Motivation and Motivational Leadership

• Leadership includes the ability to understand what drives individuals to take specific actions and to create opportunities for them to meet personal and organizational needs at the same time.

• Motivation implies action and energy. It can be protection or achievement oriented. Such as doing just enough to keep your job or making an effort to produce at a high level over extended periods of time.
• Leaders are identified by the ability to make things happen.
• If individuals are trying to perform they are motivated.
• Action must be present, because wanting to do something does not always result in moving to do so.

• Preparation, presence & perceptual ability.

• Preparation - knowledge & skill
• Presence - communication, confidence, commitment & energy
• Perceptual ability - insight

• Knowledge & skill, effective communication of ideas, confidence, commitment, energy, insight into the needs of others and an ability to take the action necessary to achieve goals important to others.

• Knowledge and Skill - comes from preparation in the responsibilities of health care delivery & organizational duty. This leader has the ability to evaluate the likelihood of success in accomplishing goals, and is able to support or suggest changes.

• Effective Communication of Ideas - involves the ability to convey ideas clearly and in such a way that they can be heard positively.

• Confidence - comes from an internal sense of security that one is competent to make a statement or take action, and that there is a reasonable chance of success in accomplishing something of value. The motivational leader is secure enough to have a lower need to control & as a result is able to encourage autonomy, participation & the empowerment of staff in decision-making.

• Commitment - is the internalization of an idea and a resulting drive to accomplish specific goals. The mere setting of goals does not indicate leadership that motivates. It is the ability of the leader to translate the importance of the goal (or purpose) to others and to elicit actions from others that support reaching a goal.

• Energy - is also needed to empower and fire the imagination of others & constantly invent & move ahead toward future events as well as current needs. Different styles of energy can be motivational. The 'high energy leader' who is effective in one situation may be viewed as 'pushy & aggressive' in another situation.
• Insight into the Needs of Others - is the acute awareness of the reason behind events and an ability to anticipate results of actions. When a leader can put goals into a form that has real or personal value to each person, then motivation will exists.

• Additional key qualities of a motivational leader are abilities to listen, reserve judgement, give direct & positive feedback, recognize individual value through respect for others, and use humor.

Physical Needs: Fatigue, Stress, and Biological Factors

• Physical needs can support or hinder an individual's ability to accomplish a job. Staff may instinctively draw back from the activity that is causing the stress or may become ineffective in their activities (recall the general adaptation syndrome).

• Evaluate whether working conditions permit staff to satisfy basic needs such as hunger, thirst or sleep. If these needs are left unattended, the quality of performance & morale will decline & resignation will increase.

• Also, the realization that the leader is aware of the problem & able to empower others toward an actual intervention can be motivational.

• People can be expected to perform better to the extent that goals are difficult, specific & attractive.

• The classic Force-Field Theory refers to the extent that people can view the 'big picture' (or total issue) that they are dealing with gives them an opportunity to gain insight into the problem.

• If the leader sets goals that a person finds attainable then motivation can be stimulated. Performance levels also depend on the leader providing feedback.

• The Expectancy-Value Theory states that people will choose the behavior with the largest combination of expected success and value. A leader can use this theory by evaluating what is important to a specific person & designing a means by which that individual can achieve their own goal while fulfilling the leader's goal. For example, a person can gain financial benefit from reducing organizational expenditures.
• For this theory to work you must consider several factors & the person's perception of the following:

• His or Her own capability of meeting a desired goal (their knowledge, skill & competence).
• The value of the goal.
• The probability that the goal will be fully realized.
• The cost (be it personal or financial).
• The risk (be it esteem, status or safety).

• This theory addresses that a person's motivation is also affected by whether people feel they are being treated fairly. It involves the evaluation of what one puts into a job versus what one gets out of it in comparison with some other relevant person.

• Stresses the importance of job enrichment to improve the meaningfulness of assignments, perceived significance & worker autonomy. This works best with the self-motivated person.

• The environment of the job in itself may be a motivating force. The need to be liked by others & a sense of belonging to a select group may fulfill needs for affiliation or self-esteem.

• Theory X emphasized external rewards & that close supervision implied that employees would not work unless controlled through the use of rewards & punishments.
• Theory Y emphasized that workers were seen as being able to derive satisfaction from the work itself & make commitments to organizational goals.
• Theory Z, a combination of X and Y works the best. Theory Z suggests that people have both characteristics pertaining to both theories & that involvement of employees is essential for any organization to excel. Shared governance is one example of how a health care organization can extend full decision participation to its members

• There are five broad categories of conditions needed to establish favorable motivation patterns & are listed as follows:

• No matter how broadly defined, the standard operating procedure of a system must be clearly stated, both verbal & written.

• The external rules by which an organization is judged must be known by its members & may be seen in policies & procedures for various levels within the organization. Examples of external rules include the state nurse practice act, JCAHO, NCQA (National Committee on Quality Assurance, standards & legal requirements of care, and federal & states laws.

• Include policies, procedures and protocols established by the organization. These help to ensure compliance and provide further definition & control or standardize behavior.
• Rules, or norms are intended to serve as a basis for predictable performance of critical work processes that protect the legal status of the organization & its members & provide quality patient outcomes.

• An organization may offer benefits as a tangible means of attracting, retaining & rewarding staff. This also makes an organization competitive with other organizations to attract & retain staff.

• Were developed to stimulate employee motivation to achieve high personal & organizational goals. As a result, performance can be expected to improve and commitment to the goal increased.
• By giving staff a route of professional recognition based on an achieved level of competency, a personally rewarding career route can be made available.

• As a motivational element, job satisfaction has been defined as the degree of positive effect toward the overall job or its components. It does not, in itself, ensure achievement motivation.

• Is an example of one approach to create a motivating professional environment. Nursing case management provides continuity by linking tasks, shifts & departments.

• An important responsibility of the clinical leader is participating in the selection of personnel & establishing a climate that enhances motivation. It is useful to match new employees to interpersonal needs of the staff & create group strength.

• Controlling the spin means making sure that communication & actions are clearly interpreted in the way in which they were intended.
• Clear communication at every stage of growth & change is a key feature in having others understand, participate & buy into decisions.
• How might a leader set new directions?
• Through group process techniques - Quality circles, Problem-solving teams, Delphi technique (think tank ideas) & Focus groups.
• And through leadership mechanisms - Delegation, Recognition & Collegial relationships.

• To be effective an organization must be able to attract & hold people in a system who are dependable in their work performance & have innovative & spontaneous behavior.

• Staff involvement in creating a future vision is essential.
• The development of this future vision marks an opportunity for staff to express ideas & form commitments.
• It requires motivational leaders with a strong sense of self & an ability to welcome change & uncertainty.

• Emerging organizational designs involve effective planning that incorporates all committed & productive employees. Several designs are discussed as follows.

• A lattice organization allows people to deal with others across the organization. It operates to reduce traditional hierarchy & give motivational autonomy & recognition to employees.

• Is the drawing of organizational lines according to actual working relationships & business dependencies. This would be like drawing a free-form line around the clinical leader, clinical nurses, dietary aide, pharmacist, laboratory technician, housekeeper and doctor for a given patient population.

• This work design encourages intrapreneurial ventures. In this arrangement, employees are given autonomy to develop & implement new ideas & to benefit financially, personally & professionally from their efforts. (Example: A staff-created and managed clinic for abused children).
• Entrepreneurship goes a step further in that the employee or group of employees becomes independent of the organization to undertake & manage their own ventures. (Example: Nurses leave hospital employment to establish a home health agency for community-based care).

• As the nature of health care service shifts, the need for nursing will continue to grow & evolve.

• Results of Empowerment as a Motivator:
• Enables others to act; increases employee job satisfaction & organizational commitment.
• There is a positive correlation between staff nurses perceptions of empowerment & their perceptions of manager's power
• How people perceive empowerment leads to organizational commitment.

• Results of the Organization as an Influence:
• Work restructuring results in a 20% reduction in nursing budget operations.
• Reengineering via function following form leads to improvements in quality, service & financial outcomes.
• Staff nurses' involvement does not ensure their influence on practice.

• Role of job satisfaction:
• Autonomy positively influences job satisfaction.
• Professional satisfaction & satisfaction with the organization are predictive of turnover.
• Enthusiasm & interest in work are significantly related to having a variety of experiences & to enhancement of patient wellness, pace, recognition, personal growth, & development & technology.

• Motivation is the basis for human behavior.
• In this day of rapid change the need to maintain a creative, committed & productive workplace is very important.
• The hallmark of leadership is an ability to motivate others to develop & achieve established goals & a sense of personal accomplishment & satisfaction.

The End! J

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