Essay Sample on Leadership & Motivation: The Key to Successful Team Performance

Introduction

Every organization wants to have employees with a leadership trait able who is self-motivated can motivate their employees. Leadership is about inspiring a team as their leader because this is what brings about motivation. Leadership, coupled with motivation becomes critical chemistry which can bring success in any given task. Individual performance in any environment is greatly affected by the existing leadership and their personal motivation. Motivation is the degree to which persistence in individual's effort is directed toward set goals. This persistence is related to whether a person is willing to stay until a task is completed. In this article, I will discuss some of the motivation theory and how leaders can apply them to motivate their followers.

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Theorists have provided several motivational theories considering human needs that explains what best motivates people. Among them are Maslow's Hierarchy and Alderfer's ERG Theory (Isaac, Zerbe, & Pitt, 2001). Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, developed by Abraham Maslow, considers human needs as a hierarchical arrangement comprising of five sets. According to this theory, an individual's need satisfaction starts by trying to fulfill the very basic or the most demanding progressing to the most fulfilling needs. He categorizes those needs into physiological, safety, relationship, esteem, and self-actualization needs. Physiological needs include food, water, clothing, shelter, and money. Until one has access to these needs, chances to progress further are reduced. It is clear from this theory that individual progress rewards and motivates them into fulfilling personal needs. When material possession and reward are minimal and less relevant, influencing motivation becomes harder(Miner, 2005). It is, therefore, important for organizations to consider and recognize the needs of its staff and provide more opportunities for personal satisfaction.

Alderfer's ERG Theory by Clayton Alder is a need-based which considers only three levels of human needs which includes Existence, Relatedness, and Growth needs (Northouse, 2018). The existence needs involve material satisfaction such as food, salary, shelter, and job security. Satisfying relatedness needs involves communication and, exchange and human interactions. Their fulfillment is dependent on feedback from community and organization. Due to this, the motivation comes from the combination of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards such as accuracy and honesty in feedback. Lastly utilizing skills, creativity, and abilities through personal involvement fulfill growth needs.

How can leaders motivate their followers? This is a critical question, especially when trying to ensure an employee is more productive in an organization. Leaders need to have a clear understanding of what can be done to ensure better employee performance and job satisfaction. According to the Path-goal theory, motivating people to perform well is the job of their leader (Northouse, 2018). This poses a responsibility to the leaders to understand what motivates their followers to achieve goals and provide necessary help for them to achieve their personal rewards.

Looking back through my personal experiences, I have evidence of some situations when the path-goal theory could be effectively applied. I once happened to work at a national retailer. I got a promotion after working for five months to a department in which I had a very unclear job description. At that time, there were a number of challenges in reaching overall sales goals that lead to the upper management being dissatisfied with the overall performance of the employees at that store. Giving bonus after achieving sales goals for six months was a tactic that was being used in an attempt to motivate the store's employees. However, the amount given to each employee was minimal since every employee would share the overall bonus. However, when I was starting a new role, there was a new manager who wanted to change the situation at the store. She exercised a directive leadership. She would give instructions that were very clear and cut on what needed to be done and how to successfully deliver as well as understanding expectations for my new role. I became competent under the new position, although my job was becoming very dull and tiresome.

The task became repetitive, and I barely gained no personal benefit to the point I knew the event I was to have a different manager. I would have become very unhappy. At this point, my manager took a different approach to a supportive leadership role. She tried her best to ensure I was motivated and productive (Northouse, 2018). She had an understanding that her success as a leader was highly dependent on the fellow staff working under her. This meant she tried to remain friendly and always encouraged us to open up any work-related challenges, and she would try her best to ensure this was in good control. For instance, she would allow me to work during the daytime rather than at night shifts (PSU WC, 2016). When she realized the sales were not improving, she shifted into using achievement-oriented leadership. She managed this by introducing weekly meetings. Upon learning that her employees were unmotivated to put more effort into achieving sales due to ineffective company bonus, she had to set up an achievable target as a challenge for everyone to put extra effort. She introduced new standards for every department and ideas that motivated employees to work harder such as providing lunch during the weekly meetings if sales target were met and offering gifts to individuals with the highest sales in a month.

According to the path-goal theory, my manager had a good understanding of the basic and crucial characteristics to achieve success: the follower and the task to be completed (PSU WC, 2016). Under follower, she was a supportive and friendly leader that ensures her to connect with her workers to bring employee satisfaction. She also changed management tactics to ensure smooth working relations with her employees.

Conclusion

Depending on the situation as well as follower's need, leaders are supposed to adapt and apply different leadership styles. Leaders need to change their behaviors to ensure higher personal motivation levels to achieve goals and complete assigned tasks. Leaders should employ respectable management tactics to strengthen and smoothen their relationship with their employees.

References

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Isaac, R. G., Zerbe, W. J., & Pitt, D. C. (2001). Leadership and motivation: The effective application of expectancy theory. Journal of managerial issues, 212-226. Obtained from https://www.jstor.org/stable/40604345

Miner, J. B. (2005). Organizational Behaviour: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. One (Vol. 1). ME Sharpe.