The leader as motivator: coach and self‐esteem builder

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to determine what motivating strategies followers (comprised of low and high need achievers) view as most necessary from their leaders.

Design/methodology/approach

Three survey instruments were administered to 297 working professionals taking business courses offered through a college of management at a private university. Correlational research methodology was used to investigate the relationships between self‐attributed needs for achievement on demographic, interest and effort variables. Discriminant analysis was used to determine if motivational and profile characteristics could be used to predict low and high self‐attributed need achievers.

Findings

The major findings of this study centered on the leader's ability to inspire followers by using a variety of interesting coaching techniques and by building their self‐esteem regardless of achievement orientation.

Research limitations/implications

The results of this study are tentative and need to be reproduced with a larger, more comprehensive sample of a broader population.

Practical implications

This research offers leaders practical techniques for effectively utilizing motivating strategies which may increase their followers' interest and effort in a performance situation.

Originality/value

The findings of this study indicating that interest and effort can be used to improve motivation suggest that followers may exhibit significant gains in continuing motivation when relevant techniques are applied by the leader.

Citation

Castelli, P.A. (2008), "The leader as motivator: coach and self‐esteem builder", Management Research News, Vol. 31 No. 10, pp. 717-728. https://doi.org/10.1108/01409170810908471