Motivation

Influential leaders know their people. They know the lifestyle/work- style choices that drive the individual's behaviour and they appeal to these to create effective relationships. The leader recognises that to get people to do a worthwhile job he has to give them a worthwhile job to do. A worthwhile job will embody that person's core values.

By ensuring people have a worthwhile job the leader improves motivation and reduces the need for supervision. Comments like ˜Well it is a job - it pays the mortgage,' indicate there is a lack of worth to be found in that job and that an individual's lifestyle needs are not being met or addressed.

The tail wag factor!

Money buys a dog but it is love (and food!) that makes it wag its tail. You might have high-quality people in your team but you may not be getting high-quality performances . If people are not being led according to their own, highly personalised lifestyle/workstyle expectations you will not get the level of performance of which they are capable.

Organisations are not successful, it is the people in those organisations who are. They drive it forward or put it into reverse. Dig deeply into organisational problems and you will always get to people. Conflict, stress, misunderstanding, poor communication, demotivation, resistance, low morale , all have their origins in people and their lifestyle needs not being met. These are leader- ship issues. Organisations are only as effective as the people in them. People are only as effective as their leaders enable them to be.

Shay McConnon's famous chicken vindaloo recipe

As Shay McConnon says, ˜Effective leaders avoid what I call the chicken vindaloo trap - treating others as you want to be treated. I love chicken vindaloo, but that is no reason to use it as bait when fishing ! To be successful I must use what appeals to the fish - maggots - even if it doesn't appeal to me. You will not win the heart of a carer using the doer's leadership criteria. You will not win the thinker's mind using caring criteria.'

Shay McConnon goes on to explain that, ˜One day, in the middle of one of my team-building sessions, the team leader apologised to the rest of the team for constantly giving them challenges. 'Challenges light my fire,' he said, 'and I thought this worked for everyone'. He had been fishing with chicken vindaloo! That wasn't the bait that was going to capture the hearts and minds of this group .'

Within this complex lifestyle/workstyle need structure are literally millions of permutations . Some people are motivated by challenges, others can feel ˜used' by this same behaviour; not everyone needs to be overtly appreciated; not everyone will be happy when you offer your help. Even the end-of-year bonus doesn't work for everyone.

Effective leaders make great efforts to know their people and understand how they need to be treated in order to add value and create worth. They are approachable. They have open , collaborative lines of communication.

The leader may not be able to meet every one of an individual's lifestyle/workstyle needs, as they will have restrictions and needs of their own. However, the crucial thing is that people sense a willingness from the leader to understand them and a knowledge that they would willingly meet their needs if it were possible. They give people what they don't normally get, which is why the leader gets from them what they don't normally give.

Ill-informed goodwill hurts business

The vast majority of managers are good people who work hard and have the best interest of the business and its people at heart. While they are likely to treat individual employees differently, often it is not in the appropriately different way. Again they fall into the chicken vindaloo trap, ˜I delegate in the way I like to be delegated to. I give feedback in the way I like feedback given to me.' They think they are adding value in how they approach others but in fact, they may be doing the opposite - eroding value.

This is tragic and comes with a high cost to the business. It is tragic because the goodwill is there. The manager is trying to get it right. Organisations are full of good-willed managers who are getting it wrong, causing stress, de-motivation, low morale, and poor productivity. Studies show that 75 per cent of people leave jobs because of relationship issues and most of those are with the immediate supervisor. These managers are likely to be good-willed people, doing the best they can with the awareness they have. Ill-informed goodwill hurts the business.

People don't leave good leaders. Instead they are likely to follow them out of the organisation when they leave.