Posted on Jun 15, 2016
Developing Self-Motivation and Initiative in Others
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To accomplish goals consistently, leaders need to maintain motivation within the team. However, motivating others isn’t as difficult as teaching others to motivate themselves – to be self-motivated. Good leader develop the competence and commitment of their people so that they are self-motivated rather than dependent on their leaders for motivation and initiative. Leaders need to learn to empower their subordinates.
People usually want the opportunity to be responsible for their own work and to be creative. Most people want to be empowered. Leaders can empower followers by training them for a job, providing them with the necessary skills to perform alone, and by giving them the necessary resources, authority, and goals in order for them to accomplish the task without assistance. Empowering followers is a forceful statement of trust in their abilities and one of the best ways to develop future leaders. Empowerment implies accepting the responsibility and freedom to act alone and create.
The Army has an expression: “You can delegate authority but not responsibility.” I think that this can apply to empowering followers and giving them direction. They need the authority to get the job done, yet the responsibility still belongs to the leader. Leaders cannot turn around and blame the followers if things go wrong. The follower needs to know he/she will not be punished for taking the initiative. Therefore, the leader must back up the follower. Failure is the best teacher and is a necessary component of training.
One of the greatest challenges for a leader is to encourage followers to exercise initiative. Followers can often be reluctant to recognize that a situation calls for them to accept more responsibility and step forward. Leaders can set the conditions for initiative by guiding others through independent, critical thinking. By doing so, they can build confidence in their followers’ competence and ability to solve problems.
I, myself, have had to build confidence in my subordinates. After retiring from active duty, I was the Director for Environmental Services at a long-term care facility. I had responsibility for facility maintenance, housekeeping, and security. The maintenance staff would often call me in the middle of the night regarding an emergency that required outside assistance. The previous policy was, “Only the director could call outside resources.” The maintenance employees in the facility were fully qualified to determine when outside assistance was needed - much better than I could living 30 miles away in the suburbs. I quickly changed that policy to allow the maintenance staff to call for outside assistance in an emergency after hours. Sometimes mistakes were made, but I always backed up their decisions. This change empowered the maintenance staff to work independently and build trust. It also let me get more sleep.
Encouraging followers to be self-motivated is a challenge but a necessary task for leaders.
People usually want the opportunity to be responsible for their own work and to be creative. Most people want to be empowered. Leaders can empower followers by training them for a job, providing them with the necessary skills to perform alone, and by giving them the necessary resources, authority, and goals in order for them to accomplish the task without assistance. Empowering followers is a forceful statement of trust in their abilities and one of the best ways to develop future leaders. Empowerment implies accepting the responsibility and freedom to act alone and create.
The Army has an expression: “You can delegate authority but not responsibility.” I think that this can apply to empowering followers and giving them direction. They need the authority to get the job done, yet the responsibility still belongs to the leader. Leaders cannot turn around and blame the followers if things go wrong. The follower needs to know he/she will not be punished for taking the initiative. Therefore, the leader must back up the follower. Failure is the best teacher and is a necessary component of training.
One of the greatest challenges for a leader is to encourage followers to exercise initiative. Followers can often be reluctant to recognize that a situation calls for them to accept more responsibility and step forward. Leaders can set the conditions for initiative by guiding others through independent, critical thinking. By doing so, they can build confidence in their followers’ competence and ability to solve problems.
I, myself, have had to build confidence in my subordinates. After retiring from active duty, I was the Director for Environmental Services at a long-term care facility. I had responsibility for facility maintenance, housekeeping, and security. The maintenance staff would often call me in the middle of the night regarding an emergency that required outside assistance. The previous policy was, “Only the director could call outside resources.” The maintenance employees in the facility were fully qualified to determine when outside assistance was needed - much better than I could living 30 miles away in the suburbs. I quickly changed that policy to allow the maintenance staff to call for outside assistance in an emergency after hours. Sometimes mistakes were made, but I always backed up their decisions. This change empowered the maintenance staff to work independently and build trust. It also let me get more sleep.
Encouraging followers to be self-motivated is a challenge but a necessary task for leaders.
Leadership
Motivation
Senior Leaders
Leadership Development
Command Post
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 8
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Thanks for the insights. I am re-reading “How Did That Happen?: Holding People Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way” by Roger Connors and Tom Smith. May be some nuggets of wisdom in it for some of you. One that came out early on was a discussion on “How did that Happen” which underscored a typical approach towards blame, denial and a propensity to shift responsibility and accountability. As the discussion progressed, they question was changed to “How did I let that happen” which opened up the perspective to the true components of cause and effect.
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LTC Monte Anderson
Interesting point. In the military, we hold the leader responsible for everything the unit does or fails to do.
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Tom-Scott Gordon
I'm with Monte, and I don't mean to uphold a contrarian opinion, but the Service's sense of self-discipline is not reflected in the educational sphere today, yet we are all directly confronted by, or involved in addressing new civil disruptions and occupational paradigms.
I did not read "Reinventing Organizations" before coming to a conclusive position about the pyramidal management systems we've used over my lifetime at my family's restaurants. Why succumb to the lowest common denominator, aka: Waffle House?
FYI: My culinary instructor, Chef John Snowden, received the French Medal of Honor from General Charles de Gaulle, for bravery in leading the troops out of Africa at the end of WWII. Although he accepted this honor, as France's second most important citizen of the year, he did not assimilate this as a career changing event. Cooking expertise, and leadership as a teacher remained at the fore. His mentor was trained by Escoffier.
I observe your discussion with attention to America's need for increasing a sense of self-responsibility among our youth population. As adults we too need to keep our priorities clear. Thanks for the heads-up!
I did not read "Reinventing Organizations" before coming to a conclusive position about the pyramidal management systems we've used over my lifetime at my family's restaurants. Why succumb to the lowest common denominator, aka: Waffle House?
FYI: My culinary instructor, Chef John Snowden, received the French Medal of Honor from General Charles de Gaulle, for bravery in leading the troops out of Africa at the end of WWII. Although he accepted this honor, as France's second most important citizen of the year, he did not assimilate this as a career changing event. Cooking expertise, and leadership as a teacher remained at the fore. His mentor was trained by Escoffier.
I observe your discussion with attention to America's need for increasing a sense of self-responsibility among our youth population. As adults we too need to keep our priorities clear. Thanks for the heads-up!
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SSG Jess Peters
I was a PSG of a Chap platoon until someone senior to me arrived. Rather than take a intact crew i chose to select the 4 least like crewman. One lazy to the extreme. No one could get him to complete any task. They just basically ignored him..i gave him a task to clean the Chaparral battery box. Not an easy task. Each time he said he was done I checked it. Then made him redo it. Went on like that all day. At the end of the day, still not done properly. When he said I will do it tomorrow I told him no. We will come back after evening chow. He finally did it right that night. Never had to tell him to do anything twice. That year my crew was the second highest scoring Chaparral crew at annual.service practice in spite of receiving a replacement the day it started. For some reason the high scoring teams Sr. Gunner didn't fire his missile. The Bn Co gave it to me. My BC asked me if I was going to fire it. I said No Sir I'm giving it to the crewman that I had retrained to be self motivated. My BC turned purple with rage. He hated me and had zero respect for my crewman. He made a beautiful shot.
The thing is you must never accept poor performance. When assigning tasks you must be sure it is done well. Creman learn to be self motivated and it does help them develop initiative, pride in the work they do, pride in their team, and great moral.
The thing is you must never accept poor performance. When assigning tasks you must be sure it is done well. Creman learn to be self motivated and it does help them develop initiative, pride in the work they do, pride in their team, and great moral.
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Very intriguing idea, I see a potential flaw though. Once your subordinates reach a certain level of autonomy, you would theoretically be rendered inessential. If they no longer need your insight or philosophies, and assuming they were taught well, your subordinates/subordinate leaders will realize that it is no longer economically viable to retain you as a leadership asset. The only way I can theorize preventing this is to propagandize a quasi-Stockholm's syndrome in your followers. This would be simple and almost effortless throughout your time in the organization/company, just gain their respect. Your thoughts?
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LTC Monte Anderson
I'm might be the goal of every leader to reach a point where the team can operate without much input form the leader. Fortunately, leaders have other responsibilities besides building self-motivated followers.
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LTC Monte Anderson
Yes. For example, perhaps budget planning, committee meetings, awarding bonuses, etc.
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SSG Jess Peters
Training subordinates to be able to function autonomously is VERY important. Our NCO corps are the envy of the world. Often leader are killed in combat. There is always an NCO able to step in, take control and continue the mission with ease. The idea of thinking you make yourself extranious is really ignorant. No one is indispensible. With your line of thinking a unit would lose all cohesiveness if you the one leader is lost. In history there are many instances of armies that ran from the field in panic because a leader was killed.
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When a SP4 would ask me about getting promotion I often told them you must be a leader first. Sometimes they would be a bit confused by the answer.
I explained that being a Sgt does not make you a leader, it makes you a sergeant. Before I recommend you for promotion I expect to see some initiative to get things done, not wait to be told. Just doing your job is not enough. Minimum standards are not enough. You must strive to do every task to the best of your ability. In most cases this brought about immediate improvement in behavior and standards if they seriously wanted promotion.
I explained that being a Sgt does not make you a leader, it makes you a sergeant. Before I recommend you for promotion I expect to see some initiative to get things done, not wait to be told. Just doing your job is not enough. Minimum standards are not enough. You must strive to do every task to the best of your ability. In most cases this brought about immediate improvement in behavior and standards if they seriously wanted promotion.
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