Four Motivation Mistakes Most Leaders Make

This is a great article on leadership and where mistakes can be made. It helps you think about where you are as a leader and what types of things you do, or can do to make your motivation practices better. Leadership is a very important aspect of how organizations thrive or die. In class we discussed how a leader is not necessarily a manager. A leader has a more collective view on the overall goal and sees the ultimate vision. How leaders organize and motivate others to get to that vision is the issue at hand. How did Steve Jobs inspire action and motivation to his employees? How did Larry Page and Sergey Brin motivate their vision at Google? How did Warren Buffet inspire people around him to complete projects and business goals? These are all leaders who have used a motivation of some sort to push others and make them believe in the vision they were in pursuit of. This article discusses ways in which you shouldn't try to motivate others and also give insight on how to motivate. Ironically this article briefly touches on the social aspects of leadership as discussed in Chapter 5 this semester with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. People have basic needs that they need to fulfill and they probably don't believe in the organization as much as you do. This is one of those issues you have to deal with as a leader, and I firmly believe in what the article states about lots of little rewards rather than a monetary award. People seem to be more appreciative when their work is recognized and their achievements are "seen" by leadership. This relates back to the Acquired Needs Theory. That theory talks about need based approaches to motivation. Most people have a high need for achievement, and rewarding them for their efforts regularly is a great way to encourage. Over the course of this semester we have all selected good articles on leadership and motivation. This is an article that touches on how to not motivate or try to lead. It is important we ask ourselves if we are a victim of using these leadership styles. After reading this post and this article take a look at your own leadership style. Do you motivate in a way that is good or bad? Have you used anything lately to be a better leader or motivator? It is important to remember how to lead and how not to lead. We need to be aware of the right and wrong ways to things to better ourselves. Leadership to me isn't just something you do for a couple things, it's a lifestyle. Leadership is an important aspect of how we work with others and leadership by example is an important aspect of your ability to motivate others. http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/10/four_motivation_mistakes_most.html