Even the leader needs a boost -especially now.

• Author: Heffes, Ellen M.
• Position: Leadership

Strong, decisive leaders are highly valued in the corporate world, in personal interactions and in politics, as well. Many people aspire to possess the traits of strong leaders, which can include exhibiting an aura of self-direction and self-assuredness.

That may well be true. But occasionally and particularly following the difficult economy and business environment of the past few years, even the most self-motivated executives may be questioning their individual resolve. Sometimes even the leader needs a boost.

To provide this boost, we asked self-motivation guru Denis Waitley to step in. Waitley is a highly respected expert and author in the field of self-development who has worked with and counseled Fortune 500 leaders, Olympic gold medalists, Super Bowl champions, astronauts and prisoners of war. He says today's executives are "concerned about remaining competitive, about their job and about their company not being downsized."

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So how are they kept motivated? Waitley says to start by understanding the basics. Motivation, he says, is defined as "a motive by action." It's an inner force that compels behavior. In other words, "real motivation drives you from within; it compels you to do something." And, he cautions, there are good motivators and bad motivators--but they're the drivers.

In Waitley's many years of research, backed up with research by Harvard and other top universities, he finds that motivation falls into two categories: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsically motivated people do things because they just love to do them; the involvement is its own reward, like teaching or being a scientist.

Extrinsic motivation, the more popular model, refers to the force that pulls one forward by the power of some external benefit or a tangible reward. For example, if I do this I'll get this--a kind of a quid pro quo.

He gives as an example professional athletes. Once they leave college, many are driven by a big paycheck--"that's why the free agency rule drives them to go to other teams rather than stay with the one they were with."

This extrinsic motivation, Waitley says, is very strong, "lust look at people who go to a job every day that they don't like." They may hate their work, but they still "punch the proverbial clock" every day, he says, because of the external force of getting paid.

So when it comes to "real" motivation, Waitley says, "You can't intrinsically motivate greatness. If you want to be the best at anything you really have to light the fire within yourself."

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