Motivational Intelligence

The Heart for Leading an Engaged Workforce

 

Engagement Takes Heart

Dwight D. Eisenhower defined leadership in a profound way.

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he [or she] wants to do it.”

As a five-star general in World War II and as a President of the United States, he had insight into the complexities and challenges of leadership like few ever acquire.

He went on to expound,

“… not because your position of power can compel him to do it, or your position of authority. A commander of a regiment is not necessarily a leader. He has all of the appurtenances of power given by a set of Army regulations by which he can compel unified action. He can say to a body such as this, ‘Rise,’ and ‘Sit down.’ You do it exactly. But that is not leadership.”
Remarks at the Annual Conference of the Society for Personnel Administration, 5/12/54

The former president’s words speak precisely to a leader’s motivational intelligence, which we define here as:

The acuity born of a leader’s self-awareness into their most powerful dimension for human connection—the heart, and the subsequent ability to motivate another to rise and live in full potential by knowing their own.

This motivational intelligence is a crucial requirement and often the missing link for inspiring and facilitating engagement for any cause inside or outside the workplace.

Senior leaders know first-hand that securing engaged workforce requires more than company policies. Maintaining people who desire to live and work from a place of full potential — those who are committed to use their role to advance the company mission— takes more than communicating a business strategy. More than free snacks and drinks. More than forcefully intimidating or sweetly manipulative words prodding employees to unified action.

While positions of power can intimidate others to act, and politics and personalities can certainly manipulate another’s behavior, it takes an authentic leader equipped with the clarity of first knowing him or herself, to lead others to a place of motivated engagement.

Truth be told, building a culture of engagement takes something that many leaders are reluctant, or potentially unable to use: heart. But it’s use of the heart, not just the brain, that obtains and maintains trusting connections with others.

To succeed in the future and secure the commitment of the workforce, leaders must be willing to discover and utilize this untapped dimension of motivational intelligence — an intelligence that begins with awareness of the heart of oneself.

In the words of Zig Ziglar,

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”

At the heart of becoming is clarity. But clarity depends on a framework called language.

The Language of Motivation for Leaders

Extensive research and development now establishes the way for leaders to know the nine motivators innately a part of each of us.

This information can revolutionize your own insight. Like never before, you can gain clarity and know what is or isn’t energizing your team. You can learn the necessary language for addressing the science and art of motivation by discovering Motivational Maps®, a tool that delivers insight into building high-performing, engaged teams in a cost-effective manner.

Individual and team profile reports not only deliver the framework for understanding motivation, but also the applicable actions necessary to rewrite the ingrained norms of “how to motivate.”

Fulfilled inner drivers lead to engagement, happiness and success as part a team. Unfulfilled motivators cause de-energized states which breed negativity, relational conflict, lack of trust, and disengagement.

So, what really motivates the people you lead?

Making a difference…
Freedom…
Innovation…
Mastery…
Money…
Influence…
Recognition…
Belonging…
Predictability…

This is the language of motivation. Each person you know has blend of all these motivators, but it’s never one-size-fits-all.

Motivational Map® Profiles Can Help Senior Leaders

• Gain insight into potential reasons for disappointing business strategy results
• Decrease turnover, recruitment, and training costs
• Improve loyalty, retention, energy, and optimism
• Create a healthier work environment
• Improve efficiency by discovering collective motivational strength of managers and directors and the specific ways to address lack of internal engagement
• Plan effective tactics to address the team’s readiness or resistance to change and lack of cohesion
• Communicate with clarity, wisdom, and confidence when addressing team demotivators and conflict

Are you ready to get to the heart of engagement and improve your motivational intelligence?

For more information go to exceedinglife.com/motivationalmaping

To your vitality!