Helping People to Motivate Themselves
Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2008.A major function of leaders is to motivate other individuals and groups. (Note that leaders can also focus on motivating themselves when their focus is on self-leadership.) There are approaches to motivating people that are destructive, eg, fear, intimidation, etc. While these approaches can seem very effective in promptly motivating people, the approaches are hurtful, and in addition, they usually only motivate for the short-term. There are also approaches that are constructive, eg, effective delegation, coaching, etc. These approaches can be very effective in motivating others and for long periods of time.
Note that different people can have quite different motivators. For example, some people are motivated by more money, others by more recognition, time off from work, promotions, opportunities for learning, opportunities for socializing and relationships, etc. Therefore, when attempting to motivate people, it's important to identify what motivates them. Ultimately, though, long-term motivation comes from people motivating themselves.
Sections of This Topic Include:
BasicsTheories
Basics
Basics About Employee Motivation (Including Steps You Can Take)The Eternal Question... How can I motivate my Employees?
Creating a Sense of Urgency: Small Business Managing People - BusinessTown
Leadership Knowledge Base: Information to Improve Your Leadership Skills.
Employee Motivation
Cross Training as a Motivational Tool
Theories
More on MaslowBig Dog on Motivating
Motivation: Hierarchy of Needs Theory
Managing Change: Motivating People (has theories in it)
For the Category of Leadership:
Related Library Topics
Recommended Books
For Leading Yourself, See
Personal Development -- Related
Books
For Leading Other Individuals, See
Supervision -- Related
Books
For Leading Teams, See
Facilitation and Teams -- Related
Books
For Leading Organizations, See
Organizational Development
-- Recommended Books
For Management, See
Management -- Recommended Books
Basics and General Information
Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides step-by-step, highly practical guidelines to recruit, utilize and evaluate the best employees for your business. Includes guidelines to effectively lead yourself (as Board member or employee), other individuals, groups and organizations. Includes guidelines to avoid burnout -- a very common problem among employees of small businesses. Many materials in this Library's topic about staffing are adapted from this book.
Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision With Nonprofit Staff
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides step-by-step, highly practical guidelines to recruit, utilize and evaluate the best staff members for your nonprofit. Includes guidelines to effectively lead yourself (as Board member or staff member), other individuals, groups and organizations. Includes guidelines to avoid burnout -- a very common problem among nonprofit staff. Many materials in this Library's topic about staffing are adapted from this book.
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
