Do You Have the Motivation to Develop Your Leadership?

Continuous learning of leadership is not easy.

We have already discussed different motivations to be a leader. Two of my friends/colleagues, Becky Reichard and Stefanie Johnson,4 introduced the idea that a person possesses motivation to develop as a leader, which is an individual’s desire to engage in leader development efforts. In other words, some leaders don’t want to engage in continuous learning — they already believe they know it all (or know enough), or they don’t have the motivation to develop further.

Hopefully, you are reading this book because you have the motivation to develop as a leader.

Here are some items from a Motivation to Develop scale that indicate that you are motivated to develop your leadership.

1. The reason that I will continue to broaden my leadership skills is because it’s interesting to learn more about the nature of leadership.

2. I am willing to put in the effort needed to become a better leader.

3. I will participate actively in leader self-development because learning to lead well is an important part of my career.

4. The reason that I will continue to broaden my leadership skills is because it’s a challenge to really understand how to solve leadership problems.

5. I will participate actively in leader self-development because I feel like it’s a good way to improve my skills and my understanding of leadership.

For Development: Consider the ways you are motivated to develop as a leader. How can you become better motivated to develop? Perhaps you will need to set up a self-reward system. In many cases, having a partner who is also interested in leader development will help you to use the “buddy system” to motivate each other and check on progress.