How Do You Self-Motivate?

The other day Addakula Balakrishna wrote to Jack and Suzy Welch via Business Week. Remarking that the Welches often talk about how a leader can motivate others, Balakrishna asked: "But how do leaders motivate themselves, especially in challenging times." Link here.

The Welches' response is excellent, and I want to review it in detail.

First, they show that fear of failure motivates better than a desire for success. You can come to terms with different degrees of success, but you cannot negotiate with failure.

The Welches recommend that a leader look in the mirror and say: "I am not going to be the one who lets this place fail."

This may not look like a confidence-building measure, but it is. It moves you to do your best and to do everything in your power to succeed, or, at least, to survive. It prevents you from slacking off or giving up. Better yet, you can try it at home.

Knowing that if you fail you will be letting down a large number of people will shift your focus from yourself to others.

Second, the Welches say, a leader can sustain personal pride and confidence by identifying with the corporate mission, what I have been calling the company's high concept.

A leader knows where the company has been and what it has accomplished. He must also know what it is about. Has it prospered by providing good service or quality products or exception value or the lowest prices?

A company's larger concept should also involve its role in the nation's economic life.

Dov Seidman once wrote that there is a great difference between the bricklayer who thinks of his job as laying bricks and the one who sees himself building a cathedral.

If you extend the thought, a leader must communicate to his staff the place that the cathedral has in a community and how it will serve the spiritual needs of individuals.

Third, the Welches point out that in time of trouble and trauma a leader's first impulse is to withdraw from close contact with his staff. He will naturally not want to get too close to people whom he might fire and whom he might let down. Their succinct advice: "Don't do it."

They remark that a leader gains intellectual and moral sustenance by interacting with people, by listening to their observations and concerns, and using the information to set better policy. You cannot manage a company if you are detached and fearful.

Fourth, they suggest that a leader should see his challenge "not as an intractable problem, but as an exciting puzzle to solve." As I understand it, this means that a leader does not see himself directing a play or a movie, but as playing a game.

People who see the world as a narrative drama tend to act as though outcomes are inevitable. There is little the director or the audience can do to change the outcome of Macbeth.

If you see yourself playing a baseball game that has gotten to the third inning, then you will see yourself having the power to influence the outcome, both for you and your employees.

Finally, the Welches debunk the notion that the leader is lonely at the top. As they put it: "The old saw 'It's lonely at the top' is pablum. It's only as lonely as you let it be"

Well said. A leader should never get so absorbed in his job that he forgets that he has friends, neighbors, family members, who are supportive, who believe in him, and whose good opinion can motivate and sustain him.

A leader who makes good use of the human resources that are part of his life outside the office will be better prepared to set the right example for his staff.