Tools for Cooperation
Leaders can 
motivate employees to achieve departmental or corporate goals in various ways. What distinguishes great leaders is the ability to decipher which tools will be the most effective. Choosing the most effective way to motivate employees involves assessing the organization values and principles.
The mission of leaders is to get personnel to work together in a systematic fashion. Leaders guide the talents of key personnel to yield a desired result. It’s an intricate job, and it becomes more complicated as leaders implement change and/or strive to meet organizational goals. Even the most talented leaders can misstep in their efforts to inspire people to collaborate on achieving corporate goals or successful change initiatives. Cooperation tools can be instrumental in leadership and management. The tools of cooperation are power, management, leadership, and culture.
1. Power
Power can be utilized in the form of evaluations and restructuring. A good example of power restructuring is the current CEO of JP Morgan slashing wages as he felt executives were grossly overpaid. Power tools can be very effective in situations of disagreement.
2. Management
Management tools include training, evaluations and incentives. An incentive for satisfactory evaluations increases motivation. Training also increases motivation and morale as the personnel feel they have a development plan. In addition, training can provide better efficiencies from personnel. A good example is professional development initiatives such as seminars.
3. Leadership
Leadership by charismatic people can provide the motivation needed to succeed. Leaders have the ability to create a shared vision between what the organization requires and what employees would like out of the work experience. They are able to get people to work together by resolving conflicts and finding a middle ground. A good example of leadership is motivating employees during change initiatives.
4. Culture
The two characteristics which make culture strong consist of great levels of agreement between employees and a strong passion about values. If both of these characteristics are high, the culture is strong. A good example of culture is having agreement and passion toward achieving the goals set forth.
It is common to have an organization where the employees agree but are not passionate about achieving the goals set forth. Therefore, if both characteristics are not present the culture can be fragile. It is interesting that newly formed organizations have a better success rate creating a strong culture than an organization adopting a new model. This may have a strong relationship with the agreement variable. While agreement between employees may be strong, there is always apprehension when trying to adapt to change. A strong passion to meet goals could ease the apprehension of change or commitment to achieve organizational goals. Organizations that hired based on a culture fit, were more successful sustaining a strong culture.
Passionate professors enjoy more of a commitment from students
Passion plays a vital role in cultural. Passion is seen as a vehicle to support or undermine a strong culture. Organizations which are passionate enjoy a strong commitment, pleasure, new ideas, trustworthiness, team work and more. These characteristics are essential to a strong cultural and all stem from being passionate. Passion needs to be evident in management for the employees to get on board and commit to the direction the organization is heading or foresees. I have seen firsthand how passion is contagious in both the workplace and in academics. Passionate professors enjoy more of a commitment from students. It is in this regard that I believe the passion must come from the top down. Leaders can inspire employees to reach goals or to implement change by utilizing power, management, leadership, and culture as cooperation tools.
References:
- Clayton M. Christensen, Matt Marx, and Howard H. Stevenson. "Cooperation Tools." Harvard Business Review, http://hbr.org/2006/10/the-tools-of-cooperation-and-change/ar/1
- WSU Library -- http://www.lib.wayne.edu/ -- As students at Wayne State University, you are encouraged to electronically visit the library and read the article in its entirety.
(All accolades and credit for this tremendous blog post are to Ben Kamen who is the author and creator of this post.)
