The first and most basic prerequisite for leadership is the desire to lead. After all, becoming an effective leader takes hard work. If you’re not prepared to work hard at developing your leadership skills or if, deep down, you’re really not sure whether you want to lead or not, you’ll struggle to become an effective leader.
The first step in building motivation is to identify what demotivates you and then tackle the problem head on.
Now, here we’re looking at demotivation on two levels. On one level we’re looking at the fundamental motivation to lead. At a second level, we look at the day-to-day irritations that frustrate you and distract you from doing a good job.
First, we look at motivation to lead.
When we asked you to complete the Leadership Motivation Assessment, we were asking you whether, deep down, you want the responsibility as well as the rewards of leadership.
Some of the benefits of leadership are obvious. But what if you find that something is holding you back? What if you find that, when you look within yourself, you’re not that sure that you want to lead a team?
The second level of demotivation comes from the day-to-day irritations that distract you from doing a good job.
There are many different power bases that a leader can use and exploit.
These include problematic ones such as the power of position, the power to give rewards, the power to punish and the power to control information. While these types of power do have some strength, they put the person being lead in an unhealthy position of weakness, and can leave leaders using these power bases looking autocratic and out of touch.
More than this, society has changed hugely over the last 50 years. Citizens are individually more powerful, and employees are more able to shift jobs. Few of us enjoy having power exerted over us, and many will do what they can to undermine people who use these sorts of power.
However there are three types of positive power that effective leaders use: charismatic power, expert power and referent power.
Expert power is essential because as a leader, your team looks to you for direction and guidance. Team members need to believe in your ability to set a worthwhile direction, give sound guidance and co-ordinate a good result.
If your team perceives you as a true expert, they will be much more receptive when you try to exercise influence tactics such as rational persuasion and inspirational appeal.
And if your team sees you as an expert you will find it much easier to guide them in such a way as to create high motivation:
• If your team members respect your expertise, they’ll know that you can show them how to work effectively.
• If your team members trust your judgment, they’ll trust you to guide their good efforts and hard work in such a way that you’ll make the most of their hard work.
• If they can see your expertise, team members are more likely to believe that you have the wisdom to direct their efforts towards a goal that is genuinely worthwhile.
Taken together, if your team sees you as an expert, you will find it much easier to motivate team members to perform at their best.
But just being an expert isn’t enough, it is also necessary for your team members to recognize your expertise and see you to be a credible source of information and advice. Here are few suggestions for you.
• Promote an image of expertise: Since perceived expertise in many occupations is associated with a person’s education and experience, a leader should (subtly) make sure that subordinates, peers, and superiors are aware of his or her formal education, relevant work experience, and significant accomplishments.
• One common tactic to make this information known is to display diplomas, licenses, awards, and other evidence of expertise in a prominent location in one’s office—after all, if you’ve worked hard to gain knowledge, it’s fair that you get credit for it. Another tactic is to make subtle references to prior education or experience. Beware, however, this tactic can easily be overdone.
• Maintain credibility: Once established, one’s image of expertise should be carefully protected. The leader should avoid making careless comments about subjects on which he or she is poorly informed, and should avoid being associated with projects with a low likelihood of success.
• Act confidently and decisively in a crisis: In a crisis or emergency, subordinates prefer a take charge leader who appears to know how to direct the group in coping with the problem. In this kind of situation, subordinates tend to associate confident, firm leadership with expert knowledge. Even if the leader is not sure of the best way to deal with a crisis, to express doubts or appear confused risks the loss of influence over subordinates.
• Keep informed: Expert power is exercised through rational persuasion and demonstration of expertise. Rational persuasion depends on a firm grasp of up-to-date facts. It is therefore essential for a leader to keep well-informed of developments within the team, within the organization, and in the outside world.
• Recognize subordinate concerns: Use of rational persuasion should not be seen as a form of one-way communication from the leader to subordinates. Effective leaders listen carefully to the concerns and uncertainties of their team members, and make sure that they address these in making a persuasive appeal.
Successful leaders never let go of an opportunity to observe the way that their team members work or behave during the normal course of their work. This observation itself is not an end in itself, but is an objective means of gathering information for evaluation.
Do remember the following while you are observing your team members:
• See your role as that of a faithful recorder of facts.
• Avoid ‘breathing down people’s necks’.
• Do not allow yourself to be judgmental until you feel you have a good picture of the way things work.
• Do not let stereotypes or hearsay affect your observations.
Information Gathering : Providing you’re sensitive, you can also gather a lot of information from others who work closely with the individual. Depending on culture and circumstance, these information sources may include internal or external clients, past bosses, or even peers and co-workers. Remember the following while involving alternative channels in information gathering:
• Make sure you don’t undermine the person’s dignity, and that you respect the context.
• Be careful that your questioning does not arouse old grudges that would otherwise be forgotten.
• Avoid unfocused generalization: Ask people to back up their observations and comments with specific examples.
Observation and Information Gathering will help you form some of the picture, however they’re unlikely to tell you what the individual is thinking.
Talking Things Through With the Individual : This is where it’s essential to talk things through with members of your team. Only by talking can you understand what they want and how they, as individuals, see the World. And only if you understand this can you best help team members develop their approach to work.
The most pleasant way of doing this is just to have an informal ‘chat’ with individual team members. Unfortunately this often does little more than build trust— team members will quite naturally want to present a positive impression to you, and you will rarely do more than ‘scratch the surface’ of any issues that need to be addressed.
Once you’ve started to come to a conclusion on where people’s strengths lie, it can sometimes be useful to confirm your assessment by setting specific, time-bound assignments that give team members the opportunity to show their abilities.
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