MOTIVATIONAL PLAN

LDR 531
March 20, 2012

MOTIVATIONAL PLAN

When leaders show a positive attitude about a mission or project, workers show an
increased desire to perform and reach the goal. The challenge comes when a project has a long
duration of time to complete. For example, a team leader has a year to complete a project and she
needs ensure each member of the team contributes to help complete it. She has given the team
timelines and performance guidelines that need to be met, but the fact this project will last an
entire year has the team discouraged. Removing the teams discouragement is the first task for
the team leader. Next is to increase the teams motivation, job satisfaction, and performance
necessary to complete the long-term project. To accomplish this, the team leader must evaluate
motivational theories and strategies and develop an effective motivational plan.
Long-term projects require organization and dedication, which is a challenge especially
when a leader has to motivate a discouraged team. Team members along with the team leader
feel the pressure of working a project that seems to have no end because a year is a long time.
The team leader realizes that the teams success depends on the teams commitment to this
project and the organization. She realizes establishing a positive relationship with the team will
improve their motivation but strong leadership will ensure the job gets done. She must empower
her team by highlighting the significance of the project. Recognizing their different attitudes,
emotions, and personalities help to understand them on a personal level and assess their strengths
and weaknesses. The team leader must maintain her motivation and control to motivate her team
and produce results. Team members are more likely to give their full attention to the project
when they understand the purpose and their role.
The team leaders motivational plan starts with the two-factor theory proposed by
psychologist Frederick Herzberg (Robbins & Judge, 2011). The teams response to the duration
of the project suggests there are intrinsic factors affecting their motivation like the feeling the

MOTIVATIONAL PLAN

project is a waste of their time and energy (Robbins & Judge, 2011). Conducting a meeting with
her team began the process of accessing their discouragement and increasing their morale.
During the meeting the team leader outlined the purpose of the project, the need to complete it
and the importance of their participation. She applied McClellands theory of needs realizing the
team was lacking the need to achieve. She began to break down the project into 12 phases with a
completion time for each phase. This would help remove the teams discouragement by focusing
on completing phases over weeks and months instead of an entire year. She wrote a list of tasks
for each phase on the meeting room board and applied the expectancy theory after a thorough
explanation of the tasks each team member selected. Expectancy theory focuses on individual
effort, individual performance, organizational rewards, and personal goals (Robbins & Judge,
2011). The team leader wants to ensure each individual in the team understand his or her role and
responsibilities. Once they selected their tasks she solicited their input on completion timelines
for the tasks and conducted monthly review meetings to track progress and eliminate
procrastination (Robbins & Judge, 2011). She wanted to draw out their willingness, ownership,
and control by using the self-determination theory. The team leader required the team to
complete certain tasks individually as well as collectively to help the team achieve competence
and develop positive connections with each other.
During the monthly review meetings the team leader applied the goal-setting theory by
providing feedback (Robbins & Judge, 2011). Goals need to be both specific and have a level of
difficulty to challenge the team individually (Motivation in Todays Workplace, 2010). She
realized the team will do better when given feedback (in the form of counseling) on how well
they are progressing toward their goals because it identifies discrepancies between what they
have done and what they want to do. To increase their motivation she encouraged self-generating

MOTIVATIONAL PLAN

feedback, which is a more powerful motivator than externally generated feedback. It provides an
opportunity for them to evaluate their own accomplishments and helps the team leader evaluate
the team members job satisfaction. Also during the monthly review meeting openly
acknowledged team members who completed their tasks exceptionally and ahead of schedule.
She planned to have management recognize her teams efforts at the project completion by
recommended a variable-pay program for rewarding individual employees with bonuses, profit
sharing, merit-based pay, and employee stock ownership as an incentive for contributions to the
organization (Robbins & Judge, 2011).
People are the most dynamic force in the workplace. A leader must demonstrate an
ability to lead, motivate, and problem while dealing with her personnels attitudes, personalities,
performance, job satisfaction, and individual values. The team leaders approach to the situation
was empowering leadership by highlighting the significance of the work, providing participation
in the decision-making, conveying confidence that performance will be high, and removing
bureaucratic constraints (Zhang & Bartol, 2010). The leaders motivational plan uses various
motivational theories and strategies to motivate her team to perform at his or her highest
potential. There is a belief that "motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them
to do because they want to do it" (Dwight Eisenhower). This is essential in workers feeling and
taking ownership in the things they do on the job. Motivational theories employed in the
motivational plan were the two-factor theory, McClellands theory of need, expectancy theory,
self-determination theory, goal-setting theory, cognitive evaluation, and reinforcement.

MOTIVATIONAL PLAN

5
References

Motivation in Today's Workplace: The Link to Performance. (2010). HRMagazine. (page 55(7)).
Judge, T., Robbins, S. (2011). Organizational Behavior: Motivation concepts. (Fourteenth Edition
Ed.).
Judge, T., Robbins, S. (2011). Organizational Behavior: Motivation: From concepts to
applications. (Fourteenth Edition Ed.).
Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in Organizations: Introduction: The nature of leadership. (Seventh
Edition Ed.).
Zhang, X., Bartol, K. M. (2010). Linking Empowering Leadership and Employee Creativity: The
influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process
engagement. Academy Of Management Journal, 53(1), 107-128.