Leadership - A discussion of traits, characteristics, and current news of leaders.

So how can my colleague in the Pacific Northwest provide leadership and create a better environment for himself and his employees? What can he do differently to motivate and lead his employees?

Is his leadership in line with their motivation? Perhaps his employees would react differently to a different leadership style. He expected them to be self-motivated and team players. They have likely been trained to be authority or fear motivated. Can this be changed?

The chart below may be helpful in matching your leadership style to the motivation of your employees. If you feel like you are not effectively leading (your followers are not responding), maybe you need to better understand your followers and align your leadership style to their motivational needs.

You can do this by trying to understand what motivates your employees. This can be done in a group and/or individually. Pay attention to what seems to effect each employee’s performance. Is it praise from you? Recognition from peers? Financial incentives? Once you understand their needs, apply the leadership style that matches. Simple? Not really.

Leadership is a process. It takes time to listen, to show appreciation and to win trust. But the effort is worth it as employees become motivated to be more loyal, more skilled and more committed to their job. By listening and responding you will find what will motivate and inspire your employees.

The following chart was found at Motivation Tools.

Leadership Style versus Motivation
Leadership Style	Motivation Type	Motivation is Based on:	Personality Type	Efficiency
Limited supervision Worker with decision making responsibility	Self motivated	Creativity	Leader of ideas or people. Independent Achiever Thrives on change	High
	Team motivated
Mixed styles	Goal motivated	Opportunity	Personality type and efficiency depends on leader's skill and/or the work environment he's created.
	Reward motivated	Materialism
	Recognition motivated	Social status
High level of supervision Command-and-control	Peer motivated	To be like others	Status quo Dependency Resist change	Low
	Authority motivated	Follows policy
	Threat, fear motivated	Reacts to force