We are all born with a sense of purpose, a God-given drive for something to strive for, we have goals, passions, and dreams to do things greater than ourselves. So who do we look to and what do we reach for when we want to tap into these so-called dreams and purpose? We look for motivation. We look for the motivation. in people, in quotes, in books and sometimes the people around us. It’s the drive, it’s the fuel we need to allow us to step out of our shell and attempt to go after our goals. These same principals are the same when leaders are trying to motivate others and followers are trying to get motivated.
If leaders are unable to motivate others, they will have such a challenge to get them to push past other barriers. Bandura’s 4 step social learning process stresses the importance of motivation for leaders and its effect on followers. The commentary makes statements about motivation “You could take an entire course on motivation, but for our purposes, motivation is about the desire to reproduce the behavior. So for instance, if someone doesn’t want to learn a new computer system that is being installed in an organization, attention, retention, and reproduction will all suffer. That said, if you as a global leader can motivate people, the other three steps become a lot easier.” (Social Learning, n.d.). Motivation is understanding how to create a desire in your followers to want to adapt and advance in new ways of doing things or even thinking. Creating a reason for them to want to change old outdated habits into new ones creates a challenge for many leaders. But leaders need to know what makes their followers tick.
Another reason to use motivation is for the sake of the environment. In the commentary cultivating a successful environment is heavily important. “One is the environment. Will this behavior actually increase my ability to do what I need to do? For instance, if a person can be shown that a computer system will make a job easier, that person will be more likely to try and learn the behaviors to use it.” (Social Learning, n.d.). Showing or displaying the benefits with the follower can get them to be motivated when they know that it can better the work performance and make things much more efficient and effective. With the proper guidance and support from a leader, followers in return feel safe and secure with the leader and have a desire to want to pursue new systems and ways of conforming to new standards.
Followers understand and have a sense of the leader that is teaching them a new way of doing things. If the leader isn’t open, likable, trustworthy and can’t get his followers motivated he or she might be running through a roadblock. Followers want to feel like the leader is bringing things to the table and has there best interest at heart, leaders being transparent and flexible makes the follower more willing to adapt to new standards.If the leader is dry in his intentions and doesn’t deliver in an unmotivating manner it could hurt the retention process of his followers. I had first-hand experience with this on a small scale while trying to teach my dad or have him move into a newer way of doing business. My father and I work together in the real estate business so we bring different talents, skills, thoughts, and experience to the table. My father is used to using his phone to contacting clients when needed and doesn’t have a proper CRM in place that he can refer to every day. So I suggested that we get a clean, easy to use and simple platform where we can plug in all of our clients in this database and keep things organized. At first, my father was initially opposed to it but when I explained things to him and showed him first hand how things worked he immediately got interested. I took the time to show him how to do things and how to navigate through the new CRM. Now, he loves it and wonders how we went so long without it. If I didn’t introduce a new system to him, he would have been using the same outdated system. Showing support and holding a followers hand can go a long way. Giving them a reason, a motivation can help them reach their potentials and move up the ladder of success quicker!
Social Learning. (n. d.). Leadership in a Global Context–OLEAD 410. Online course lesson, Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved February 5, 2018, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1916378/modules/items/23640537
Moran, Robert, Abramson, Neil, & Moran, Sarah. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. Oxford: Routledge.
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