How to Lead and Motivate Your Team Better

Brian Tracy shares several of his secrets on how to become a better leader. We hope you enjoy Brian’s blog on Leadership.  As  the technology market continues to evolve we will all need to step up and become stronger leaders.  This is the first blog in the series on motivational leaders.

Leading and Motivating

By Brian Tracy

It’s been said, “Leadership is not what you do, but who you are.” This, however, is only partially true. Leadership is very much who you are, but it cannot be divorced from what you do. Who you are represents the inner person, and what you do represents the outer person. Each is dependent on the other for maximum effectiveness.

The starting point of motivational leadership is to begin seeing yourself as a role model, seeing yourself as an example to others. A key characteristic of leaders is that they set high standards of accountability for themselves and for their behaviors. They assume that others are watching them and then setting their own standards by what they do.

In business, there are several kinds of power. Two of these are position power and ascribed power.

Position power is the power that comes with a job title or position in any organization. If you become a manager in a company, you automatically have certain powers and privileges that go along with your rank. You can order people about and make certain decisions. You can be a leader whether or not anyone likes you.

Ascribed power is the power you gain because of the kind of person you are. In every organization, there are people who are inordinately influential and looked up to by others, even though their positions may not be high up on the organizational chart. These are the men and women who are genuine leaders because of the quality of the people they have become, because of their characters and their personalities.

Over the years, we have been led to believe that leaders are those who stride boldly about, exude power and confidence, give orders and make decisions for others to carry out. However, that is old school. The leader of today is the one who asks questions, listens carefully, plans diligently and then builds consensus among all those who are necessary for achieving the goals. The leader does not try to do it by himself or herself. The leader gets things done by helping others to do them.

In tommorows  blog  Brian Tracy will share with you how to motivate motivation leaders and the qualities all great motivational leaders share.

About the Author

Brian Tracy is a legendary in the fields of management, leadership, and sales.  He has produced more than 300 audio/video programs and has written over 40 books, including his just-released book “The Power of Charm.” Special offer: To receive your free copy of “Crunch Time!, just visit www.briantracy.com and click on the Crunch Time! icon.  He can be reached at (858) 481-2977 or www.briantracy.com.

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