Essay

Essay

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Essay

Introduction

Motivation is an important factor to guarantee success and personal growth. If a person is motivated, they will be more able to achieve their goals in their personal and professional lives. Along with a higher level of motivation, a person should have strong communication and negotiation skills, so that he or she can excel in life. These qualities are especially very significant when you want to become a successful and popular leader.

Discussion

Motivation is the driving force that makes a person move; it is the fire or passion that compels an individual to take and action to satisfy their needs (Reeve, 2014). These needs could be physical like food water, shelter etc. or psychological like the need for safety and security. Meslow has efficiently elaborated these needs in a hierarchical structure, which is known as Maslow's Need Hierarchy or Maslow's Pyramid. According to that, a person is most motivated by their physical needs and then the psychological needs. Further come the sense of belongingness, self-esteem needs and the need for self-actualisation. Another theory to describe motivation in the individuals, Expectancy Theory, proposes that the behaviour of any individual depends on the conscious choices made by that individual in order to maximise pleasure and minimise pain. The Expectancy Theory was proposed by Victor H. Vroom in 1964 and includes three components: expectancy, instrumentality and valence. Another researcher Edwin Locke studied the reasons behind the motivation of an individual and put forward the Goal Setting Theory of Motivation in 1960s base on his observations. This theory explains that an individual gets motivated through goal setting and task performance. A person would be able to perform better if the goals set for them are specific and challenging accompanied with an appropriate feedback (Miner, 2015).

In order to excel in both personal and professional life, certain other traits in personality are also essential. These factors include the proper use of influence, power and politics, communication skills, negotiation expertise and the competence to resolve conflicts. A person should have the dexterity to properly avail his or her power and influence so that it can prove to be advantageous for the person as well as the organisation they are working for. Influence refers to the outcome of an effort to bring a change in someone's behaviour, whereas power describes how that influence is practised. Politics is somewhat a different practice as compared to these both. It refers to the amount of self-interest in something, specifically an organisation to protect or further promote it. In addition to that, a person should possess excellent problem-solving and negotiation skills, so that they handle any sort of issues quickly. Conflict resolving ability is a competence that gets you through any tough situation and negotiation skills assist a person in getting more and more out of a deal. Both these qualities garner great respect and popularity for a person and are mandatory if a person wants to become a good and successful leader.

One of the most important set of abilities that a person must possess, whether they are working in any profession or a homemaker is excellent communication skills. Communication skills are very important as they ensure the proper flow of ideas from one person to the audience, which may be a single person or a hall full of people. Having excellent communication skills allow you to correctly understand the audience and their needs, so you design your message according to that. People feel more connected to a person who can communicate in a way and give more respect to them (Silverman, Kurtz, & Draper, 2016). A person showing the traits of friendliness, empathy and openness to communication becomes popular immediately among the people in his or her social circle or generally, and people like to share their thoughts and problems with them, as compared to other people, who do not possess effective communication skills. By having excellent communication skills, a person can easily give meaning and direction to their messages and convey them to the receivers in an elaborated manner.

Conclusion

Shortly, it can be seen that motivation, grip over influence, power and politics, excellent communication skills, and ability in conflict management and negotiation prove very beneficial for a person in the long run. All these skills are essential in both personal and professional lives if a person wishes to be successful and prosperous in their lives. These skills will open the mind of a person, making them broad-minded, and paving new ways of progress for them.

References

Miner, J. B. (2015). Organisational behaviour 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Reeve, J. (2014). Understanding motivation and emotion. John Wiley & Sons.

Silverman, J., Kurtz, S., & Draper, J. (2016). Teaching and learning communication skills in medicine. CRC press.