Importance of Goals in Motivation and Leadership - Essay Example

Importance of goals in motivation and leadership Student’s Name University Affiliation Introduction According to Latham (2007, p 267-268) a goal is a control mechanism used for monitoring, evaluating and realigning individual, group or organizational behavior. A goal is an instrumental tool because it grants people a sense of accomplishment. Goal setting is an exceptional tool for aligning one’s thoughts towards future expectations and motivation via converting a vision into reality. The process of goal setting greatly influences individual, group and organizational behavior because it has a direct influence on actions. Ideally, a goal setting process involves establishing a vision and creating strategies that would be applied to bring the vision into reality. Without having pre-set goals, the concept of leadership will never be fruitful because goals add meaning to a leader’s undertakings. Goals form the epicenter of motivation and leadership because of its association with power of purpose. Few will contend the fact that having a clear set of goals, either at personal, group or organizational levels, is a crucial foundation for success. Goals play a key role in enhancing both motivation and leadership via measuring progress, concentrating energies and actions in desirable direction, and achieving purposeful results. Locke & Latham (2002, p 705), in their theory of goal setting established a clear linkage between goal setting and motivation. In Locke’s pioneering work, he discovered that there was a close link between setting goals, using appropriate feedback, and achieving employee motivation. Latham cemented the theory by analyzing the influence of goal setting in the workplace. His study revealed that there was an unquestionable connection between goal setting and workplace performance. Other studies conducted by Leithwood & Reihl (2003, p 45) proved that goal setting, that is, establishing a vision and setting direction, was a core practice for successful leadership. According to them, the two elements, which define goal setting lie at the heart of leadership. Main body Importance of goals in motivation and leadership from an individual perspective From an individual perspective, goals also play an instrumental role in motivation and leadership. Leadership at individual level can be attested by the presence of proactive and self-driven tendencies aimed achieving personal goals and aspirations. Having personal goals pushes an individual to design strategic operation necessary for achieving personal satisfaction. Bandura (1997, p 236) suggested that goal setting influences one’s level of motivation, including beliefs concerning capability of learning or degree at which one is able to perform and undertake self-evaluation. As noted by Robinson et al (2009, p 405), goal setting creates a certain form of discrepancy that is presented as a constructive discontent. The form of constructive discontent will transform into motivation through persistent, goal-oriented behavior. Individual goals focus one’s attention towards areas of interest, and ultimately result in more resolute and sustained effort necessary for achieving the best. Latham & Locke (2006, p. 526) coined the importance of differentiating between personal and assigned goals. According to them, personal goals are associated with an individual’s sense of efficacy. It is the sense of self-efficacy that dictates the direction of personal action. People that have high levels of self-efficacy tend to assign themselves challenging goals. Having high levels of self-efficacy, together with the capacity to produce salubrious result when handling challenging goals, indicate confidence in personal leadership qualities. Tackling challenging goals on regular basis play a useful part in improving the level of personal efficacy. The concept of efficacy is useful in comprehending the connection existing between goals, motivation, and leadership at individual level. Ideally, efficacy reflects the belief held by someone concerning his or her perceived ability. The belief attached to efficacy determines choice of activities to engage in and coping abilities required during implementation of personal strategies. Efficacy also measures how much an individual will be willing to exert effort and duration of tenacity in the face of struggle or failure (Louis et al 2010, p. 156). Goal-directed action is one of the most notable premises of the goal setting theory that form a useful part of human life. Survival, happiness, satisfaction, and other desirable facets of life can never be attained without a goal-directed action. The reason is that a goal-directed action leads to personal engagement in life. Goal-directed action operates to bring out motivation and personal leadership via concentration in certain undertakings and in the process assist an individual to be disengaged from ‘noise’ associated with everyday life. A goal-oriented life is cushioned from negative emotions, such as boredom, anxiety, fear, and sadness that cause mental psychic entropy. Negative emotions destroy motivation and paralyses leadership skills by inhibiting effective use of attention to deal with external tasks. On the contrary, positive emotions, such as alertness, strength, and happiness assist in developing motivation and leadership because they condition the mind to direct attention towards useful tasks. Having good goals in an environment characterized by positive emotions means that one will operate under voluntary basis. At some point, people who lack good goals in life my face external pressure to perform certain activities deemed useful to their lives. In most cases, such individuals are considered failures because their goals are not created based on acceptable group, community, or societal standards. People who are under obligatory pressure to undertake certain activities feel unhappy or worse. Only individuals who can exercise voluntary action can harness the power of goal setting in generation of desired results. Goal setting at personal level awaken human dynamics where interplay of motivation and leadership can be manifest. Purposeful goals set at individual level achieve a close connection with both motivation and leadership because of its influence on human behavior. Importance of goals in motivation and leadership from a work group perspective In group-work, the importance of goals in motivation and leadership is more pronounced. Goals, leadership, and motivation are inseparable elements of group and organizational management. When managing a team the relationship between group leaders and subjects, together with relationship between subjects is governed by shared goals. Shared goals are responsible for aligning individual action towards unified result. A group can only function if individuals are willing to forsake their personal interests for the sake of achieving mutually beneficial goals. Having clear-cut goals give rise to decision making where a group adopts a vision, develop strategies, create an operation plan, and allocate resources. Implementation of group goals requires interplay of various leadership skills. Implementation of group goals gives rise to effective leadership and motivation (Kark, 2007, p 502). From the perspective of group behavior, motivation could be viewed as a means through which group members are encouraged to pool their resources and capabilities for the sake of achieving unified result. Motivation is a group-management exercise operating in a wide scope. Group motivation may encompass improved working conditions, fringe benefits, increased salaries, training, coaching, and mentorship, among others. It should be well known that the foremost aim of motivation is to get group members to participate actively in achieving pre-set goals. In group-dynamics, goal attainment is a function involved in guiding behavior of members towards achieving certain targets. For any form of group to succeed, the element of group maintenance must be put in place. Group maintenance will ensure that cohesion and coordination is created and sustained via employment of morale and leadership qualities. Maintenance of cohesion and morale is commonly referred to as a socio-emotional function of group management (Backhaus, 2012, p 147). In group-management, motivation and leadership operate simultaneously to ensure that goals are achieved. Leadership is a quality concerned with examining work to ascertain that effort is not directed where there are no results. In other words, leadership is a special skill used to establish priorities and channel resources towards achieving worthwhile goals. Leadership is vital during implementation of goals because it will assist in foreseeing mistakes and restructuring strategies to avert a crisis. Postmodern principles of group and organizational management indicate that group members have to play a part in decision-making through provision of idea, views, and opinions (Miluwi, 2013, p 23). When group members get a chance to participate in decision-making, it acts as a strong motivating tool, which also helps to reduce administrative challenges. Since a goal-oriented group action leads to establishing a vision and desired direction, leadership and motivation must be applied. The rationale behind the statement is that group leaders will never impose goals on their followers. Successful group leadership relies on core practices that provide direction and positive influence to followers. Group leaders must find ways of motivating their followers to ensure that all functions and activities are conducted smoothly. Efficacious leaders are persons who are able to mobilize followers and work with different kinds of people to achieve shared goals. Group leaders are responsible for formulating goals that would establish conditions for guiding others to be effective. By creating shared goals, encouraging consensus on the goals and high performance potentials, leaders will ensure that their group is effective. The relationship between pre-set goals and real outcomes is strongest when group members are committed towards achieving. The concepts of motivation and leadership ensure that goal commitment is achieved. Setting the goals merely create mechanics or framework for group operations. Nevertheless, inclusion of motivation and good leadership leads to emergence of dynamics or necessary activities and functions. Motivation and good leadership play a key role of influencing members’ beliefs, thus, giving birth to a group culture. When a group culture is created based on pre-set goals, and then goal commitment emerges automatically. Importance of goals in motivation and leadership from an organizational perspective From an organizational perspective, goals emanate from vision and mission. This is the level at which management becomes complex because numerous actors are taken into consideration before making final decisions. Complexity of goals is also pronounced because of increased scope of operation. In organizational level, achievement of goals becomes an uphill task that calls for adequate knowledge and skills (Barbuto, 2005, p 27). Based on the systems theory, an organization is an open system where various components repeatedly interact with their environment. The organizational system is created based on vision, mission, and goals. To bring the goals, vision and mission into reality, organizational structure must be put in place. Organizational structure is a sketch of positioning equipment, financial resources, and human resources to aid in achieving desired goals. In the modern dynamic and technological environment, creating a good organizational structure is not enough for achieving goals. Capacities and skills of all human resources have to be harnessed in a bid to overcome various challenges. Motivation and leadership are the leading tools used for harnessing the power of human resources in organizations today. Motivation and leadership define the relationship existing between organizational structure and its environment. In the current business environment, satisfying employee needs is the foremost phase towards achieving organizational goals. There must be interplay of motivation and leadership to ensure that favorable organizational culture and behavior is achieved. Good organizational structure, coupled with good motivational and leadership strategies will yield satisfaction, high performance, and good turnover. In any organization, the chief function of leadership is to align and prop motivation of groups and individuals. An organization can have many people and groups, meaning that selecting constructive motivating factors is a huge challenge. However, the problem can be handled is good leadership qualities are applied. Good leadership skills will ensure that an open work environment is established where everyone feels respected and free to contribute ideas, views, and expressions (Fritzsche, 2012, p 4). Under such statuses, it can be easier to discover what motivates every individual. Good leadership and constructive motivation result in effective coaching, effective delegation, timely feedback, promotions, creation of opportunities for learning, recognition of individual effort, and creation of opportunities for socialization among others. All the factors have been proven instrumental in achieving both short-term and long-term organizational goals. Successful alignment of human behavior with organizational functions and activities is the key for unlocking the potential envisioned in goals. Influencing organizational behavior requires the role of leadership. Every manager, supervisor, group leader must discover effective ways of motivating followers to encourage higher productivity, better job satisfaction, and satisfaction of organizational goals. The linkage existing between goals, leadership, and motivation in organizations is inalienable because of five major processes that take place. These fundamental processes include enhancing collaborative goal-setting, creating long-term goals for successful operation, achieving collective effort, monitoring performance, and effective allocation of resources to stimulate the process of goal achievement (Johns & Saks, 2011, p 201). Conclusion In conclusion, there is an unquestionable and important link existing between goals and leadership and motivation. The linkage exists in individual, group, and organizational goal setting. Research has proven that without elements of leadership and motivation, creation of goals may not pass through ideological phase. The motivation and leadership qualities would ensure creation of workable strategies and a force necessary for transformation of the vision into reality. The goal acts as the idea behind an undertaking. Leadership qualities are then employed to provide direction of operation within a pre-set structure. Finally, motivation is the unseen force that pushes individuals, groups, and organizations to pursue certain goals with the hope of gaining gratifying result. All the elements are indispensable in any undertaking that is expected to yield positive result. For that reason, therefore, the importance of goals in leadership and motivation has been proven to exist in both theoretical and practical sense. References Backhaus, K. (2012). Alternative Approaches to Understanding Motivation and Leadership. Organization Management Journal, 9(3), 147-147. Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman. Barbuto, J. E. (2005). Motivation And Transactional, Charismatic, And Transformational Leadership: A Test Of Antecedents. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 11(4), 26-40. Fritzsche, S. D. (2012). Motivation, Volunteerism, Leadership = Success. Plastic Surgical Nursing, 32(1), 4. Johns, G., & Saks, A. M. (2011). Organizational behavior: Understanding and managing life at work. Toronto: Pearson Canada. Kark, R. (2007). Motivation To Lead, Motivation To Follow: The Role Of The Self-Regulatory Focus In Leadership Processes.. Academy of Management Review, 32(2), 500-528. Latham, G. & Locke, L. (2006). 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