HOW TO MOTIVATE OTHERS: Top Tips on Leadership

You can't be a leader without followers, therefore you have to understand how to motivate people to buy into your agenda. Motivation makes employees act in certain ways. How can you achieve this?

Understand people's motives, their reasons for doing something is the key to becoming a good leader.

One of the main theories relating to motivation is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. People have needs. A need is a lack of something you want. This produces the drive and desire which motivates us to satisfy that need. Satisfying this need, or getting the thing we want or lack is the goal.

Maslow believes that people have five main needs in the following order of importance:

1. Physiological Needs:-

- the need to eat

- the need to drink

- the need to work

- the need to sleep

2. Safety Needs:-

- the need for shelter

-the need to feel
secure

3. Belonging Needs:-

- the need to feel part of a group

- the need for acceptance

4. Self-Esteem Needs:-

- the need to feel good about themselves

- the need to be recognized for their achievements

5. Self-Realization Needs:-

- the need for personal fulfillment

- the need to grow and develop

Maslow believes that people would not move on down this list to be motivated by the next set of needs until the previous set(s) had been satisfied.

There are other theories in a similar vein to Maslow. Another theory by Alderfer categorized these needs in to three categories:-

a. Existence needs

b. Relatedness needs

c. Growth needs

Leaders need to have this level of understanding if they are to be in a position to motivate their staff. However, to be a good leader you need to recognize that people are different.

To display the traits to a good leader you need to recognize that some people come to work to earn money (existence needs) and have no desire either to get on with others (relatedness needs) to earn promotion (growth needs). Others work to meet people and have no a personal challenge and sense of achievement (relatedness needs), others work to gain experience to get promotion (growth needs). For others it may be a combination of these.