ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The main objective of this project is to gain an in depth knowledge about the importance of leader and his/her role in motivating employees. Leadership is "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal". Motivation is a goal-oriented characteristic that helps a person achieve his objectives. It pushes an individual to work hard at achieving his or her goals. An executive must have the right leadership traits to influence motivation. As a leader, one should keep an open perspective on human nature. Knowing different needs of subordinates will certainly make the decision-making process easier. METHODOLOGY: We will be providing a questionnaire to a particular sample selected among the employees and their team leader in Cognizant. The questionnaire will be analyzed on the basis of Grading Method. The response of the employees and the team leader in the questionnaire will provide us the data for analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of good leadership and its motivation towards the employees in the organization. FINDINGS: About the team leaders practices and policies that are driven in a particular team. How are they affecting companys productivity (high or low), employees absenteeism (high or low) & the work efficiency of employees. KEYWORDS: Leadership, motivation, employee, efficiency .

INTRODUCTION
Leadership and motivational qualities are excellent to have not only among management in a business, but among employees as well. Many individuals tend to have a propensity to be leaders, while some learn successful leadership behaviors and go on to be effective leaders. Leading is the ability to influence others in a group. Being a good leader takes understanding of what motivates others. Leaders want to influence things to continue or create change. Either way it takes a person with certain skills to do the task. In order to be a leader, it is important to understand what motivates the employees around you. It is necessary to discover the fundamental needs that employees, coworkers, and bosses have. All people have a need for a basic income and necessities. Additionally, they have a need for a deep social connection and friendships. People want to fit in somewhere and feel as if they belong. Another large category of human need is the need for growth and challenges. A worker lured to a job by high salary may find their job dissatisfying if they are unable to have friendships and connect with other people at work. It is much easier to lead and motivate if you understand what peoples undeniable needs are. There are a few qualities that seem to put people at the head of the pack as far as their ability to obtain leadership positions. Many leaders tend to be outgoing, brave, tall in stature, well-liked, articulate, and task oriented. By no means are these qualities always correct. Napoleon happened to be a very short man, and Abraham Lincoln has been described as being very introverted. There are countless factors that can make a person a good leader, but it depends on the group of people that they are leading. There is a common misconception that leaders are always outspoken, flamboyant people, and this just isnt the case. Less articulate individuals with other combinations of skills are quite successful as well. Leading is used to channel motivation into practical use. There are many factors that play into keeping employees motivated. A common factor in motivation is the type of work that the employee is doing.. However, it is also important to look at the fact that doing a job that is the same day in and day out can become quite boring. When employees are given a job with varied tasks and ability to grow they tend to stay more motivated. Sadly, many workers are underutilized and do not get challenged or the ability to show their creativity to its fullest potential. Many people are goal oriented once a leader shows where their efforts should be focused. They respond well to deadlines and planning. It is a good feeling to have a concrete goal to shoot for. Having the ability to achieve goals can be very personally satisfying. In organizations usually there may be specific planned goals. Attempts by many within an organization to achieve the same goal can also create stronger drive to be successful.

As a manager, it is important to make sure that the goals are reasonable. The effect of having a goal that is impossible to attain has reverse effects and can cause discouragement rapidly. When goals are eventually accomplished or milestones are reached, many people like to be able to get a reward or benefit. Some goals create personal satisfaction upon completion naturally such as learning, growth, and self-esteem. Additional rewards such as salary increases, bonuses, and celebrations are also good reminders that individuals are appreciated for what they are doing. Rewards work so well for some as motivating tools those workers will go out of their way to make sure they use and develop the kinds of things that are rewarded. This is also a double-edged sword because some rewarded activities will take effort away from non-reward areas.

Review of Literature
Effective leadership and motivation is crucial to an organizations success. There are several common characteristics that effective organizational leaders share. Without these characteristics, initiatives and change can fail. Leaders can take many different steps to help keep projects from failing. Leaders need to be self-aware of how their actions are perceived by those they manage (Moment, 2007). Employees will sometimes mirror the behavior of managers. Aghdaei (2008) talks about the philosophy of shadow of a leader, where the leader demonstrates the wanted behavior. Leaders should model hard work for employees (Weiss, 2000). Aghdaei (2008) states that when you repeatedly demonstrate meaningful, positive behavior, people are motivated. Leaders must have enthusiasm for their work so that it spreads to those whom they supervise. That involves leaders believing in the company in which they work. The ability to inspire loyalty and build relationships is a key component of leadership. To get the best out of workers, leaders need to be able to motivate them. Leaders should look to all of their employees for new ideas and solutions (Hesselbein, Goldsmith, & Somerville, 2002). Leaders should also cultivate, champion, and then support new ideas and provide an environment for the development and expression of the entrepreneurial spirit. Strategic planning is crucial to guide leadership (Choen, 2008). Leaders must make clear and specific goals and objectives, be able to communicate those, and make sure that the goals are measurable. Planning and having a strategy are important in order to make initiatives succeed. Managers have to move ideas and initiatives to executable steps that their team can implement (Maddock & Viton, 2008). A leader has to clearly communicate what is needed (Weiss, 2000). If the employee does not understand what to do, then the initiative is set up for failure. Leaders also need to know how to handle and address failure. Failure can be a learning experience and should not necessarily be punished. Also by punishing failure, employees may be more reluctant to suggest innovative ideas for fear of failure. Performance improvement in an organization can be accomplished in other ways as well. Having the right focus can lead to success. Leaders need to make sure the focus of initiatives is the end result and not be distracted toward developing recommendations, technology or partial solutions. Having a culture with employee buy-in is important Organizational culture should reflect results orientation, employee commitment to task and organizational commitment to coworkers. Motivation is the set of forces that cause people to behave in certain ways to raise the individual performance of the people in an organization. Individual performance is generally determined by three things: motivation, ability and the work environment. Among these three determinants motivation is the most important. Motivation plays a vital role to increase productivity, mobilization of work, proper utilization of human resources and proper coordination and combination of work.

Effectively motivating employees to achieve a desired outcome is one of the most important functions as a supervisor or manager. There is evidence to show organizations are facing challenges retaining employees due to limited opportunities for advancement and the current competitive labor market. It does not appear things will get any better in the future. The loss of employees represents a loss of skills, knowledge, and experiences and can create a significant economic impact and cost to corporations as well as impacting the needs of customers. Managers who can motivate employees assist the organization by improving employee retention and reinforcing positive behaviors

METHODOLOGY
We chose sample of three employees who are currently working for Cognizant Technology Solutions as team leaders for their particular teams as Our reason for choosing these employees was simple. To be eligible for this interview we had 2 requirements i).The interviewee should have an understanding of the corporate workplace i.e. some experience in the field. ii). He/She need to have a basic idea about leadership and motivation All 2 of our participants had these requirements. We decided to conduct a highly structured interview. We had prepared a set of questions that are used for taking interview from the selected sample of employees. Sample: Sample of our study consisted of 3 people currently working for Cognizant technology solutions.
All of them have more than 3 years of experience and were selected based on convenience sampling.

TRANSCRIPT
Participant 1 : T.Bhargav Sriharsha Program Analyst and Associate (Team leader) Cognizant Technology Solutions.
Questions My mission, objectives, and goals reflect my highest principles My people are committed to achieving the company's goals and objectives I have the skills and resources necessary to perform my tasks effectively. My people understand the benefits of working together in a unified direction. I listen carefully to my people and encourage them to express their opinions I resolve conflict as it occurs, and consider the best interests of all concerned I encourage initiative, involvement, and innovation from my coworkers I develop objectives and performance standards with my people I systematically evaluate the performance of my people. I motivate my people to do their best on the job Team accomplishment is more important to me than my own personal accomplishments. When involved in group projects, building team cohesiveness is important to me. When involved in group projects, my team members problems are my problems. When I delegate a task, I trust my people can do the job and do not interfere. I inform my people about changes, policies, and procedures that effect them. 3 3 4 4 3 3 4 4 3 4 4 4

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

Stronglydisagree Disagree Agree Stronglyagree 3 4 4

Participate 2 : Poornima sahasra Program Analyst and Associate Cognizant technology solutions (1)
Questions My mission, objectives, and goals reflect my highest principles My people are committed to achieving the company's goals and objectives I have the skills and resources necessary to perform my tasks effectively. My people understand the benefits of working together in a unified direction. I listen carefully to my people and encourage them to express their opinions I resolve conflict as it occurs, and consider the best interests of all concerned I encourage initiative, involvement, and innovation from my coworkers I develop objectives and performance standards with my people I systematically evaluate the performance of my people. I motivate my people to do their best on the job Team accomplishment is more important to me than my own personal accomplishments. When involved in group projects, building team cohesiveness is important to me. When involved in group projects, my team members problems are my problems. When I delegate a task, I trust my people can do the job and do not interfere. I inform my people about changes, policies, and procedures that effect them. 3 3 4 4 3 3 4 4 3 3 3 4 3 4

(2)

(3)

(4)

Stronglydisagree Disagree Agree Stronglyagree 4

Participate 3 : D.Radhey Technical analyst Cognizant Technology Solutions

Questions My mission, objectives, and goals reflect my highest principles My people are committed to achieving the company's goals and objectives I have the skills and resources necessary to perform my tasks effectively. My people understand the benefits of working together in a unified direction. I listen carefully to my people and encourage them to express their opinions I resolve conflict as it occurs, and consider the best interests of all concerned I encourage initiative, involvement, and innovation from my coworkers I develop objectives and performance standards with my people I systematically evaluate the performance of my people. I motivate my people to do their best on the job Team accomplishment is more important to me than my own personal accomplishments. When involved in group projects, building team cohesiveness is important to me. When involved in group projects, my team members problems are my problems. When I delegate a task, I trust my people can do the job and do not interfere. I inform my people about changes, policies, and procedures that effect them. 3 3 4 4 3 3 4 4 3 3 3 4 3 4 Stronglydisagree Disagree Agree Stronglyagree 4

ANALYSIS
We used qualitative and quantitative methods for analyzing the data, but we mainly focused on quantitative research method ,for that we used grading system, that is 15-29 Grade c-This shows a low motivation to lead 30-44 Grade B-This shows some uncertainty to show the motivation to lead 45-60 Grade A this implies a strong motivation to lead According to the answers that are given to the questionnaire by Bhargav, he scored 54 marks that is B grade which means that the leader or employee has strong motivation to lead. Whereas according to the data taken from Poornima even she was somewhere very nearer to participant 1,she scored 53 marks that is grade A the analysis tells that the leader has strong motivation to lead. While coming to participant 3,Radhey even he was very nearer to the other two participants ,he scored 52 marks that is grade A the analysis says that the leader has strong motivation to lead. Therefore all the three participants were like so friendly and they were so free to participate and scored almost equal marks. But during the interview we did not intimate them about the grading system because the system is only just for analyzing and for just to know about what are the skills that are required for an employee in an organization to become a perfect leader. According to the data analysis all the three participants have the skills of transactional leadership which are preferable in order to become a successful leader but not transformational leadership. After making analysis of the collected data we came to know the reason behind the success of the organization, one is employees dedication towards the success and other is the healthy work environment

APPENDIX
1. Do you motivate your employees to do their best on their job? 2. In what way you generally motivate your employee? 3. Do you think team accomplishment is more important to you than your own personal accomplishments? 4. Do you really agree with the truth that your people are committed to achieving the company's goals and objectives? 5. Do you encourage initiative, involvement, and innovation from your coworkers? 6. Do you really think that you have the skills and resources necessary to perform your tasks effectively? 7. You ever resolved conflicts among the people in your team? 8. Will you inform your people about changes, policies, and procedures that effect them? 9. When you delegate a task, will you trust your people can do the job and do not interfere? 10. According to you how effective the leader should be in order to motivate his people.

REFERANCES
Choen, W. (2008, August). Effective Leadership. Leadership Excellence, 25 (8). Hesselbein, F., Goldsmith, M., & Somerville, I. (2002). Leading For Innovation and Organizing for Results. Weiss, W. (2000, August). Effective Leadership: What are the Requisites? Supervision, 61(8). Goleman, D. (1998). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review, November December. Ps 93-102.