Leadership and Motivation
Introduction
According to Vince Lombardi (2003) "leaders aren't born, they are made" and successful leadership entails motivation of teams to deliver results. Effective leaders have been an area of focus due to their impact on the positive results on organizations by virtue of contentment and highly positive outcomes. Leadership is said to be the process with which managers motivate members of their team and positively influence them to obtain the aims and goals of the organization (Kramer, 2008). However, different managers and leaders have distinct styles of encouraging and motivating their teams to deliver optimal results. As such, the term motivation has received great importance primarily due to its powers to influence those psychological processes which are responsible in initiating goal oriented voluntary activities through encouragement, direction and perseverance (Mitchell, 1982). Motivation actually comes from the Latin word "movere" which literally means "to move" and refers to a "force" which removes boredom from monotonous tasks (Islam and Ismail, 2008). In business and working environments, motivation is highly regarded due to the power which controls behaviour so that the concerned performing individuals continue to persist in the undertaken task (Bartol and Martin, 1998). Effective leaders are those who can motivate their teams and subordinates to accomplish common goals and objectives through enhanced performances. Researchers confirm that individuals need to be stimulated and motivated with a clear indication of focus in order that they channelize their energy in the right direction and achieve their goals. This paper aims to analyse the advantages and disadvantages of the different motivational theories and their impact distinct leadership styles and ultimately on the achievement of success. Leadership Styles Burns (1978) identified that leadership is essentially of two types, transactional leadership and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership entails that the leader accede to the independence of their followers and their own independence while transformational leadership is one in which the leader makes effort to alter the goals and objectives of the followers in accordance with the collective goals of the organization (Burns, 1978). (This is only a random excerpt and should strictly be used as a sample only. To view the complete paper, e-mail us at support@customtermpaper.org or click here)