If leadership is about helping a group of people to achieve common goals, leaders need to understand what motivates us to achieve those goals.

I think Anne Evans (1990:95) got it right when she said:

"… It is not necessary to motivate people. People are motivated … The challenge for a manager is to find out what motivates the people and to use it for the advantage of the organisation."

Motivation Theories

There are many theories which are used to explain how individuals are motivated in work and group situations. They all seem to point to the following three key points:

• As leaders we need to understand our own assumptions that we make about people and their motivations.

• Each individual will motivate themselves differently.

• The same person will respond to different leaders, environments and situations in a different way.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene theory, McClelland’s Achievement Motivation, and Expectancy theory are just some of the theories which are used to explain motivation. The list of books at the end of this chapter will provide you will lots of references about these theories.

When talking about motivation we also need to go back to the concept of power and understand that each of the bases of power (coercion, reward, referent, legitimate, expert, connection and information) will be valued differently by different people.

Just to give you an example, I do not like being autocratically told what to do and threatened with punishment if I don’t conform. This sort of autocratic leadership which uses lots of coercive power is very likely to have me do the opposite of what this person wants. That is, in most situations. If, however, the threatened punishment involved physical violence to my being, I would be very happy to go along with whatever they wanted in order to protect myself.

In most situations I like to work with leaders who have a lot of expert and referent power. I can understand these people more and respect their skills. I am much more likely to do as they ask.

Gender and Motivation

The major reason that we are not covering major motivational theories in great detail in this manual is because most of these theories are based upon the motivation of men in the workplace.

It seems that very little research has been done regarding the motivations of women, but that which is available indicates that women are more likely to be motivated by leaders who attend more to maintenance, rather than task issues, and thus care more for the relationships between group members.

Wendy Weeks (1994) spoke to a number of women managers in human service organisations about what motivated them to become leaders in their organisations, and they came up with the following:

• Support and loyalty from the team

• The excitement of creative work

• The success, growth and development of the service

• Personal enrichment.

One may assume that the factors which helped to motivate these women as managers may also have motivated others in the organisation/group.

This is not to say that these same things may not be motivating factors for men, but it does appear that group cohesion, collective goal achievement and personal and group growth are very important for women. Perhaps this reflects our traditional roles within the family and our socialisation as nurturers?

Understanding Your Own Assumptions About People

How we view and treat other people is usually a reflection of the assumptions we make about them.

McGregor (1960) contends that there are two divergent sets of assumptions about people. These are Theory X and Theory Y. Each of us will tend towards one set.

Theory X

Assumes that people are generally lazy and disinterested in achievement for its own sake. Therefore, people have to motivated by money, rewards, threats and punishments to get them to do anything. People need strong leadership and prefer to let other people take care of them.

Theory Y

Assumes that people want to participate in their life. They are capable of self-direction and self control, and therefore, given resources and encouragement, these people will get the job done better without bombastic leadership.

You can probably see, therefore, that if you believe in Theory X you will be a rather autocratic and controlling leader, and use rewards and punishments as motivational tools. If on, the other hand, you subscribe to Theory Y, you will be more democratic and provide the resources and space for group members to get on with the job and this will provide the necessary motivation.

Left and Right Brain Orientation

Our brain is divided into two sides, the left and right. Each side seems to be responsible for different skills and orientations which we use in our life. For example, the left side appears to be responsible for speech, logic, analysis, reading and mathematics; whilst the right side is more concerned with patterns and visual images, creativity, complex processing and rhythm.

There are a number of studies which indicate that our preference for and extended use of one side of our brain leads to a dominance or orientation which reflects the areas of that side of the brain. This results in three basic styles of behavioural tendencies:

Left-Brain Style

These people are logical, rational and impressed by scientific analysis and explanations of life. They are good at analysing problems and developing detailed action plans. They love detail! They also tend to be quieter, preferring to think before speaking.

Left-brain style people also have a tendency to get a bit bogged down with the detail and may not appreciate the human needs of other people in terms of companionship and having fun. They prefer to work on one task at a time and are very strong in avoiding distractions.

Right-Brain Style

These people love the big picture. They are lateral thinkers and are very good at coming up with a variety of solutions to the one problem. They value human interaction and are excellent people-supporters. They tend to be good talkers and are more impulsive decision-makers.

They also have a tendency to lose the plot because they are so busy looking at the big picture. They are therefore not very good at details or completing projects, and can get rather distracted in open office plans.

Centre Style

These people have no strong dominance of left or right hemisphere. They are therefore able to see the best of both sides, and make very good peacemakers and mediators. They can adopt right or left brain behaviour according to the situation.

Centre style people do, however , have to deal with a lot of internal conflict. They prefer to react to situations and this can create conflict as they try to choose which way to go. If they do not allow dominance from one side to occur, they run the risk of being eternal fence-sitters.

Now, you can imagine that if you give a task which involves detailed planning to a right-style person, they will probably not enjoy it much. Neither would a left-style person get a lot of joy from interactive group sessions.

By understanding your orientation and that of those around you, motivation becomes much easier. If we accept that we do things best when we are happy and confident, then we can begin to have some ideas about how to motivate the people in our group.

For those of you who are interested in these concepts, I have listed some references at the end of this chapter.

Some Motivational ‘Rules’

Motivation is not simply ‘whipping people into shape’. We now understand that each of us are complex and gifted individuals who will motivate ourselves. Therefore, the following ‘rules’ are broad guidelines which good leaders will use when the situation is appropriate:

• Be aware of your basic beliefs and assumptions about others.

• Remember that individuals differ.

• Create an environment which has positives for a variety of people, not just people like you.

• Use others’ strengths to create a real team.

• Watch out for and rectify threats to motivation.

References and Further Reading About Motivation:

Evans, Anne (1990) Managing People Australian Business Library, Melbourne.

Lewis, J., Lewis, M., & Souflee, F. (1991) Management of Human Service Organisations, Brooks/Cole, California.

McGregor, D. The Human Side of Enterprise McGraw-Hill, New York.

Milton, C.R., Entrekin, L., & Stening, B. (1984) Organisational Behaviour in Australia Prentice Hall, Australia.

Weekes, W. (1994) Women Working Together Longman Cheshire, Melbourne.

References and Further Reading About Left & Right Brain Orientation:

Roberts, Jean (1997) The Left & Right Brain Business, Roberts Management Concepts Pty Ltd, Melbourne.

Capacchione, Lucia (1988) The Power Of Your Other Hand: A Course In Channelling The Inner Wisdom Of The Right Brain A Newcastle Book.

Peter, Russell (1989) The Brain Book Routledge, London.