Who's in charge around here?

If you have followed me for a while you’ll know that the inspiration for the Reluctant Leader Academy was my own experience of not wanting to be in charge.

There is no doubt we need people to step up and take charge, every team needs a manager, If they are motivated to be there and have the right skills all the better.

When we say someone is motivated to be in charge, essentially they enjoy making decisions on behalf of others and like being in a position of influence.

In Motivational Maps language this is the Director motivator and is rewarded by giving responsibility and a title that indicates authority. Other strategies to fulfil this motivation would be to give them a mentor or allow them to deputise before taking a permanent role

Because of their desire to be in charge they could encounter difficulty when is come to managing people if they are not aware of their motivations. This could be from someone who is motivated by freedom and not want to be managed, a creative who doesn't care for working to targets or timescales and team members who come to work to belong.

These can easily be overcome by having a good knowledge of motivation and how to handle each one.

There seems to be a shortage of people who really want to be in charge, it is in fact one of the least common motivators that appears in motivational map profiles which makes it more important to identify it so that they can use it to the benefit of the organisation.

A team without someone who wants to be in charge can often lack direction and never seem to make any decisions and if they do the chances are they will not stick to them. Having too many wanting to be in charge can lead to power struggles so this needs to be avoided by sharing responsibilities as much as possible.

Just wanting to be in charge isn’t going to make them a great leader, give them some leadership training and they could become the ideal Boss.