How is a company supposed to move through changes and improve overtime without leaders motivating individuals and groups to strive towards a common goal? There are many different types of leadership styles and individual personalities that can change the dynamic of motivation. Many great leaders can use their personal strengths and weaknesses to help them respond to their staff and any other external issues and be able to solve the problem.
A great leader is always looking for ways to improve and meet organizational goals. It is also important to keep corporate values intact while motivating individuals and keeping everyone focused towards a common goal. Motivating individuals and groups in a work setting can be difficult and it does not take one solution. It takes many different styles for each employee because “everyone is unique, with unique values and ideas and if you want to be successful in instilling company-wide motivation, you have to find multiples strategies for each individual” (Caraher,1, 2017).
Every person in the world has their own unique way of looking at every situation and that does not change when it comes to the workplace. A great leader can motivate everyone based on their personal and work needs so they feel appreciated and wanted in the company. To overcome a diverse group of individuals, leaders must focus on motivating everyone, tackling advantages and drawbacks, work on meeting corporate goals, and improving their leadership skills.
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To understand the concept of motivation and how to properly practice motivation in the workplace, a proper definition must be established. Ajayi in Bangladesh wrote a definition stating motivation is “a process that starts with a physiological deficiency or need that activates a behavior or drive that is aimed at a goal incentive’ (Ajayi,1, 2015). Using an organization goal that the whole group can move towards together will help make small and big goals attainable. Motivation uses individuals want to achieve, which is not always openly present, commitment to be a better employee and moves them towards a certain occupational task to achieve.
Leaders need to access their employees and put forth different strategies to help employees stay motivated. Many different leaders exist in a workplace and each leader uses many different strategies to help motivate people. Great leaders use encouraging methods towards groups and individuals at work to help employees advance to the goal and receive incentives. Some of the most used motivation strategies “include: praise, advancement opportunities and setting an example” (Caraher,1,2017). Making sure that, as a leader, you motivate employees by praising them even on the smallest of task.
This make employees feel worthy and happy to come to work and help a business that helps them seek gratification in their work. Advancement opportunities are a great way to help push an employee towards reaching a goal and obtaining a small or big advancement. Another great strategy is helping people turn their weaknesses into strengths and working together to achieve a specific outcome. Leaders help motivate their employees by setting an example because people will only respect and listen to leaders who want the same effort as they are given.
It is important for leaders is to use their own strengths and weaknesses of their leadership style to better help employees to respond to a diverse set of topics. It is crucial to look at the current staff and individuals in a group and access their personal advantages and drawbacks as well as a group then use them together and work together in a positive way. There are many ways to define strength and weakness, but it seems challenging because “people tend to have no objections towards strengths and sees it as a positive, favorable term.
There is much dialogue associated with weakness and gives people a pre- conception that one is referring to undesirable flaws, faults, or irreparable deficiencies'(Barrington,2,2009). These pre-conceived notions on how people define advantages and drawbacks can make a big impact on how people feel judged or humiliated in a workplace. Making sure that leaders and managers take account for individual strengths and weaknesses is important but helping them to feel as if their so called “flaws” can be used to help can make a huge difference. Where some people need help reaching a goal and completing a task, others excel in completing and vice versa.
Leaders can benefit from having a variety of individuals and utilize each strength and weakness to their advantage in many situations. If there is a patient needing to hear difficult news, where one individual can help perfectly relay the message while consoling the patient, another individual might excel in book knowledge and performing certain procedures. A leader in this instance would motivate the group to work together to complete a task where each of their strengths are used also while working and improving their weaknesses. Using these steps properly can help when a leader needs improvement or help from external threats.
Leaders can be held down by external threats that cannot be changed but they can improve the issue by controlling and fixing the problem to remove potential threats. A great motivator can stay in touch with each individual and make sure that any external threat can either be dismissed or solved. External opportunities are a positive threat in the workplace and can cause employees to have external influence from an outside inspiration. Sometimes employees can be so wrapped up in their current project or activity that they become bored or frustrated.
It is the job of the leader to motivate them and remind them that “inspiration can strike when you take a step back” and focus on something else (Dayan,1, 2016). It is important to allow your employees to take well deserved breaks and motivate them let the inspiration strike. They can go for a walk or read a book and come back to complete their work more efficiently. Leaders can improve their motivation skills by stepping back occasionally and assessing their employees physical and mental health because these are big factors that affect people every day from completing their work.
There are many traditional and nontraditional leaders and they each have their set ways of motivation to help employees meet corporate and organizational goals. A nontraditional leader is more likely to use an indirect leveraging system to motivate individuals and groups to complete their task efficiently and correctly. Some leaders use indirect incentives such as “a reward or point system where points earned for good performance can later be used by the employee to redeem all sorts of gift items, travel perks, or even additional days off from work” (Miller-Merrell, 1, 2015).
A traditional leader will use proper motivation such as positive reinforcement helping them reach a goal when necessary. Both types of leaders work well in a workplace, but some people take kindly to one type more than another. Each type of leader uses many different motivation incentives to help the team meet organizational goals. Some use money and perks and others are hands on with everyone so that all organizational needs are met. Not only will each leader hit organizational goals, but they will use their personal techniques to make corporate values just as important.
An important part of motivating individuals is to make sure that while helping others, the leader is staying on track and everyone is working toward a common corporate goal to improve the company. A leader’s personal focus can help to motivate individuals to help themselves while helping the company. Everyone likes to have positive motivation and incentive when working this way, they can ensure staff collaborations in a positive way.
There have been studies shown that “a manager with promotion focus will have an inclination towards strategies that insure hits and avoid errors of omission, and a prevention focused manager will lean towards strategies that insure correct rejection and avoid errors of commission” (Ng, Walls, & Ganchimeg, 1, 2016). Each leader will focus on motivating each staff member when a positive reinforcement is put into place and a common goal is set. When leaders match motivating action with a goal pursuit this is known as regulatory fit which helps everyone stay motivated and focused as well as helping others in the group. These values are how corporate stay happy and managers help staff stay on track in any situation.
Through the weakness and threats on leaders and management, multiple leadership styles can push through and help motivate individuals and groups in a workplace. Motivation is what keeps the company moving forward and continuing to hit their goals. Every employee in a business is essential and if a manager realizes employees are there to make money but can also make them feel like they are making a difference in the company. If the correct leadership motivation style is used, this can be crucial.
Everyone can learn how to utilize their personal strengths and weaknesses and work as a group with others with similar personality traits to tackle any diverse topic whether it be big or small. There are also many external opportunities and threats put on a leader and they can always look to their employee’s motivational strategy and be able to help them improve as well as improve their leadership technique. Great leaders can always have a goal in mind and motivate others to meet their goal whether it be organizational or corporate value. Each leader can overcome a diverse group of individuals and help to motivate each one if they follow these pointers.
References
- Ajayi, S. D. (2015). Effects of motivation on employee productivity: a case study of first bank of nigeria Plc.SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2700556
- Barrington, K., & Street, K. (2009). Learner contracts in nurse education: Interaction within the practice context.Nurse Education in Practice, 9(2), 109-18. doi: http://0-dx.doi.org.libcat.athens.edu/10.1016/j.nepr.2008.10.004
- Caraher, L. (2017). The boomerang principle. doi:10.4324/9781315212760. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/jayson-demers/6-motivation-secrets-to-inspire-your-employees.html
- Clark, R. E. (2005). 5 research-tested team motivation strategies. Performance improvement, 44(1), 13-16. Retrieved from https://0-search-proquest-com.libcat.athens.edu/docview/237236205?accountid=8411
- Dayan, Z. (2016, June 16). Go SWOT yourself: taking an objective look at your leadership style. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/275796
- Miller-Merrell, J. (2015). USING NONTRADITIONAL INCENTIVES TO MOTIVATE YOUR EMPLOYEES. Retrieved from https://www.payscale.com/compensation-today/2015/03/nontraditional-incentives-motivate-employees.
- Ng, E., Walls, J., & Ganchimeg, W. (2016). Getting to the heart of corporate sustainability: the role of managerial values and motivation in the mongolian mining industry. Retrieved from https://ssrn.com/abstract=2781343 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2781343
