Motivation for Growth: How Leaders Inspire Excellence at Every Level

Motivation is something that most everyone agrees is important, and yet it is usually one of the least understood aspects of leadership. You should be using motivation for growth to develop individuals, teams, and ultimately organizations. If you are chasing excellence — like we teach that you should — then you must realize that motivation is a shared responsibility and must be cultivated and grown just like any other skill.

All too often, we don’t equip our leaders with the skills to lead themselves, let alone lead others. Motivation is one of the most overlooked leadership skills, and the result is that motivation often looks and feels like intimidation or threats. So, how do we get it so wrong? More importantly — what do we need to do to get it right?

Motivation Starts With Relationships

Let’s make it simple: Leadership is about relationships, period.

Growing relationships and increasing motivation will always be easier when leaders encourage and hold employees accountable for the three things studies show employees want most in their jobs:

Autonomy

Being trusted enough to work independently.

Mastery

Not just being able to do the job, but being able to troubleshoot, anticipate problems, and think proactively.

Purpose

Knowing and believing in the reason behind the push for excellence.

Encouraging and even expecting employees to grow these three areas helps establish a culture focused on excellence.

The Four Levels of Motivation

There are four levels of motivation that leaders must understand. Each requires a different leadership strategy and disproves the old belief that “every employee should be treated the same.”

1. Compliance — Doing What You Are Told

This level is for new employees or anytime a new process or rule is introduced. Leaders must:

• Give clear and concise instructions

• Establish an order of importance

• Spend time helping employees set goals and timelines

• Track proficiency and celebrate early success

Compliance is time-intensive for leaders, but it establishes the standard for excellence.

2. Willpower — Doing What You Want to Do

This level is for employees who:

• Understand their work routines

• Show growing proficiency

• Take initial pride in their output

Leaders should encourage, teach, recognize progress, and begin shifting some goals toward independence. One-on-one meetings should start including conversations about future direction.

3. Imagination — Doing What You Want to Do Because You Feel Like It

This is a powerful stage. Employees at this level:

• Have confidence

• Show proficiency

• Demonstrate potential

• Are starting to envision their future

Leaders must confirm these strengths, encourage big-picture thinking, and help paint a picture of future opportunities within the organization. Imagination ties positive emotion to action — and that is one of the strongest motivators for excellence.

4. Habit — Doing What Comes Naturally

This is excellence in its fully developed form. At this level, employees:

• Demonstrate strong relationships

• Produce high-quality work consistently

• Bring a high-performance attitude

Some call this talent — and they’re not wrong. But habitual talent outworks, outthinks, and outgrows natural talent that hasn’t been trained or encouraged.

For leaders, this is where future leadership emerges. Employees here need bigger challenges, more responsibility, and mentoring opportunities.

Motivation for Growth Is a Partnership

Motivation is influencing and inspiring people to act because they want to act.

That means a leader cannot motivate alone — it must be a partnership.

When employees are trusted, trained, encouraged, challenged, and supported, the sky really is the limit for both the individual and the organization.

If this message helped clarify how motivation truly works, explore more practical leadership tools inside the Learning Hub. Strengthen your leaders, elevate your culture, and build long-term growth.