Leadership and Motivation

Myth #2: Leadership is ALL About Motivation.

Leadership has no direct bearing on motivation. Sound heretical? Hear me out, please, While leaders can try to motivate [or de-motivate] with their style of leadership, personal motivation is truly outside of their purview. That is because motivation comes from within an individual, not from outside of them. Change does, too. And all external Leadership influence is strictly indirect to people’s Motivational Values System (MVS).

Motivation is based on the Value System (MVS) of the individual, according to the late psychologist, Dr. Elias Porter, PhD, whose Strengths Deployment Inventory® or SDI®, I use in my consults as a Certified Team Development Facilitator.

Dr. Porter, researching behavior on the heels of Freud, Fromm and his mentor, Carl Rogers, developed the SDI® as a tool of self-discovery, as he realized that 1) our Motivation, based on our underlying Values System,
can determine our Behavior, the visible aspect of our relationships with other people, which arise from our purposive strivings for gratification which are mediated by how we obtain such gratification, 2a) under perfect conditions and 2b) in conflict with other people.

Dr. Porter also believed 3) our weaknesses are no more than our strengths overdone (i.e., self-confidence overdone is arrogance). He came up with 3 MVSs: Altruistic-Nurturing; Analytical –Autonomizing; and Assertive - Directing

People can motivate themselves based on their MVS to do well or to do poorly, all of it is in an effort to support their Values System. People try to do good based on their MVS that they have learned and/or grown up with.They may be brought up to go to church and go to work and earn a living, and treat people right. They may have learned this thru their home, church, school or training, but they learn these norms of living and growing in society. And yet, as good as they may be, they sometimes do wrong things, usually small, yet sometimes large.

For example, you have seen the TV police dramas where people get into trouble trying to cover up what they did wrong; they stole or worse killed someone. Some were not criminals before, nor would do so again.

They always seem to sum up their reasoning for the troubles they created with words like “I don’t know why I did that.” Or “That’s not like me, really it’s not.” They are probably telling the truth; it’s just not like them to do something bad. But they did it hoping to reconcile, reconstruct and/or resurrect, or from some threat to protect their Values System.

On the other hand, people try to do good things because their Motivational Values System is so entrenched and ingrained in their lives, they couldn’t imagine doing anything else. And the chances of their doing wrong are improbable, though not impossible.

Creative Leadership helps people see their own motivations and how they can reconcile them with the company’s in order to get work done. Leadership that fails to help people “own” the company and its Mission, or fails to help people reconcile their values with the company, means people are not necessarily working for you, and could be working against you.

SDI^© can help you find your level of team leadership.

Take time to ponder (or we can test for) your Motivational Values in the following areas:

Altruistic-Nurturing [How much do you care about people compared to the other areas below?]

Analytical-Autonomizing [Where does data, tech, analysis and figures rank with the other areas?]

Assertive-Directing [How do you approach your goals/projects/time compared to the other areas above?]

Dan has a program for Leadership Team and Staff Team development, and can counsel, mentor or coach team development in your organization. e-mail/Call Dan@dancassin.com or 502-554-2397