Motivational leadership refers to someone leading others by motivating them to strive for certain goals rather than simply act on orders. The leader tries to create a safe and trusting environment, and ensure the organization is positioned for success in its domain—for example, a company in the marketplace. Some interpret motivational leadership principles as requiring that a leader establish strong ethics, clear vision, definable values, authentic communication, and be genuinely motivated to promote collaboration and a positive working environment.
Honesty: A leader must be honest to maintain trust from team members.
Ability to delegate: Leaders must identify strengths of team members so they can maximize group potential.
Communication: A leader must effectively communicate goals to team members.
Sense of humour: Leaders must help maintain organizational morale because negative attitudes spread.
Confidence: A leader must show confidence in all situations because others feed on this confidence and perform more productively.
Commitment: A leader must show commitment by doing work the others are doing to demonstrate a commitment to the team and the mission, and willingness to do “dirty work” if necessary.
Positive attitude: Leaders must demonstrate a positive attitude to the group happy and maximize productivity.
Creativity: A leader must be creative to see situations in multiple ways and solve problems more effectively.
Optimism: A leader constantly must be optimistic and have a positive vision because team members feed on that optimism.
Vision: Leaders must have a vision, because followers may not.
Integrity: To have integrity means that one is truthful with strong morals.
Ability to inspire: A leader must not only have the ability to inspire themselves but inspire others in the group to get the necessary production when the leader needs it. A leader must have the ability to inspire in every situation.
Courage: Leaders must be willing to take risks and push out of comfort zones to reach goals.
Realism: Seeing the world as it really is, not as it "should" be. One should be realistic when assessing a situation, so as to not sound irrational.
Responsibility: Leaders must take responsibility for their actions, especially if he/she made a mistake.
Motivational leadership in sports
Vince Lombardi: Vince Lombardi was a coach in the National Football League for the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers. After his five year tenure with the Giants, he signed a five year deal to coach the Packers. Lombardi transformed the Packers from a team that had a record of 1-10-1 in 1958, the previous year, to 7-5 in 1959, Lombardi’s first year. Lombardi went on to lead the Packers to three straight and five total league championships. Lombardi’s success was based on how he coached. Lombardi demanded excellence and told players that once they understood themselves, they could add to that and build character, integrity, and dedication. Lombardi had a violent temper, but that only was illustrated due to the passion he had for the game. Lombardi promised that if his players obeyed his rules, they would be winners. Lombardi certainly held up his end of the bargain, winning two Super Bowls with the Packers.
Herb Brooks: Coach Brooks is an iconic figure for his motivational speech before the 1980 championship game in which USA played a championship hockey game against the Soviets. The Soviets were heavy favorites to win and Brooks, in his speech, said that the Soviets would probably win 9 times out of 10. Brooks motivated his team to go out and play as if it was their night, as if they deserved this game. If not for the brilliant and motivating speech by Brooks, who knows if team USA would have defeated the Soviets in 1980.
