Are you a Motivational Manager?

Encouragement, Empowerment & Enrichment…

The most significant information from the ‘Motivation’ article for my job and within my life is the key aspects of Part 4; where it details the various attributes of being a motivating manager. It became apparent to me that most hierarchy leveled managers use whatever motivational techniques they believe in; which may not be the most appropriate technique to use for their employees based on the organizational field they are in. “For example, motivating techniques from an internationally known leader or known celebrity will be the activities for employees with a high need for affiliation preference, but individual leaders who possess a high need for power may be attracted to more of a challenging approach to motivation” (McClelland, 1992). Being a Director of a Financial Aid department requires a great deal of leadership skills, but most importantly; motivating managerial skills as well. On a daily basis, I am required to inspire, create cooperativeness and enthusiasm within my team members for the purpose of obtaining the desired achieved goal. This goal is to make financial resources available to every current student and all future students interested within our college or institution in an effort to advance the student thru to successfully obtaining a degree or education. “Motivation is the force or reason that drives us towards an action” (Goodall, 2006).

With relevance to my current work setting, being a motivating manager requires the true capabilities of a great leader. As stated previously in the article, “Motivation’; one attribute of being a motivating manager is the ability to think like a winner. This ideology is critical for any great leader determined to lead a group to a desired result. “Always remember that winning and loosing rotate in a cycle. If you have been losing from a long time you are very near the winning edge” (Shah & Shaw). If a manager does not believe in the desired overall goal of the organization; nor therefore, will their followers or team employees. I have always known the vision of the perceived organizational goal starts with oneself as a manager. If you believe it, you can therefore achieve it. So in thinking like a winner, a manager must have that belief or concept embedded in them from within to know that no matter what challenges or obstacles their employees are up against, eventually doing their job correctly, ethically and with the proper skill allows the goal to be accomplished.

To me motivation is the basis of giving encouragement, empowerment and enrichment to oneself or others for the purpose of inspiration or persuasion. I can apply Abraham Maslow’s “Need Hierarchy Theory” (Shah & Shaw) to my current work setting by my six year background in the financial aid field. In which, I have worked my way up from being a telephone customer service financial funding analyst for a guarantor agency to now being a Director of Financial Aid. This concept can also be applied to my ultimate desire to move up further onto a political platform for funding educational opportunities upon completion of my Master’s degree.

Once my mother stated to me that in order to be a good manager you have to gain the ability to utilize people for who they are in their talents and skills alone. She went further to state bad managers make the mistake of expecting more or less from their employees, rather then just accepting their capabilities. This concept has always stuck in my mind, especially when understanding how as a successful leader, I can motivate my own team members in today’s society. In the 21st century, a great leader determines, understands and plays off of recognizing the differences among each team member to allow those individual talents to accomplish a specific task of an overall organizational goal. “All employees in the organization vibrate to a different pace. A treatment that motivates one may demotivate the other” (Shah & Shaw). This is true when using certain communication styles such as: interpersonal and intrapersonal along within multi-cultural organizations.

Remember the key questions to ask yourself when analyzing your own management skills and abilities is:
1) What kind of manager bests manages you?
2) What kind of manger are framing yourself to be? To Become?

Goodall, B. (1998). How tourists choose their holidays: An analytical framework. In B. Goodall & G Ashworth. Marketing in the tourism industry. The promotion of destination regions. London: Routlege.

McClelland, D. C. (1992). Motivational configurations. In C. P. Smith (Ed.), Motivation and personality: Handbook of thematic content analysis (pp.87-99). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Shah, K. & Shaw, P. (n.d.) Motivation. Retrieved July 10, 2007, from http://www.laynetworks.com/Motivation.html.