How to lead in ways that help rather than tell people to grow and align personal motivations with what your organization needs.
BY FAISAL HOQUE | January 7, 2014
Also featured in LinkedIn Pulse Leadership & Management | Dec 20 2014
Creativity and innovation are key to building any successful organizations. But organizational creativity comes from inspiring and leading people, which is anything but easy. This idea of “simplification” is not only complex from a technical or business point of view; it is even more complex from emotional and philosophical point of view.
As we discussed in my book, Everything Connects: How to Transform and Lead in the Age of Creativity, Innovation, and Sustainability (McGraw Hill, February 2014), the work of a leader, especially of an entrepreneur, often parallels that of the ancient maritime navigator, moving from port to port by drawing the constellations in the sky.
Creativity and innovation are key to building any successful organizations. But organizational creativity comes from inspiring and leading people, which is anything but easy.
First, you have to appreciate the interior complexity of the people that you work with. Then, you need to make the links between a person’s individual motivations and what your company needs. In other words, link the individual—personal goals like career trajectories—to the collective, group goals like innovation, revenue growth, and impacting the world.
To do this we need to understand what people need from their work in order to do their best work—and how leaders can help arrange that for them. This distinction is rooted in intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. If people are intrinsically motivated, there is something inside of them that pushes them to their work; if they are extrinsically motivated, something outside of them brings them there. (Most people, of course, are both.)
The work of a leader, especially of an entrepreneur, often parallels that of the ancient maritime navigator, moving from port to port by drawing the constellations in the sky.
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[Image: Flickr user Thomas Frost Jensen]
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