Blog two
Leadership experience: Motivation
On one of the days, during my trip to Snowdonia national
park, I took a group of three students on a long distance ridge walk; taking in
various summits. It was down to me to find a way to continually motivate the
group and find purpose for them to complete the walk. This was going to be a
challenge as the group I took was of lower fitness and low esteem. Before the
walk I was honest with my group and explained to them exactly what we were
going to do. I believed it was important that the students were aware, so they could
find their own intrinsic motivation during the walk, along with the extrinsic
motivation I was going to provide for them.
During the walk I used the
motivational technique of Robert House, “House’s path goal theory” (Journal of Contemporary Business. 1974.).
He states the most important thing for leaders to do is to clarify the path of
the various goals to the subordinates (students), and therefore gaining a
connection between the student’s goals and the organised goals. It was
important during the walk that I made sure that everyone on the team was happy
and satisfied, as this would lift their performance and motivation. I needed to
make sure I painted a clear picture to the students of how they will gain
rewards based on performance, through inner satisfaction.
As it states in House’s theory I needed to make sure I
remained concerned with four different kinds of leadership behaviour, and
enforce them at the correct times. Such as the directive behaviour I enforced
at the start of the walk, telling the students what was going to happen and exactly
what I was expecting from them. This was also imposed during the walk, telling
the students we had to complete it fast, as we did not want to be up on the
mountains in the dark. However I also made sure I showed a supportive behaviour
in my mannerism, as this would make me more approachable and therefore a more
pleasant experience due to interpersonal relationships formed with the
students. One way I showed this supportive behaviour was being supportive of
the students, setting little goals which they could see where achievable,
rather than making them take on the challenge as a whole.
One leadership behaviour I found difficult was
participative behaviour. This is when a leader consults with their students,
and considers their opinions. I was already aware of the task in hand, and knew
what was expected from them. However I was respectful to them when they asked
to stop for a rest, understanding it was easier for me than them. Although most
of the time I used achievement-orientated behaviour instead. I tried to
encourage my students to strive for more, pushing themselves so goal was
accomplished faster. This showed the students that I had confidence in them,
and believed that they were able to reach these goals.
Since returning from the trip and
doing research for this blog I came across a quote by Ralf Nader which I agree
with: “I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to
produce more leaders, not more followers.” (cited in Leaderships and
Motivation article http://www.ibrd.gov.nl.ca/regionaldev/lm.pd)
