Leading through motivation

Our modern world of work is fluid, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. One technology innovation after another, companies have less and less time and resources to remain competitive in the globalized market. In order to meet new challenges, employees often need new skills and abilities.

To do this, the employees must be able to recognize their own development needs independently and to meet them either individually or through self-organized help. You should be a self-developer, so to speak. Whether it is a question of boldly accepting new tasks and challenges or acquiring the necessary skills independently, employees must have a high degree of self-motivation or intrinsic motivation and identify with the company and its mission. Managers should create the right conditions to promote employee motivation.

Motivation as a success factor

It is important to give employees the necessary freedom to make decisions and take action. This in turn requires a management style that primarily aims to exploit the self-motivation of the employees. A prerequisite for this is that managers know the basic motives of their employees – that is, what drives and motivates them. Therefore, when recruiting new candidates, HR departments are placing a stronger focus on how the people concerned are “knitted”.

In most cases, however, managers assume that their own motivators also apply to their employees. Managers then try to treat and motivate their employees as they would themselves. This can sometimes lead to poor results - and generates no motivation or, in the worst case, even causes demotivation.

Basic needs and motive classes of people

Why people prefer different motivators depends on their basic needs, which are important for happiness and well-being. The essential basic needs include:

orientation and control
Bond
Pleasure gain and displeasure avoidance
self-esteem

Three classes of motives are derived from the basic needs that drive all people. The only difference, however, is that some motive classes drive people more strongly and others less strongly. Motif classes include:

Performance: Employees want to measure their performance against understandable and clear criteria.
Power: People seek to influence others to gain prestige and status.
Connection and retention: Employees want to develop and maintain good relationships with their colleagues

Increased performance through motivational leadership

The motivational management style offers employees a working environment that largely corresponds to their motive profile in order to maintain their top performance and to bind them to the company in the long term. Managers should therefore be aware of how important it is to set incentives that are geared to the employees' individual motives. The following questions are useful when it comes to employee motivation:

How can we influence employee motivation?
What general conditions can supervisors create so that their employees are motivated to become active?
Which motives control our employees and how can we set incentives to make them active?

If managers not only know their own motivators, but also the motivators of their employees, they can use them in a targeted manner to increase performance. More specifically, supervisors delegate such tasks to their employees that match their motivators. You use the existing potential of your employees to the maximum and in most cases you get very good results.