Why have I come to that conclusion? I have read books and listened to speakers on motivation for years. After a few days their benefits have waned unless I made a conscious effort to keep the effect going. Most people are not willing to make the effort to keep up the effect, so as leaders we must find a way to do it for them. My system for putting followers in a position for self- motivation comes in three steps. They are, as follows:
First, it is important to create an atmosphere. We want them to be in a positive position for accomplishment. We must get to know our people and what THEY want from our organization or team. When we know them we also must prepare them with training needed to accomplish their tasks. Someone has said “nothing succeeds like success” so we must allow them small victories, and yes even some failures, to move toward their own goals for growth. Along the way we involve the team in goal setting so it becomes OUR plan and not just something that we are handed without input.
When we have successfully created the desired atmosphere we then must move on to the second step, contributing to our success. We do this first by understanding that we too must grow and continue getting better at what we do. We lead by example and in so doing contribute to our and their success. This step is a continuous process because each person needs something different from us and as they grow what they need changes. A key to contributing to our success is remaining flexible to the ever changing needs of our staff or team. One of my former managers once said “never ask someone to do what you haven’t or wouldn’t do”. We contribute to our success by getting “in the trenches” with them!
The final step is to always celebrate our victories. These celebrations come on at least two levels. As we are progressing towards a goal we must have small celebrations that recognize our progress and those responsible for the achievement. When the big picture goal is reached we should also celebrate, but on a larger scale. Each step along the way should be marked with meaningful recognition for all involved. We want to give credit where it is due and to make it vocal and valuable. By doing these things we make it not my victory, but our victory and we are “getting things done!”
Contact Chuck at: chuck.wright@sckans.edu
I was a high school basketball coach last year so this post spoke to me. I agree with the fact that leaders have to create an atmosphere for followers to grow, and more importantly WANT to grow. I played basketball and the guys I coached grew up (in middle school) watching me play, so they knew me and respected me. So anything I asked them to do, they know I did as well for the benefit of the team and personal gain. Finally, celebrating small victories is incredibly important for leaders to keep the team optimistic, upbeat and motivated.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think you must gain a person's respect if you want them to listen to what you're saying and to what you want them to do. I think the more respect you have the better it is because this means you have more people on your side willing to do what you want. I think small victories are very important as well because I think they give people to motivation to get to the end. Especially when people struggle throughout the process, it's important to have small victories that motivate individuals to get to the end.
DeleteMotivation is different for everyone because everyone wants and desires different types of things. This is why it's easier to self-motivate because you know what you want and you know what drives you.
ReplyDeleteAtmosphere is important because people don't want to work in a negative environment around negative people. This makes everything much harder to do because everyone is unhappily doing their jobs. This is easily related to soccer, really anything in life. No one is ever to their highest potential in anything, therefore it's important to remember that you can always work harder and get better. You want to allow your teammates or employees the ability to succeed in any situation. It is also important to have rewards because you can just step back for a minute and think about the success you've had. It's important to have some type of reward or incentive so you have something more to look forward to. A team is a team and as an individual on the team you must act like a team member to be looked at as someone respectable.
Leading by example is something I always try doing when it comes to soccer. For example, I can't tell someone on my team to work harder unless I myself is working harder on the field. It is the same in the work place, when people act superior they don't have respect. They have to be willing to do things that they make their employees do and they earn much more respect this way.
Sometimes it's hard to remember your end goal when you see no results or progress. I think it is important to celebrate every step of the way because a small accomplishment is better than no accomplishment.
I really did enjoy reading the post though.
The main point that I found to be valuable out of this article was that of creating the right atmosphere. I have been a part of the work place setting where everyone was unmotivated and unwilling to go above and beyond. That all started with the president who believed that no matter what you did, you were not gonna be able to satisfy your employees so why even try. This created an atmosphere of animosity and mediocrity. If he had obtained the skill to be able to motivate people and make that motivation sustainable, the atmosphere could have been much better. Though victories were celebrated they were just being utilized to mask the bigger issues.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that, Hollace. It is never good when the President of the corporation brings a bad attitude to the table. It will trickle down the organization and allows the workers to also bring a bad attitude to the workplace. Not a fun environment to work in for anybody.
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