Compliance to Commitment

Leaders, like each person in the organization and especially the managers and supervisors who manage others do not have easy tasks on their plate.

In today’s world, people managers have to be coaches than just managing and supervising. They have to keep people motivated. So how do we keep people motivated?

External motivation shall keep people happy; however there is a limited time span to the same. As we say something that was extraordinary in service, soon becomes an expectation. Similarly employees today look at all the major incentives and perks that once were extraordinary as expected.

So what is it that can keep people motivated, and how can a leader maintain the internal motivation in the people he works with?

According to AchieveGlobal’s research, the self determination theory is the answer. Today’s individuals look at 3 important aspects while working in a group or an organization.

1. Competence – Feeling valued, knowledgeable, skilled and experienced
2. Relatedness – Collaborating with colleagues and co-workers
3. Autonomy – Exercising Self Regulation, within the guidelines, to achieve business goals

To support the above three points, as one of the well known authors on leadership, Dr. John Maxwell describes in his book ‘The 21 Irrefutable laws of leadership’:

1. The Law of Addition – Leaders add value by serving others
2. The Law of Connection – Leaders touch the heart before they ask for a hand
3. The Law of Empowerment – Only secure leaders give power to others

These three out of the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership signify the importance of building Competence, Relatedness and Autonomy within the team to create internal motivation.

A leader today has to inspire and educate his team to perform and grow, thus building competence. He has to be collaborative and has to drive collaboration within his team. He has to allow people to do things in different ways, though staying within rules and regulations. This goes further beyond the work place to his / her home and out in the community or society. Each individual has a leadership responsibility to educate others, walking the best practices himself that he teaches others.

In today’s fast changing world of globalization, there is an entrepreneur in each one of us. Leaders need to explore and bring out the entrepreneur in each of his team members, his family and his society. When people work like entrepreneurs, they are internally motivated; they are working with commitment and not compliance.