Question: Module Overview: Leaders as Motivators

Kouzes and Posner tell us that people tend to quit when their tasks seem difficult and arduous. Leaders encourage the heart of their constituents to carry on. Encouragement can come from dramatic gestures or simple actions. They go on to say that genuine encouragement shown in different ways, be it by linking rewards with performance or through celebrations and rituals, tremendously motivates people to wade through tough times.

If leadership is defined as getting things done through other people, the ability to create a positive, challenging, and motivating environment is critical. The focus for leaders is to create conditions for people to motivate themselves. This includes the use of motivational tools in practice such as bonus pay, prizes, special recognition, awards, as well as promotions to positions of new responsibility and authority. While effective managers recognize and reward superior performance, leaders also recognize and celebrate acts that uphold the mission and values of the organization while rewarding performance that aligns with the strategy.

A leader will succeed only if he/she has the right people with the right experience and competencies. Thus recruitment, selection, and training are critical to building a culture that upholds the organizational values as well as equipping staff to perform the task and pursue the behaviors essential to implementing the strategy.

In this module, you will explore the importance of leading by example and the need for consistency between a leader's words and actions. You will also review the importance of integrity and ethics as key leadership currencies using Kouzes and Posner's leadership principle of "modeling the way."

Assignment: In today's turbulent environment, success depends on employees using their skills and capabilities to the fullest. Employee motivation can be a challenge at work. Those leaders who don't emphasize employee satisfaction as a key part of the organizational strategy will not be able to leverage the potential of the human assets to the fullest.

Every person needs motivation at work. The reasons for working vary widely, but we all work because we obtain something that we need from work. This affects morale, production, retention, and overall quality of life. To create positive employee motivation, employees must have a voice and feel that they are worthy to the team and to the organization.