Leaders Maintain Motivation
How can leaders maintain themselves to stay motivated?
I agree!!! As a manager and a leader it is hard to maintain motivation for ourselves sometimes. Does anyone have any suggestions on ways to stay motivated in order to keep our employees motivated? We are always utilizing different techniques and avenues to motivate others, how do we maintain our own motivation???
Amanda,
Great question & difficult to answer.
A couple of things come to my mind.
1) One of the ways I keep myself motivated is to constantly go back to the bigger picture & that compelling reason why I do what I do. For me I am here to help students & when I get bogged down in the administrative muck, I force myself to go back to this reality & often that helps.
2) The other thing I remind myself sometime is that somedays I need to do the action & then often the motivation comes. I'm a runner & there are still some days when I just don't want to run, but I make myself get out there. I find that once I get going usually I find myself enjoying the run. And then honestly there are other days where it's just sheer work. That's okay, as long as the "drudgery" days are far fewer than the "fun" days.
Hope that helps.
Ryan
Great question & difficult to answer. One thing I find is to remind myself of the bigger picture or purpose behind the work. For me it's the students. When I remember that I'm here for them, it helps with the drudgery.
Another thing is to remember that sometimes we just have to work through the drudgery, it's part of life. Hopefully these times are fewer, but it just has to be sometimes.
Ryan
One of my self motivational methods is working on projects that are outside of my occupational area of expertise. This provides an opportunity to use existing skills and acquire new ones. When the project is completed the accomplishment is rejuvinating and motivational.
Great strategy. This is a great way too of fulfilling that achievement motive that many leaders have but don't always have the chance to fulfill.
Ryan
I get in a rut sometimes when I am just not motivated. I schedule small breaks to interact with students and instructors. This is enough to remind me of the importance of my work and how I affect others.
I can definitely identify Tom & good strategy. When we are feeling unmotivated it's important to do a task that really jazzes us or reminds us of why we do what we do. That may be interacting with others or it may be finding some real hands-on task oriented things & knocking those out so we feel we've accomplished something. This generally helps us to get back in the game.
Ryan
This was a great way to look at it. So true on the running. I think the key is the last line where the Drdgery is far fewer and to me shoudl be far in between as well. I think sometimes when a staff is having these often that it is ignored instead of being adressed.
I enjoy the classroom more then my office, but unfortunalty I'm in my office more then in the classroom. To keep my modivation I take a number of breaks and join students in the classroom. when I get a warm and welcoming reception it reminds me that I need to keep up on my visits, and that helps me stay modivated.
Kevin,
this is a great example of knowing what feeds & drives you & making sure you get enough of that. Otherwise as the leader you can become ineffective in the other areas.
Dr. Ryan Meers
I believe that when you are responsible for being a leader you should have a sense of cosistency and reproducability to movitate someone
I agree. Also as an administrator sometimes getting up from my desk or phone call and meeting and listening to the students informally in the hall, etc. Their enthusiasm and sincerity remind me what this eduction work is about!
Priscilla,
this really is so important isn't it. Sometimes when I get bogged down in the administrative minutia I find a stroll around the halls does wonders for my perspective.
Dr. Ryan Meers
