True enthusiasm is made up of two parts: eagerness and assurance.
—Dale Carnegie
We spoke in the previous chapters about communication as the first all-important element of leadership mastery. In this chapter we’ll look more closely at the goals that good communication means to accomplish. At the simplest level, of course, there’s the straightforward exchange of information. All leaders must provide the necessary, practical tools for accomplishing this objective. They must say what needs to be done, when, and how. It is surprising how difficult even this seems to be for many people. Beneath the surface or between the lines of truly masterful leadership communication, however, there is a deeper purpose. In a word, it is motivation.
Several years ago an executive retreat was held for senior managers in a Fortune 500 company. On the first day of the retreat there were two brief talks, the first by the chief executive officer, and the second by the chief operating officer of the company. In the intermission after the CEO spoke, there was general admiration in the audience for what he had said and how he said it. There was no doubt that his had been an eloquent and informative talk. Then it came time for the chief operating officer to speak. When he was finished, there was another intermission. This time, no one referred to the eloquence or the volume of information in the talk. Instead everyone in the audience seemed to have the same reaction. They were saying, “We’ve got work to do. Let’s get going.”
The difference between those two talks was the difference between oratory and rhetoric (or good public speaking) and genuine motivation. The response to good public speaking is, “What a beautiful speech,” whereas the response to an effective motivational speech is, “Let’s get to work.” The second response is, of course, what leadership masters need to achieve, whether it’s in their speeches or in everything else they undertake. Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM Pictures during the golden age of Hollywood, used to appear unannounced on the sets of movies in production. On one occasion he strolled onto a film set and found the director, the cameraman, and the actors all standing around looking worried.
“What’s the matter?” Mayer asked. The director said, “Sir, we’re having trouble shooting this scene. We’re not sure what to do.” Mayer turned bright red and thundered, “Well, do anything. If you do something right, we’ll use it, and if you do something wrong, we’ll fix it. But do something and do it now.” What he meant was, get motivated. And simply getting into action is the first step. But leadership masters know there’s more to it than that. Motion may be nothing more than spinning your wheels unless it’s accompanied by some other very important elements.
Action may be wasted energy, or even self-destructive in the absence of two other fundamental components. Let’s be very clear about this. Real motivation requires action, plus emotion, plus intelligence. To put it another way, motivation must engage the body, the heart, and the mind. Leadership masters can touch all three of these elements. They can engage us at every level of our lives. In terms of pure technique, motivation can express itself in three basic forms: negative motivation; positive motivation to motivate others; and the unique, highly individualized techniques you need to motive yourself. It’s important for a leadership master to understand all these categories. So let’s look at them one by one.
Although all forms of motivation have their place, negative motivation is the most limited form, which is a bit surprising since it’s the approach that many leaders tend to rely on. They rely on it heavily and sometimes even exclusively. This is a big mistake. True, criticism or the threat of punishment can be somewhat effective. The possibility of firing or demoting someone can get his or her attention, but much research has shown that negative motivators have very serious limitations, especially over the long term.
In the past, loudness was often equated with toughness. Stubbornness was equated with superior knowledge. Willingness to argue was equated with honesty. We should all be grateful that those days are coming to an end. As a leader you should make it your business to see that they don’t come back. A Midwestern insurance man we’ll call Fred is a prime illustration of the problems with old-fashioned, negative motivation. Fred’s official title is regional sales manager, but behind his back he’s known as the boss who cried wolf. Four times a year, like clockwork, Fred looks at the quarterly sales figures and immediately threatens to fire everyone.
He turns bright red, hits the ceiling, and slams his fist onto his desk. Unfortunately for him, the firm’s employees now treat Fred’s tirades as pure theater. In fact, they jokingly assign his explosions numerical ratings on their Richter scale. Over the years, more than one representative has gotten tired of the drama and simply jumped ship. This has cost Fred’s company some good people. If Fred’s negative style was ever effective, that time has long passed. That’s the trouble with negative motivational techniques in general.
If you follow through with them, you eventually destroy morale and create enmity within the organization. On the other hand, if you don’t follow through, people quickly learn to tune out. Dale Carnegie addressed this issue very clearly. He once said there was only one way under heaven to get anyone to do anything and that is by making the other person want to do it. Mr. Carnegie, of course, was referring to the supreme importance of positive motivation. He went on to say that you could make someone want to give you his watch by sticking a gun in his ribs. You can make your employees give you cooperation at least for a little while by threatening to fire them. But these crude methods have sharply undesirable repercussions.
Leadership is about behavior first and skills second. People respond to leaders who inspire trust and respect, rather than to the skills they possess. In this sense, leadership is different from management, which relies more on planning, organization, and communication skills. Leadership includes management skills too, but leadership’s foundation contains qualities such as integrity, honesty, humility, courage, commitment, sincerity, passion, confidence, wisdom, determination, compassion, sensitivity, and personal charisma.
Leadership comes in many different styles. A leader’s personal style may be right for certain situations and wrong for others. Others are able to adapt and use different leadership styles for a variety of challenges.
Someone new to a leadership role may feel pressure to lead in a particularly dominant way. Dominant leadership is rarely appropriate, however, especially in well-established organizations. Misreading this situation can cause problems for a new leader. Resistance from the constituents becomes a problem, and a cycle of discontent and reduced performance may get started.
So much of leadership is paradoxical. It’s often more about serving than leading. Teams respond best to gratitude, encouragement, recognition, and inclusiveness. Tough, dominant leadership gives people a lot to push against and resist. It also blocks any sense of ownership and empowerment among those being led. Yes, leaders need to make tough decisions, but in the day-to-day world a leader should most concentrate on enabling the team to thrive and grow. This is actually a serving role, not the dominant style usually associated with authority.
Today ethical leadership is more important than ever, and there’s a very practical reason for this. The world is more transparent and connected than it has ever been. The actions and philosophies of organizations are scrutinized as never before. At the same time, there is a much greater awareness of and interest in corporate responsibility—in finance, in diversity, and in environmental issues. A modern leader needs to understand and lead in all these areas.
A leader’s philosophy is simply the fundamental purposes and principles with which he or she identifies. It’s the foundation for strategy, management, operational activities, and pretty much everything else that happens in an organization. Regardless of the size of an organization, everything that takes place under a leader’s direction needs to be congruent with a clearly defined philosophy.
Executives, managers, staff, customers—they all need solid philosophical principles on which to base their expectations, decisions, and actions. In a complex organization, leadership will be very challenging at the best of times due to size, diversity, or other issues. A conflicted philosophy dramatically increases these difficulties for everyone, and certainly for the leader, because the frame of reference becomes confusing.
For leadership to work well, team members must connect their expectations, aims, and activities to the basic purpose or philosophy of the organization. This philosophy can provide reference points and grounding for employees’ decisions and actions—an increasingly significant factor in modern “empowered” organizations. Seeing a clear philosophy and purpose is also essential for staff, customers, and outsiders in assessing crucial organizational characteristics such as integrity, ethics, fairness, quality, and performance. A clear philosophy is vital to the psychological contract—almost always unstated—under which employees, managers, and customers initiate their decisions and actions.
Too many organizations, large and small, have conflicting and confusing fundamental aims. The lesson here is that philosophy and purpose are the foundation of leadership. If the foundation is not solid, then everything built onto it is prone to wobble, and may fall over completely.
As a leader, your responsibility extends beyond the act of leading. True leadership also includes the responsibility to protect or refine fundamental purpose and philosophy. Get the philosophy right, in harmony with the actions, and the foundation is strong.
Different leaders have different ideas about leadership. But to anyone who studies the experience of contemporary business and organizational leaders, certain points emerge. There are key principles of leadership:
• When leaders say that the people are not following, it’s the leaders who are lost, not the people.
• Leaders get lost because of isolation, arrogance, or bad judgment. But above all they get lost because they become preoccupied with imposing their authority instead of truly leading.
• Leadership is helping people achieve a shared vision, not telling people what to do.
• Loyalty to leadership relies on the leader’s connection and understanding of people’s needs, wishes, and possibilities. Solutions to leadership challenges do not lie in the leader’s needs and wishes. Leadership solutions lie in the needs and wishes of the followers.
• Loyalty can’t be built by simply asking or forcing people to be loyal.
• Before expecting anyone to follow, a leader first needs to demonstrate a vision and values worthy of a following.
• Any specific type of leadership inevitably attracts the same type of followers. In other words, for people to embrace and follow modern compassionate, honest, ethical, peaceful, and fair principles, they must see these qualities demonstrated by their leadership.
• People are a lot more perceptive than most leaders think. People have a much keener sense of truth than most leaders think. People quickly lose faith in a leader who ignores these two facts.
• Often people have answers that elude their leaders. Leaders, therefore, should solicit ideas, opinions, and suggestions to gain buy-in and cultivate loyalty.
• A leader who makes mistakes should come clean and admit the errors. People will generally forgive mistakes but do not appreciate leaders who are unwilling to take responsibility for their actions.
• A leader should be brave enough to negotiate when lesser people want to fight. Anyone can resort to threats and aggression, but being aggressive is not leading.
So what do people really want? Not really so many things according to Dale Carnegie. He enumerated several: health and the preservation of life, food and shelter, a certain amount of money and the things money will buy, the well-being of their children, and a fundamental sense of their own significance. All these things are relatively easy to gratify, Dale Carnegie continued, except for the last one. This longing is almost as deep and insistent as the desire for food and water. John Dewey called it “the desire to be important.” Freud went further and called it “the desire to be great.” Positive motivation means giving people a real sense of purpose, a feeling that they’re working toward a valuable, attainable, and mutually important goal. There’s nothing new about the concept. Leadership masters have always understood it.
During the first term of his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower was asked about his secret for dealing with a reluctant and unruly Congress. Did the former general mention military discipline or the might-makes-right power of the presidency? On the contrary, Eisenhower talked about positive motivation. “You do not lead people by hitting them on the head,” he declared. “That’s assault, not leadership. I would rather positively persuade a man to go along because once he’s made that choice, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he’s scared and then he’ll be gone.”
Harvard professor David McClelland (1917–98) pioneered work-place motivational thinking. In his 1961 book, The Achieving Society, McClelland described three types of motivational need, which he identified as achievement motivation, authority-power motivation, and affiliation.
These needs are found to varying degrees in all workers and managers. The mix of motivational needs defines an individual’s style and behavior, both in terms of their own motivation and in the management and motivation of others.
• The need for achievement. The achievement-oriented person is motivated by results and therefore seeks achievement, attainment of realistic but challenging goals, and advancement in the job. There is a strong need for feedback on achievement and progress and a need for a sense of accomplishment.
• The need for authority and power. This is a need to be influential, effective, and impactful. There is an intention to lead and for the person’s ideas to prevail. There is also motivation and need toward increasing personal status and prestige.
• The need for affiliation. The affiliation-motivated person needs friendly relationships and is motivated toward interaction with other people. The affiliation driver produces motivation and a need to be liked and held in popular regard. These people are team players.
McClelland said that most people exhibit a combination of these characteristics. Some people exhibit a strong tendency for a particular motivational need, and this motivational or needs mix consequently affects their behavior and working/managing style. McClelland suggested that a strong affiliation motivation undermines a manager’s objectivity, because the need to be liked affects a manager’s decision-making capability.
A strong authority motivation will produce a determined work ethic and commitment to the organization. While these individuals are attracted to the leadership role, they may not possess the required flexibility and people-centered skills.
In the end, McClelland argues that people with strong achievement motivation make the best leaders, although they may demand too much of their staffs in the belief that they are all similarly and highly achievement focused and results driven, which of course most people are not.
In light of this, McClelland’s particular fascination was for achievement motivation. A well-known laboratory experiment illustrates one aspect of his theory about the effect of achievement on people’s motivation. McClelland suggested through this experiment that while most people do not possess a strong achievement-based motivation, those who do display a consistent behavior in setting goals.
Volunteers were asked to throw rings over pegs, rather like the fairground game. No distance was stipulated, and most people seemed to throw from arbitrary, random distances, sometimes close, sometimes farther away. However, a small group of volunteers, whom McClelland suggested were strongly achievement motivated, took some care to measure and test distances to produce an ideal challenge: not too easy and not impossible. A similar concept exists in biology, known as the overload principle. This is usually applied to fitness and exercising; i.e., to develop fitness and/or strength, the exercise must be sufficiently demanding to increase existing levels, but not so demanding as to cause damage or strain. McClelland identified the same need for a balanced challenge in the approach of achievement-motivated people.
McClelland contrasted achievement-motivated people with gamblers and daredevils, and dispelled a common preconception that achievement-motivated people are big risk takers. On the contrary, achievement-motivated individuals set goals that they can influence with their effort and ability, and as such the goal is considered achievable. This determined, results-driven mind-set is almost always present in the character makeup of successful business people and entrepreneurs.
McClelland suggested other characteristics and attitudes of achievement-motivated people:
• Achievement itself is more important than material or financial reward.
• Achieving the aim or task gives greater personal satisfaction than receiving praise or recognition.
• Financial reward is regarded as a measurement of success, not an end in itself.
• Security is not a prime motivator, nor is status.
• Feedback is essential, because it enables measurement of success, not for reasons of praise or recognition (the implication here is that feedback must be reliable, quantifiable, and factual).
• Achievement-motivated people constantly seek improvements and ways of doing things better.
• Achievement-motivated people prefer jobs and responsibilities that naturally satisfy their needs, i.e., offer flexibility and the opportunity to set and achieve goals, e.g., sales and business management and entrepreneurial roles.
McClelland firmly believed that achievement-motivated people are generally the ones who make things happen and get results, and that this extends to getting results through the organization of other people and resources, although, as stated earlier, they often demand too much of their staffs because they prioritize achieving the goal above the many varied interests and needs of their people.
Once a leader has grasped the basic importance of positive motivation, it’s relatively easy to create specific applications of the principle. But three important concepts of human behavior should be included in them all. First, everyone must be included and informed in all phases of an endeavor, at every step of the way. Teamwork is the key, not hierarchy or chain of command. Second, people must be treated as individuals. Their ideas and suggestions must be acknowledged and treated with respect. Third, superior performances must be expected, encouraged, recognized, and rewarded. And the rewards must come quickly, not just at the end of the year or at the retirement party.
Very often a personal note or a phone call from the leader means as much to a high-performing team member as a cash bonus, although the note and the cash together are sure to get quick attention. In any case, the purpose is to create a sense of inclusion and positive reinforcement. For many years, in large traditionally organized companies, there was a basic sense of disconnection. People felt like mere numbers, one of thousands, human cogs in a gigantic impersonal machine. It’s hardly surprising that in these organizations employees were ready to call in sick on the slightest excuse, or spend more time on breaks during the day than at their desks. If any company’s employees feel that way today, one conclusion is obvious: That company is poorly led. The organization’s goals have not become the people’s goals and no business can achieve success in a situation like that.
Leadership masters today involve team members in all aspects of the business. It’s no longer simply a matter of issuing orders from above. Effective leaders know that team members are more than capable of making important decisions on their own and that empowering them to make these decisions is a vital form of positive motivation.
As one executive in a midsize publishing firm explained, “If I tell people how they can improve, they may take it to heart and they may not. If I don’t put it the right way, there’s even a chance they’ll be insulted. But if I first ask how I myself can improve, they’re complimented. If I put their suggestions into action, they’re really proud, and if I ask them again how I can do even better, now I really have their attention. That’s the time to finally make my own suggestions about what they can do also. It’s only after I’ve made everyone feel like a leader that I can most effectively be a leader myself.” So walk around, say hello, and get to know every member of your team. Above all acknowledge a job well done. Don’t be the tight-lipped, disapproving parent or teacher that many people unfortunately grew up with. That kind of person is painful for a child and it’s still painful for an adult.
People don’t just want to be told when they’re not doing well; they need to be told when they are. They need praise. They need celebration. There are literally dozens of techniques for celebrating hard work and success. An executive at a New Orleans cable company makes a conscious effort to use as many of these techniques as possible. As he describes it, “We have skits during our monthly meetings to reinforce our message and keep our goals highly visible. We also have celebrations. We’ve even had fireworks. We have speakers and awards to exemplify the excellence we strive for. We give away money at employee meetings—anything to get people involved and excited.”
1. What is the primary aim of our company?
Your team members will be more highly motivated if they understand the primary aim of your business. Ask questions to establish how clear they are about your company’s principles, priorities, and mission. These concepts are of a higher order than simple goals. As the business author Marshall Goldsmith has pointed out, when short-term goals become an obsession, they can do more harm than good. A firm’s mission is its basic philosophy and reason for being; it’s not just the financial targets for the next quarter.
2. What obstacles stop team members performing to best effect?
Include questions about what obstacles to motivation do team members tolerate in their work. The company can eliminate practices that zap motivation.
3. What really motivates your staff?
It is often assumed that all people are motivated by the same things. Actually we are motivated by a whole range of factors. Include questions to elicit what really motivates team members, including financial rewards, status, recognition, competition, job security—and even fear.
4. Do team members feel empowered?
Do your team members feel they have job descriptions that empower them to find their own solutions? Or are they given a list of tasks to perform and simply told what to do?
5. Are there any recent changes in the company that might have affected motivation?
Has your company had layoffs, imposed a hiring freeze, or lost a number of key people? This will have an effect on motivation. Collect information from team members about their fears, thoughts, and concerns relating to these events. Even if they are unfounded, treat them with respect and honesty.
6. What are the patterns of motivation in your company?
Who is most motivated and why? What lessons can you learn from instances of high and low motivation in your company?
7. Are employee goals and company goals aligned?
First, the company needs to establish how it wants individuals to most productively spend their time. Second, this needs to be compared with how individuals actually do spend their time. You may find that team members are highly motivated—but in the wrong direction.
8. How do team members feel about the company?
Do they feel safe, loyal, valued, and taken care of? Or do they feel taken advantage of, dispensable, and invisible? Ask them what would improve their loyalty and commitment.
9. How involved are team members in company development?
Do they feel listened to and heard? Are they consulted? And, if they are consulted, are their opinions taken seriously? Are there regular opportunities for them to give feedback?
10. Is the company’s internal image consistent with its external one?
Your company may present itself to the world as the “caring airline,” the “forward-thinking technology company,” or the “family hotel chain.” But if you do not mirror this image within your firm by the way you treat team members, you may notice motivation problems. Find out what the disparity is between the team members’ image of the company from the outside and from the inside.
As a leader, one of your foremost responsibilities is letting your team members know that you respect them, that you appreciate them, and that you want to help them achieve their full potential. Positive motivation is simply the best way to get these messages across. The action steps below include an exercise for listing positive motivational techniques you can implement in your leadership role. Be sure to fill it out entirely. Once you’ve done so, start putting your ideas into action immediately.
1. Suppose you were speaking before a group of people about to undertake a serious physical challenge. It might be running a marathon or ten-kilometer race, climbing a mountain, or even building a house. How would you express yourself to motivate them for this activity? Write out the specific kind of challenges your audience might face. Then write a brief message designed to maximize their motivation for the task at hand.
2. Reflect on your past and recall a circumstance in which your own desire to be great was fulfilled in response to positive motivation. What was the exact form of the motivation? How did it make you feel at the time? Do you still feel that way? Try to describe your feelings as vividly as possible.
3. Based on the teachings of this book thus far, list all of the positive motivational techniques you can begin to implement in your leadership role. Make note of those that you currently practice, and those that you do not. Then create an action plan to incorporate all of the tools into your routine regimen.