Transcript
Hello this is Joe Scherrer of The Leadership Crucible Welcome to lesson 1 of this New Leader 101 course. This lesson is going to focus on your motivation to lead. Specifically, discovering what that motivation is. There’s a lot of good content that I think you’ll find useful and that you’ll be able to use right out of the chute as you begin your leadership journey. OK, on to the lesson.
So the fundamental question revolves around your motivation to lead. Looking at it from another perspective, another question is: Did you choose leadership or did it choose you? Is leadership something you wanted to do or is it something you’re compelled to do, asked to do, or pushed to do?
With this last question, there is a big difference here from a motivational perspective. So it’s important you understand this distinction so that you can fully apply all those talents, your strengths, your skills, your personality, and your intelligence to your work. If you’re inherently motivated, if it’s easy for you to be motivated to be a leader, then you’re going to have some additional energy to apply to your roles and responsibilities. If on the other hand, leading requires you have to kind pick yourself up and give yourself a pep talk in the mirror in the morning, you’re going to use a lot of energy that could otherwise be applied in your role as a leader.
Many leaders—not just new leaders but experienced leaders—rarely think about explicitly why they enjoy leading. But it’s a very useful exercise especially when you’re first getting started and as those motivations evolve and change over the years. So going in with a baseline will help you to understand where your head’s at and your heart for that matter.
So in this lesson, I’m going to provide you some tools you can use to discern where you’re at on that spectrum. Alright, so let’s talk about discovering your motivation to lead. Here are some potential reasons.
First reason – to make a positive difference on a broader level. I want to lead because I can make a difference. I can make an impact, to do something positive. So instead of being rooted in your technical position or some sort of specialized function, you look around and say “you know there’s more that I can do.”
Number 2 reason: to mobilize people toward a vision or to overcome a challenge. Maybe you see a situation occurring in your work environment that can be improved or you have an idea of where the organization or your work unit can go. And you know you can take those people there. That’s leadership and that’s a reason to lead: to organize people for the accomplishment of goals and tasks. If you’re an organized person that’s maybe a reason for you to lead, maybe it’s right in your wheelhouse. If you’re unorganized obviously it might be a bit of a challenge, but none the less, leadership involves you, your group of people and move it in the same direction to achieve results. So that’s a good reason to lead. To right a wrong or solve a problem. Maybe there’s something that’s occurring that’s really bothering you and you say to yourself, “If I was in charge we wouldn’t be doing it that way or that wouldn’t be happening.” Or perhaps there’s a problem that you see that you know you can solve if just given the chance.
To provide focus and purpose. You know as well as I do that there are many leaders out there who are leading by the seat of their pants, and you don’t know what they’re going to do from one minute to the next. They always seem like they’re spinning their wheels. Given this, perhaps you’re thinking to yourself, “You know what, if we just focus on this one thing or these couple of things and we do it for these specific reasons, I know we can produce something.” So your motivation can be to provide that focus and purpose. At another level, you can also do this by coaching, mentoring, and developing people to become leaders in their own right or to just do better in the jobs that they have.
Another great reason to be a leader is to embody and enact a collective aspirations of others. What I mean by that is, there is an organizational purpose, a cause if you will that everyone believes in strongly. As a result, you’re driven to take action to achieve those aspirations not only for yourself, but for others. That’s a reason to lead.
Here’s a very simple one: because you’re good at it, because you know you do it well.
This is a very good reason to lead: to have power and the control and influence that goes with it. Ultimately, leadership is all about power, control and influence.
Some people are intoxicated by it and as a result they become toxic themselves. So I urge you to be cautious with this even though it is part and parcel of being a leader.
And finally, very straightforward: to move up in your career. Perhaps your chosen career track involves assuming some sort of leadership role in your organization. Again, this is a good reason to lead.
So what I encourage you to do is to go through this list select the ones that resonate with you. Or, there may be others out there that aren’t on this list that really motivate you, that really sum up the reason why you want to be a leader.
Alright so let’s talk about in a little bit more in depth about this thing called motivation. There’s been a lot of research in the past 50 years on motivation and the results tell us some pretty powerful things. First of all, your physiological, psychological, spiritual needs are front and center. In other words, the way you’re made up physiologically, psychologically, and spiritually really have a strong impact on your motivation to take action. So it’s important to know what those needs. This includes beliefs about your abilities, the academic term is called self-efficacy, which has a direct impact on your motivation. The stronger your beliefs in your abilities, the higher your motivation. The less you believe in your abilities, the less your motivation. So let’s think about that in terms of leadership. If you are confident in your ability to lead, your motivation will go up. This also affects your desire to lead. If you don’t desire to lead, perhaps the beliefs in your abilities—your self-efficacy—are also low. There could be a correlation there. So it’s important to explore your self-efficacy as it applies to your motivation to lead.
Setting goals works. Here’s the bottom line: if you’re at point A and you want to go to point B, you automatically start moving towards that goal. Setting goals works and achieving goals is motivating. The value you place on that goal also effects your motivation. So if you place a high value on a goal, for instance your goal is to move into a first line supervisory position. You believe you can do a good job there. It stands to reason that you’re going to be very highly motivated to take action to achieve that goal.
The type of job you have matters. Some people like routine work that doesn’t change much. Some people like dynamism, and leadership in my experience is a very dynamic role so if that’s something that doesn’t appeal to you it’s going to be very difficult for you to sustain your motivation. However if leadership is something that does appeal to you, again it’s going to be right in your wheelhouse.
Motivation increases in an environment where fairness and trust exists so think about a boss that’s unfair to you, unfair to others. Or a co-worker that says one thing and does another or a boss that says one thing and does another or an organization that goes back on its word. This whole thing about fairness and trust, and it’s very difficult for any of us to say motivated if fairness and trust is lacking.
Okay so these are the key facts about motivation. I’d like you to ponder and understand what motivation really means and how it impacts your desire to lead.
Now we know what motivation is at a little deeper level, let’s talk about your individual motivations, your basic motives.
Dr Steven Reiss, a professor emeritus out of Ohio State University, did some research and found 16 common inherent motives common to all human beings. So everyone has what I call a motivational signature. Your motivational signature is going to motivate your behavior, and if your inherent motives are met you’ll be better able to tap into those resources, more readily focus on your responsibilities, and enjoy your work more. So that’s why basic motives and knowing what yours are is so important for you as a new leader.
There are 16 basic motives as I mentioned. Here are the first 8. Curiosity is need to understand. Some people are more curious then others, but I find that it’s important for leaders to be curious. Acceptance or the need for approval. Being a leader means it’s a tough job, so if you’re seeking approval as a leader that’s going to be a tough one for you. We talked a little bit about this thing called idealism. The need to improve things to make a difference. So that applies directly to leadership. Power we talked about. Vengeance is a strong word but that’s competitive spirit. It’s good for a leader to be competitive but it can also be bad.
On the other hand, the opposite of vengeance spectrum is being a peacemaker so this is about bringing people together. Both can be important, and they both have their roles to play in leadership. Something I in my coaching practice for my clients is called the “Reiss Motivation Profile.” What we do is give the client an assessment and we come out with a nice scale for each of these 16 motives that describes their motivational signature. Knowing your signature and what your inherent motivators are really helps increase self-awareness. It allows you to find out how well your basic motives align with your job responsibilities, what’s lacking, and where you might be overusing or underusing your motives so that you can implement countermeasures to ensure your operating with good psychological balance.
Alright let’s sum all this up. It’s vital that your’re motivated to lead, if you’re not it’s going to take you more energy just to get up every day and be a leader. It’s equally vital that you know why you want to lead or not, and we went through a chart with about 10 reasons, and maybe you came up with 10 other reasons. Motivation is internal and it is shaped, but not determined by, the elements of your environment.
We talked about Dr. Reiss and his 16 basic innate motives and your motivational signature that’s unique to each and every one of us. And why it’s important to know your motivational signature because it will provide you insight on how your motives match up with your responsibilities in your leadership role.
The bottom line is that great leaders are internally motivated.
Alright so that’s the lesson, but no lesson is complete without some homework.
So I do have some homework for you. I encourage you to do it, to work through it, and it basically revolves around a few questions. What are my primary motivators? Use Dr. Reiss’ motives, your own experience, growing up, and your experience at work to help you develop a list. What was it that motivated you? How do those motivators fit with the role you have now? That fit between your motivators and your position is very important. How strong is your desire to be a leader? For example, on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being there’s nothing, absolutely nothing you’d rather be doing than being a leader and zero being I have absolutely no desire and never will be a leader where do you fall. What are my primary motivators? How does motivators fit with my leadership role? How strong is my desire to be a leader? What are my reasons for wanting to be a leader? I think that by going through these four questions, you are going to better understand your motivations for being a leader. And with that foundation of self-awareness and insight, you’ll be off to a great start. Many leaders never take the time to think about this, but you’re going to go in with a leg up because you thought it through and at least have a working idea of why you want to be a leader.
In lesson 2, I’m going to ask you another question, one that I find that few leaders ask throughout the course of their career. What is your definition of leadership? And we’ll get in a little bit of depth on that and talk about various models and really what it takes to begin to start forming and making more concrete, your definition of leadership. Which also in turn helps you be grounded as a leader.
Alright until next time.