Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

Motivational Leadership

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit

Motivational leadership refers to someone leading others by motivating them to strive for certain goals rather than simply act on orders. The leader tries to create a safe and trusting environment, and ensure the organization is positioned for success in its domain—for example, a company in the marketplace. Some interpret motivational leadership principles as requiring that a leader establish strong ethics, clear vision, definable values, authentic communication, and be genuinely motivated to promote collaboration and a positive working environment.

Contents

Motivational leadership qualities

Honesty: A leader must be honest to maintain trust from team members.

Ability to delegate: Leaders must identify strengths of team members so they can maximize group potential.

Communication: A leader must effectively communicate goals to team members. Sense of humor: Leaders must help maintain organizational morale because negative attitudes spread.

Confidence: A leader must show confidence in all situations, because others feed from this confidence and perform more productively. Commitment: A leader must show commitment by doing work the others are doing to demonstrate commitment to the team and the mission, and willingness to do “dirty work” if necessary.

Positive attitude: Leaders must demonstrate a positive attitude to the group happy and maximize productivity.

Creativity: A leader must be creative to see situations in multiple ways and solve problems more effectively.

Optimism: A leader constantly must be optimistic and have a positive vision because team members feed from that optimism.

Vision: Leaders must have a vision, because followers may not. Integrity: To have integrity means that one is truthful with strong morals. Ability to inspire: A leader must not only have the ability to inspire themselves, but inspire others in the group to get necessary production when the leader needs it. A leader must have the ability to inspire in every situation.http://www.inc.com/peter-economy/7-traits-highly-effective-leaders.html

Courage: Leaders must be willing to take risks and push out of comfort zones to reach goals. Realism: Seeing the world as it really is, not as it "should" be. One should be realistic when assessing a situation, so as to not sound irrational. Responsibility: Leaders must take responsibility for their actions, especially if he/she made a mistake.

Becoming a motivational leader

Motivation leadership begins with motivating yourself. Leaders should have motivation and confidence that they can successfully lead a group.

A leader must set goals to keep the group working towards something—but the goals must be achievable, because unrealistic goals hurt morale.

A leader should learn from failures to gain wisdom. Young leaders can only learn so much from past leaders and textbooks, but sometimes must make their own mistakes so they can learn from them.

A leader should accept responsibility. for not only their actions, but the actions of their group.

When approaching a project, a leader should provide direction to the group to get a task completed in the most efficient manner.

A leader should be trustworthy because the people they lead must trust them to do everything in their power to promote success.

A leader should be authentic rather than pompous. People generally favor leaders who see themselves as a common worker.

To get the most out of a group, a leader should embrace self-expression to harness every group member's inner creativity.

Key to leadership is collaboration with the group to all opinions so everyone has input.

Motivational leadership in sports

Vince Lombardi: Vince Lombardi was a coach in the National Football League for the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers. After his five year tenure with the Giants, he signed a five year deal to coach the Packers. Lombardi transformed the Packers from a team that had a record of 1-10-1 in 1958, the previous year, to 7-5 in 1959, Lombardi’s first year. Lombardi went on to lead the Packers to three straight and five total league championships. Lombardi’s success was based on how he coached. Lombardi demanded excellence and told players that once they understood themselves, they could add to that and build character, integrity, and dedication. Lombardi had a violent temper, but that only was illustrated due to the passion he had for the game. Lombardi promised that if his players obeyed his rules, they would be winners. Lombardi certainly held up his end of the bargain, winning two Super Bowls with the Packers.

Coach Herb Brooks: Coach Brooks is an iconic figure for his motivational speech before the 1980 championship game in which USA played a championship hockey game against the Soviets. The Soviets were heavy favorites to win and Brooks, in his speech, said that the Soviets would probably win 9 times out of 10. Brooks motivated his team to go out and play as if it was their night, as if they deserved this game. If not for the brilliant and motivating speech by Brooks, who knows if team USA would have defeated the Soviets in 1980.

Ray Lewis: Ray Lewis had a 17 year career in the National Football League with the Baltimore Ravens. Lewis is known for his devotion to Christianity and his outstanding leadership. He is not only a leader on the field with his teammates, but a leader off the field with charity work for disadvantaged youth.

Motivational leadership in the workforce

Motivational Leadership is important because it helps to get the most from society. Every team of people or worker needs leadership. Leaders help organize projects to get them completed in the most efficient manner. Leaders have incentives to motivate employees because they help cut costs by working quicker in a positive environment. Additionally, employees increase quality when happy with leadership, and in turn, society is happy because they receive quality products.

Motivational leadership in a family

Any family figure can be a motivational leader in a family—a brother, sister, cousin, grandparent, or parent. The motivational leader in a family must constantly set good examples and drive other members of the family to be the best that they can. A child that is constantly motivated usually develops their own motivation, and therefore develops a work ethic. Parents must motivate their children, and in some instances older siblings.

Motivational leadership quotes

“It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.”-Mark Twain You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. –Vince Lombardi “You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore”. –Christopher Columbus “The difference between a successful person and others is not lack of strength not a lack of knowledge but rather a lack of will”. –Vince Lombardi More Inspirational Quotes

References

Motivational Leadership Wikipedia