“[Motivating] means trying to understand how others think and feel, and even if one does not completely understand others, they listen and communicate to reach a collaborative level.”
– 10th Grade Student
MOTIVATING
“[Motivating] means knowing how to get people to work together to achieve your goal.”
– Eighth Grade Student
Use the information in this section to help you introduce the “motivating” attribute to students. You can use the question stem “How does this attribute make you a better leader?” to start a discussion with your students and to check for comprehension (see Additional Resources for more information to further your personal understanding).
Explaining “Motivating” to Students
No one works alone, especially not leaders. The role of a social-emotional leader is to be able to produce results through working with others. This is not an easy task—managing teamwork is complicated. How often are you able to pull people together around a common goal? Are you able to work with others to establish a clear outcome and process? Are you able to create a space in which all people feel comfortable communicating honestly and transparently in order to move the work forward? Motivating means having the ability to get a group of people to work together toward a common goal. Motivating leaders can ultimately transform a group of individuals into a team committed to meeting specific goals.
What “Motivating” Looks Like
Motivating leaders:
• promote camaraderie (positive relationships) among group members
• work with the group to define goals and establish clear steps to accomplish them
• engage everyone in the group
• set the expectation that everyone will come together to tackle a challenge
• facilitate group efforts and learning
• hold group members accountable
• are seen as positive, affirming, inspiring, challenging, and fair
• size up strengths of individual group members and look for ways to leverage those strengths
• give people a sense of their individual purpose
• provide and seek feedback and guidance
What Gets in the Way?
When leaders are not able to motivate others, their group may not be successful in achieving its goals. Review the following list and note the items that may keep you from being motivating.
• You do not work with others in your group to create a shared understanding of your group goal.
• You focus more on tasks than people.
• You are afraid to speak up when you disagree with others.
• You do not trust the people who work with you.
• Your group members do not trust each other.
• You ignore deep conflicts affecting the group.
• You feel like you have to do everything yourself.
• You do not permit others in the group to ask questions.
• You spend too much time getting consensus and fail to exercise strong decision-making skill when it is needed.
• Your group members are uncertain about results and feel pulled in different directions by competing goals.
• Your group members work in isolation and are uncertain about how their tasks fit into the larger picture and goal.
• Your group members put their own interests ahead of the group and contribute only when it is easy.
Your work as a social-emotional leader involves bringing people together, creating a shared understanding of the group goal, creating a clear plan for how you will work together to accomplish your goal, and providing an environment where people value other members of the group and are committed to the group goals.
Suggestions for Improving “Motivating”
Work with your students to discuss and establish some ways to build competency in this attribute. Below is a list to help support this exercise. Feel free to develop your own strategies or modify these suggestions.
You may also consider doing an activity with your students (see Activity Center for suggestions) or asking them to write about the attribute (see Journal Prompts for suggestions) to help build student understanding.
In conjunction with your students, figure out how you are going to support each other as a group or class to build competency in this leadership attribute.
• Set and communicate the group’s direction—together. Work with your group to develop a shared understanding of the group’s goals. Align the group’s work with its goals. Discuss what each group member needs to be able to accomplish their goals.
• Regularly check progress. Gather feedback or data to make sure the group is on track toward meeting its goals.
• Get to know your group members. Connect with group members to learn more about their special skills, perspectives, and approaches to their work. Find out what they know and how you can help them have a greater impact on the group’s goals.
• Create consensus. Work together to define the responsibilities of each member of the group and decide on group norms (how you will show up when you work together). This will ensure consistency and prevent conflicts before they start.
• Celebrate. Find reasons to celebrate. Make your group work fun and rewarding.
Here are some suggestions for activities that may be modified to fit your context and the students with whom you are working.
• Book introduction. Find a book to read with students that has a character who demonstrates the attribute “motivating” or who would have benefitted from being more motivating, and have students discuss or journal about the character’s behavior (see the Suggested Books section of this chapter for books that could be used for this activity).
• Motivating – Group Self-Assessment. Have students work with their group or team to assess their team using the Motivating – Group Self-Assessment (p. 150).
• Motivating reflection. Ask students to think of a time someone influenced them to do something that ended up being very good for them even though it was not something they wanted to do at first. Ask them to reflect upon these questions: How did this person change your mind? What did this experience teach you about how you are personally motivated? Ask students to share these ideas with a partner or in groups of three.
• Motivating interview. Ask students to think about someone they respect because of their ability to get others to work together toward a goal. Have them set up a time to interview this person and collect information about how they motivate others. Some questions they might use: Have you always wanted to do the kind of work you do now? What keeps you interested in the work that you do? How do you motivate others to achieve goals? Ask students to make a video or write a short biography of this person, focusing on how they motivate others.
Motivating – Group Self-Assessment
Have you been inspired when witnessing a sports team win a championship or a theatre group put on an amazing production? In these situations, individual players become part of a greater whole that amplifies their individual contributions. Great teams and groups cultivate a culture that encourages coaching each other, and they do not miss opportunities to get better. Rate your group on each of the following characteristics of successful groups from 1 (nonexistent) to 7 (always present). Add any additional characteristics that you think are important and are missing from this list.
CHARACTERISTIC OF SUCCESSFUL GROUPS |
YOUR GROUP SCORE |
Unified vision and purpose |
|
Willingness to adapt |
|
Love of learning and development |
|
Ability to have fun while remaining focused on goals |
|
Passionate about collaboration and improvement |
|
Regular communication |
|
Resilience (ability to bounce back from setbacks) |
|
Celebrating success and learning from mistakes |
|
Prioritize team or group outcomes |
|
Discuss the following with your team or group:
• In which two or three characteristics is our team/group the strongest?
• On which characteristics did our team score the lowest?
• What can we do better that will help us to be a more successful team?
• What can each person do individually to support our improvements?
Based on your discussion, create a “successful team/group” plan for the future that will keep group members motivated.
Journal Prompts
Choose one or more of the journal prompts appropriate for the age level you work with. Feel free to modify or extend the prompt. Give students time to reflect on the questions in a personal journal. To extend the exercise, ask students to share their reflections with a peer or small group.
• Think about a dream project you would like to lead others in achieving (for example, creating a school garden). Describe the project. How would you motivate a group of people to work together on this project?
• Think of a challenging group project that you were part of. Describe the challenges. What could you have done to help the group members work better together?
• Write about the benefits of group work versus individual work. How is self-motivation different from motivating others?
• Think about somebody (in real life or in the media) who is a motivating leader. What characteristics do they display? How do they motivate others?
• What strengths do you have in motivating a group of people to work together? What challenges do you face in motivating others? How could you improve your skills at becoming a more motivating leader?
Integrating the Attribute into Your Curriculum
Choose an activity from your planning guide or syllabus. After your students complete the activity, relate the activity back to the “motivating” attribute with a debriefing conversation. Below are suggested questions. Choose or modify questions based on your students’ developmental level, your activity, and your context.
This debrief can take the form of a full-group discussion. You might consider giving students time to reflect on their answers with partners or in small groups before asking them to share responses with the larger group. Alternatively, you may decide to ask students to work in small groups to share their responses on flip charts, and then have a gallery walk where students walk around the room and read what other students have written, potentially adding their own comments or thoughts.
• How did the activity help you understand the attribute “motivating”?
• How did you work on being motivating during this activity?
• How did other students demonstrate being motivating during the activity?
• What does it mean to be motivating?
• Why is it important to be motivating?
• How can being motivating make you a better leader?
• How can a lack of being motivating impact leadership?
• How can you work on becoming more motivating?
• What are some ways you could practice being motivating moving forward?
• How will you demonstrate being motivating in your interactions with others?
• What impact can increasing your ability to be motivating have on you?
• Identify a person, past or present, who demonstrates being motivating. What specific actions demonstrate this person being motivating?
• Identify a book character who demonstrates being motivating. What specific actions of this character demonstrate being motivating?
Questions to Assess Understanding
Consider giving the following questions to students to determine if you need to spend more time explaining this attribute.
• What does it mean to be motivating? Give an example of someone you know who is a motivating leader. How does this person demonstrate being motivating?
• What are three things you are going to work on in order to become a more motivating leader?
Suggested Books to Introduce “Motivating”
The books listed below can be used to deepen younger students’ understanding of the “motivating” attribute.
• A Whistle for Willie by E. J. Keats
• Book Uncle and Me by U. Krishnaswami & J. Swaney
• Brave Irene by W. Steig
• Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by D. Cronin & B. Lewin
• How to Catch a Star by O. Jeffers
• I am Martin Luther King Jr. by B. Meltzer & C. Eliopoulos
• Swimmy by L. Lionni
Additional Resources
This section provides additional places to look for help and advice to develop your personal knowledge, as an adult, about this attribute.
Godin, S. (2008). Tribes: We need you to lead us. New York, NY: Portfolio.
Kanaga, K., & Browning, H. (2003). Maintaining team performance. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
Kanaga, K., & Kossler, M.E. (2001). How to form a team: Five keys to high performance. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
Kanaga, K., & Prestridge, S. (2002). How to launch a team: Start right for success. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
Klann, G. (2004). Building your team’s morale, pride, and spirit. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
Kossler, M. E., & Kanaga, K. (2001). Do you really need a team? Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
Lindoerfer, D. (2008). Raising sensitive issues in a team. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.
Runde, C.E., & Flanagan, T.A. (2008). Building conflict competent teams. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Sinek, S. (2014). Leaders eat last: Why some teams pull together and others don’t. New York, NY: Penguin.
Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. New York, NY: Portfolio.
Scharlatt, H. & Smith, R. (2011). Influence: gaining commitment, getting results (2nd ed.). Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.