
Goals are in essence conscious, deliberate intentions, and are eventually incorporated into an elaborate system of achievement the individual must set out to create. As an individual, imagine your own personal goals (e.g. healthy eating regime). Now think of the times you given up and let that goal slide. Now imagine how far more difficult it could be for a staff member to incorporate a company goal into an everyday job, which isn’t even theirs to begin with!
Top management can view goals as a means to an end. From a corporate point of view, it seems easy with KPI (Key Performance Indicators) measurements to rate employee achievement. But recognising how hard it is for an individual to be sufficiently motivated by very personal goals, consider the slog to feel motivated by goals of which you had no input and don’t feel overly passionate about! Perhaps it’s time to consider how we incorporate other motivators to inspire productivity?
3. Equity / Fairness
Equity is the law of fairness. To employees, what’s fair (and motivating) is that their perceived input is at least equal to the output. If they put in more work than what they get out, that can be highly demotivating.
The issue of equity is a significant issue in the white-collar/blue-collar environment, or where there is a clear dichotomy between managers and workers. In a customer service industry, for example, workers who sign in every morning, who know what they have to do, have tangible tasks such as answering calls, making sales and recording results, will have a perceived value based on what they’ve done and the outputs which they can measure. On the other hand, their managers, who may be the ones making decisions and creating strategies may not appear to have immediate, tangible outputs, while still getting paid more on average. The workers may start evaluating outputs based on their own understanding and coming up with a conclusion that they’ve done more while getting less remuneration. From this, discontent, feelings of unfairness may start to grow.
Another scenario leaders have to be careful of, is when there are known “slackers” in the organisation. Good workers will always pick up the slack because they don’t want to be associated with poor performance. The problem is that if the “slackers” are ignored for long enough, even the strongest of characters will eventually become despondent and have two options; lower their performance to match or find a better job elsewhere.
If leaders do not manage perceptions of fairness properly, staff will perceive their workplace as unfair and become less motivated.
4. Expectancy
The motivational theory of expectancy is simple: if what I see appears to be within reach, I’m motivated. Conversely, if I don’t believe I can achieve it I won’t be motivated to get there.
Far too many leaders fall into the trap of spouting fantastic, almost incredulous visions and goals. Does aiming to be “World Class” or upping production by 150% sound familiar? While these words might be uplifting to a senior management team, if employees know that they are struggling to meet current production targets or believe there are many workplace issues making the business very far off from being good yet alone world class, motivation will be severely labored.
First, knowing thyself
Before any leader or manager can embark on a quest to improve motivational environments, they need to understand what motivates them first. It makes sense that the more we understand ourselves the better equipped we are to at the very least recognise what encourages others. After all, the motivations that inspire individuals to lead and manage can be very different from an employee’s motivation to work and see your goals to completion.
Leaders and managers may not necessarily have flawed thinking, however, if they don’t understand the way they think, they will most definitely not get anyone else to understand them. The more leaders understand themselves, know human nature and can communicate clearly, the more effective they will be at creating an environment in which staff will thrive. Getting expert help on recognising motivators can come from professional corporate training and coaching.
Training & Coaching: Marking Good Leaders
Good leaders are made not born. They develop through a never ending process of self-study, learning, coaching and experience.
New Zealand businesses can not thrive off technical brilliance alone. We must lift our ability to lead people to achieve common goals.
As HR professionals we play an important role in the development and growth of leaders. Many leaders occupy their seat and get caught up in the whirlwind of the business. Unless a deliberate strategy for their personal development is created they can fall from one year to the next, often intending to do some form of training but never getting around to it.
If we want good leaders in New Zealand business we must encourage them to grow and develop.
Katheren is a co-founder and Director for TrainingPlus, a training and leadership provider to corporates and state sector departments in New Zealand. Katheren@trainingplus.co.nz
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