Emotional Intelligence Series: Motivation
According to SkillsYouNeed.com - Self-motivation includes our personal drive to improve and achieve, commitment to our goals, initiative, or readiness to act on opportunities, and optimism and resilience. Daniel Goleman (who is credited with writing the original book on emotional intelligence) puts it a little more succinctly. He defines motivation as having an interest in learning and self-improvement and having the strength to keep going when there are obstacles.
I personally prefer the definition that emphasizes learning. At the LEAdeRNship Institute, we believe that leading and learning are intertwined life-long journeys. The first step to improvement is always learning.
Those with high self-motivation are constantly curious and seek out opportunities to learn wherever they can. Leaders with high motivation challenge their teams to learn and continuously improve.
Leaders can create a high-motivation environment by showing appreciation, challenging employees to learn, celebrating large and small wins, setting clear expectations and holding team members accountable for results. Leaders influence an environment where team members rely on intrinsic motivation instead of only extrinsic motivation.
Reflection Question: What actions can I take to keep my motivation, and the motivation of my team high?
Topic Next Week: Emotional Intelligence- Social Skills
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